Moral Dilemma

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine from work has been borrowing books from me. I'm now at the part of my bookshelf where the Anita Blake books live. 

I'm trying to decide, do I loan out Guilty Pleasures-Obsidian Butterfly and make her promise NEVER to read past OB? Or do I just skip that shelf and move onto other fiction?

Comments

[windiain.livejournal.com]

For the love of all that is holy, skip the section. It seems kind of mean to taunt her with the reasonable stuff, and then dash all her hopes.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I know, hence the dilemma. She's already fallen in love with Jim Butcher, Judith Tarr, Terry Pratchett, Mary Janice Davidson and Robin McKinley and J.R. Ward. I Know she'll love Guilty Pleasures.

On one hand I'm depriving her of a good read. On the other... how on earth do I know that she won't read ahead into NIC, CS, ID and (shudder) DM.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Skip it! Even I know better than to inflict LKH on my friends. I'd lose any and all Awesome Points that I've gained through years of careful pimpage on things like Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff, and Simon R. Green.

[wickedmommy.livejournal.com]

Oh Simon R. Green. I just recently found him. I love his books.

[ctrl-issue.livejournal.com]

Definately skip it. *nods* promote the good, not the bad.

[stefflebug.livejournal.com]

icon love!

And so appropriate.

[randomsome1.livejournal.com]

Skip it . . . unless you know she's the type who can get drunk and mock the hell out of the later books with you. If that's the case, skip straight to them and break out the alcohol.

[dan-lian.livejournal.com]

Skip it. And if she ever grabs one of the first few & asks why you didn't give them to her, hand her DM and say "I like you too much to do that to you."

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

I was gonna say, "Give her the most recent one." That'll innoculate her forever. But it would be a cruel thing to do.

Failing that, just pretend LKH doesn't exist and move on to the next author on the shelves.

[ravenhaley.livejournal.com]

Skip it ... LKH isn't going to change and Anita is dead. Evening if they only read the first 9, it would just be better to forget the books never written.

[no-ron.livejournal.com]

nobody willing should be deprived of the LKH disaster!!

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

I'd leave the decision in her hands. Give her an impartial... okay, a warning can't be impartial per se, but if she wants to read beyond, hey, then she can partake in the lashing!!

[queenbetsy.livejournal.com]

Or...you can start with the awful ones first. Lower her expectations. Then let her read the good ones, the oldest ones. She'll have the opposite experience that the rest of us had.

Thanks for intro-ing her to MJD! UNDEAD AND UNEASY comes out next Tuesday...YEAH!!!!!!!!! (That's the hardcover I'm buying. The Harlequin? Not so much. I might skim it in the bookstore for a good laugh, though.)

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

UNDEAD and UNEASY in hardcover and and Changeling by Yasmine Galenorn in paperback. That's my purchasing plans for Tuesday. If I'm lucky I won't even see Harlequin on the shelves when I go in to make my purchases.

PS-If I introduce her to DM I can pretty much guarantee that she won't read any of the others.

[queenbetsy.livejournal.com]

You would recommend Yasmine? I'm embarassed to admit I've never heard of her. But I get a lot of great recs from this list.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

I sort of stumbled onto her book Witchling and I found it fascinating. Her publisher put her in romance, but IMO it's urban fantasy.

Anyway, she's developed a almost epic world. Three 1/2 fae sisters are working as Otherworld Investigation Agents on Earth just after the others have revealed themselves. Faery is in turmoil with a drug addicted Queen loosing control of her court. Demons are becoming organized and trying to take over earth and faery. The three sister develop allies and have a very traditional quest to defeat the demons.

The weakest part of the story is by far the love story. It read as though the publisher said 'we need a love interest' and she said 'ok.' Since it's easily skipped over (I think it takes maybe 10-15 pages out of the book) it didn't bother me at all.

[ladymuttly1.livejournal.com]

Sorry-I meant to hit spell check and instead I hit post. Oh NO-I'm technology challenged! Angst and sobbing.

[queenbetsy.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Since I'll be in the book store anyway on Tuesday, I'll have to check it out. I love paranormals, and the romance aspect doesn't bother me at all (I cut my teeth on Christie Feehan and Charlaine Harris). In fact, that's a plus for me. So thanks again for the recommendation. :-)

[dinsedaledarby.livejournal.com]

Skip it

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

I'm torn, 'cause I have kind of a similar dilemma... I had told a coworker of mine about the lunacy of LKH, and she went out and decided to check it out herself. She understood what I meant when I said it was not well-written but still addictive, and I'm debating about whether I should tell her to stop at OB or if I want yet another person to snark with. She is awesome at snark..

So, while I don't necessarily have an answer for you, know that someone out there shares your conundrum. :)

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

See? Free will generates snark buddies. Fantastic.

I think I really would let a friend read as much of the series as s/he could stomach. I'd never say "Don't read," I'd say "Well, I didn't really care for such and such and here's my reasons why."

(Unless I'm talking to a kid! But... you know, even when I was a child my parents didn't really censor my reading, so I don't know. I'd warn for a kid and an adult, probably try to dissuade for a kid, but not forbid for either. Ach. I ramble, I stop now.)

[saucyirishlass.livejournal.com]

Yay, another person whose parents didn't censor what they read! If a kid has the presence of mind to search something out, they've got the presence of mind to explore what they find, so long as there's an eye kept on them. If I had any concerns, I wouldn't forbid them from reading it, but I would make them discuss it with me. Granted, perhaps it's different when you actually become a parent, but that's what my mother did and I turned out (I think) okay.