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The problem with applying the Golden Rule to books is that not everybody thinks of books in the same way.

Some people like being handed books by friends and told, "You're going to love this." And so they do the same with their own books, give them to friends who might like them.

I fall in the other camp. As I mentioned in a recent post about book clubs, I prefer to make my own choices about what I am going to read. When I am handed a book by a friend, especially if it is a loan rather than a gift, it feels like a burden. Not only do I feel compelled to read it, but I feel compelled to put it ahead of other books on my reading schedule. And then I feel obligated to report back on how much I loved the book, whether I loved it or not. If I actually loved the book, I probably will want to keep it, not give it back.

And so I have rarely dropped a book into someone else's hands and urged them to read it. (I do make an exception for gift books, which in my mind have no strings attached.) If someone expresses an interest in a particular book or in the subject matter covered in a book, I might suggest it. But then I will wait for them to ask to borrow it.

As it happens, and despite everything I've said above, I am presently in the middle of two books handed to me by friends, and I am loving them both. Neither is a book I had ever heard of, and I would otherwise never have read them. So I am glad the books were given to me unsolicited.

Go figure.