Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Book Drop Results #1

Last month I tried a book dropping experiment to test my ability to match people with books I think they'd enjoy. This required the test subjects to tell me what sort of story they most liked to read, and then me sending them a book without telling them in advance the title or author. The first results are in, and here's what happened with my book drop for DeeCee.

First, the original comment from the book drop post:

DeeCee 3:31 AM

I like UF/PNR that have multiple book story arcs with fewer than 10 TSTL moments. :)


I sent DeeCee Rob Thurman's Trick of the Light, which I consider among other things to be the smartest urban fantasy I've ever read. In my e-mail to DeeCee, I also mentioned this: You were the toughest of my book drop winners to choose for, mainly because I think you and I read a lot of the same books.

I am psychic, it seems, as this was DeeCee's response when the package arrived (posted with permission):

I actually do already have Trick of the Light-I just finished reading it about 3 weeks ago. :) Trixa was a smart heroine, but I think Cal Leandros will still be my go to UF.

I wasn't about to give up, though, so I sent this:

I should have known! Ha. Okay, I've sent another book out, and hopefully this time I've managed to find one to surprise you. I'll check back with you once I return from my road trip.

And DeeCee's response to reading the second book, which was Sarah Addison Allen's The Girl Who Chased the Moon:

I can't thank you enough. You picked the perfect book. Allen's writing is so fast, the two contrasting voices kept the story moving and I couldn't put it down today. I can't believe Allen pulled off [censored by me, as it contains spoilers] -she didn't even have to explain the hows or whys. But I think Stella's scenes made me LOL the most, "Erase that." :) I've got to go track down The Sugar Queen and the Peach Keeper now.

I can't take credit for discovering Sarah Addison Allen, however, as two of her books were given to me by two different friends who thought I would enjoy them (and they were wonderful, and I loved them.) That's why book dropping works so well, I think. When someone gives me the gift of a great story, passing it along to someone else is as much fun as enjoying it myself. You don't have to stop at one person, either. Today while I was at BAM I recommended Allen's Garden Spells to the lady manning the cash wrap.

Although it took two tries I'm going to call this one a success, and my thanks to DeeCee for allowing me to share comments from our e-mail exchange. As soon as I have more results in, I'll post more updates.

3 comments:

  1. Fran Kane3:56 AM

    Very interesting experiment. When I pass on a new author to my sister I love that warm fuzzy feeling when she "gets" it. Last year I sent her the first 2 books in Jean Johnson's Sons of Destiny series and 2 days later got a text message which said "More. I must have more!" Love when that happens.

    I'm now off to find Sarah's books on Amazon and add them to my TBR list.

    Thank you.

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  2. I love Sarah Addison Allen. I've read all her books...more than once.

    Cool first Book Drop. For my part in spreading the book love, I'm just getting into BookCrossing and in the spring I'm doing World Book Night.

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  3. Fran Kane4:18 AM

    Just a follow on from my earlier post, I got Sarah Addison Allen's Garden Spells yesterday and couldn't wait. It skipped my entire TBR list and I'm already half way through it. Its brilliant and I want to thank you very much for turning me on to this author. Inspired!

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