Best Book Recommendation Stories

[JamesW he/him]

So this is a random thread, just because I was wondering if anyone had any great stories about books they have recommended to other people.

Just to share mine, and note it will contain some rather personal information, nothing that I don't mind sharing.

So the recommendation story I have involves my dad, who I might have spent a total of three months with in around 15 years. Needless to say we didn't have a particularly good relationship, or any relationship for the majority of my life. He was struggling with 40 years of drug addiction and severe PTSD from Vietnam. He was having issues with becoming depressed during the day since he was disabled and couldn't work. I asked him if he would be willing to read a book to help keep from being melancholy and depressed during the day, he agreed and so I sent him a book.

The book I sent/recommended to him was Name of the Wind. This was sent a 63 year old, ex Hells Angel, Vietnam Veteran. I get a call from him a month later, the voicemail said something like "So I haven't read a book in 25 years. And this afternoon I started it. I read for about 40 minutes and decided to take a break. I tried watching TV but couldn't leave the book alone."

Since then I have given him Way of Kings, and Mistborn to read (He hasn't gotten around to reading WOK yet, but he loved mistborn). He also got one of my signed copies of Wise Man's Fear, and enjoyed that book immensely.

Since then he and I actually have a friendship/relationship, essentially because of a book I recommended to him.

What stories do other people have?