If I'd... what would...

Just a comma:

If I'd ask you about a good book to read, what would be your advice?

But why so tentative?—

What's your advice on a good book to read?

Thank you again for the advice.

Wouldn't it be more correct to say:

If I asked you about a good book to read, what would be your advice?

P.S. I've appreciated the alternative.

slocawberWouldn't it be more correct to say:If I asked you about a good book to read, what would be your advice?

That's simpler, but they have different meanings. Yours is present; the original is past.

Oh! I'm a bit confused.
So, the simplest way to ask advice about a good book is:
(1) 'What's your advice on a good book to read?'.
If I say:
(2) 'If I'd ask you about a good book to read, what would be your advice?',
it's OK, but a little too tentative.
If I say:
(3) 'If I asked you about a good book to read, what would be your advice?',
the meaning is different.

Ah, sorry! My error. At my last post, I misread "If I'd ask you" as "If I'd asked you".

Thereforem these have the same meaning, two different ways to express tentativeness in the present:

slocawber2) 'If I'd ask you about a good book to read, what would be your advice?'(3) 'If I asked you about a good book to read, what would be your advice?'

T

Mister MicawberThe first is unusual with 'would' in the 'if'-clause, but it occurs.

I noticed this with speakers of AmE. It's considered incorrect in BrE.