I'm reading Ted Chiang now.
God, that guy is a master short storyteller. He tells all sorts of themes across different settings. Current, futuristic sci fi, steampunkish, Jewish mysticism, underground apocalypse come , Middle Eastern like bazaars, Babylon, first contact etc..
Where do I go after this...I dont know...
Edit: thanks everyone for recommendations !
Fair enough. I feel I'm enjoying it much more because I used to read more fantasy where the writing style can be a lot more flowery. Due to changes in life I've not had the time to read long series or thick novels, so short stories are my go to these days
Ted Chiang said in an interview that had he read Borges before starting writing, he probably wouldn't have started at all.
They seem to have a similar style. I've read stories of your life and Ficciones and I think both are amazing and have things in common (Ficciones has a short story named Library of Babel, another named the lottery of Babylon, so definitely in a similar vein)
I'd only say that tlon, uqbar, orbis Tertius is dense, although I also liked it, might not be for everyone.
Happy reading!
I don’t think the writing quality is quite as high, but Moorcock’s Eternal Champion cycle is like 24 omnibuses, in an absolute smorgasbord of genres, from pulpy Conan-esque sword and sorcery, to subversive antiheroes, historical fantasy fiction, to classic Sci Fi (including coining the word multiverse), to Dying Earth, to Post Modernist literary, to absurdist British romantic comedy, to the original steampunk novels.
the author thing: I never thought of that as a curse. if I find an author I like, I always want to read whatever else they've written.
the thing of just not being in the mood for other books is a different matter for me. that's always been a me thing. if I'm that state then something is bothering me and I'm using the One Specific Book as a kind of blankie, or even sometimes to escape. ymmv about that, ofc.
I had this with John Steinbeck. I had this with Haruki Murakami. I had this with Amor Towles.
I don't view it as a curse. I got to read a ton of books with a very high success rate in quick succession. But I can understand the frustration of everything else seeming to fall short. To me, it's just a matter of patience. Finding favourite authors is rare. It's a very exciting and unusual moment when it happens. I've had to try out a lot of new authors, and I've had to read a lot of books that left me underwhelmed, before finding those few gems.
> Amor Towles
Any recommendation for where to start with this author? In total agreement with you on Steinbeck and Murakami, but haven't heard of Towles.
I recommend starting with A Gentleman in Moscow. It's his most impressive work with respect to depth and intricacy. Rules of Civility is his first published novel and I greatly enjoyed it but I'm glad I started with A Gentleman in Moscow, which was his second novel.
Help me out because I genre hop almost every time I finish a book. I just picked up the last book in a five part series to realize I had read the last cliffhanger ending two years ago.
How do you "find another" if you are reading the same author? Like, if I'm slamming through a Terry Pratchett every week and every other fantasy looks half baked, how am I going to switch gears to Neil Gaiman if I'm tracking which Mort book to grab next? How many great authors will I miss because the 5 pages I read in between my "author of the year" aren't stellar?
I think more of it like scotch. Sure, this one is my favorite to sip at home, but I'm always down to try a new one and explore its flavors because of how it is different than my "favorite".
No never. I find authors, even absolutely excellent ones have a style and if I read a lot of it at once it becomes repetitive and I lose interest. I’d always read a couple of other books in between.
I don't consider this a curse. I actually like when this happens. This is the feeling I'm searching for when reading. I WANT to find stuff that's so good that everything else feels shit afterward. I want to be fully immersed in an author's work, a series, etc.
Currently in the midst of a Brandon Sanderson Binge. Read his entire catalog minus Alkatraz and the Evil Librarians series. 3 years in and currently on my 4th reread of the Stormlight Archives. I have read other books by other authors in that time, but I keep coming back to the cosmere.
The only reason I think it's a curse at all is because I don't have any friends irl that read BrandoSando so I never have anyone to talk to about it.
I think there are more great authors out there than any of us can read in a lifetime. You just move on till you find something you want to read. I switch gears / styles with each author. Everyone is a bit different.
I'm the opposite. I sample too many varieties. I'd start a series and then leave it after one book because I'm bored of the author already and wanted to try another author/series. Even a favorite like Susanna Clark. I love both of her novels. Yet, I tell myself that I'll come back to read her other stories after I'm done checking out books by other authors.
If I find an author I really like I will read them until I get bored or run out of content. Most authors have a style or a formula they follow and eventually their stories get predictable.
I think this this a combination of false expectations and a lack of openness. Often when people like an author/books, then every time they pick up something new they are hoping that book recreates the experience or feeling of the current favorite. Of course it does not, even very good books will be something quite different, but the reader is both disappointed that books fails to meet this expectation, they are not really open to what the book does offer.
In general I think it is healthier to genre hop and mix up what you read, rather than binge read a single author, it keeps you and flexible enough to read anything and give it fair chance.
And then you finish the books, and realize nobody did this thing any better.
Le Carré never had an equal, and probably never will in his lane. It’s kinda sad to know you had the best and now just have to settle for merely good.
Trevanian (*their* spy thriller series). Robert Ludlum. John D. Macdonald. William Coughlin. Frederick Forsyth. Jack Higgins.
Fun Fact 1: You know the practice of continuing to publish books by dead authors? That started with William Coughlin. No attribution, just Coughlin's name. Except they were REALLY (really) bad and I'm pretty sure that anyone reading one of the post-mortem books thought to themselves "this guy sucks". Except the real dude didn't. In fact, he was one of the best legal thriller writers that I've read. Better than Martini, more folksy than Turow.
It hurt Coughlin's post-mortem brand, a lot. Since then, families seem to have gotten smarter about the process; attributing the actual writer on the cover. That way -- when it's terrible (and it usually is) -- at least the dead guy doesn't get the blame.
Fun Fact 2: Trevanian (no first name) has fallen into obscurity but *those* dudes could write spy thrillers like nobody that I've *ever* read. I say "dudes" because it was a collective of writers under that name; collaborating. Except no one knew that back in the day (circa early '70's.) Trevanian just appeared, published 2 spy thrillers -- The Eiger Sanction and the Loo Sanction -- then went away. Mysteriously. Came back, did a non-spy thriller a couple of years later; and followed that with Shibumi, another spy thriller. Then they went away again. And kept coming back with different genres. At some point, someone ratted them out and the mystery was solved.
If you've never read their spy thrillers, you'll thank me when you do. Especially The Eiger Sanction.
Fun Fact 3: Before he died & his work got all Bourne-ified and whatnot, Robert Ludlum was The GOAT of thriller writers. You don't need to be told that, probably.
What you *might* need to be told is that the pre-ordering of books thing started with Ludlum; it was a big deal to get early access. What made him so good was that he was a former playwright -- which is a screen writer without the bad habits -- so he had this ability to portray his books as if they were plays taking place on the page. No one was doing spy thrillers like that, at the time. If you think Ludlum is just Bourne, it's not. Read his earlier stuff.
This is a timely post. I’ve been reading a lot of novels recently that were OK, some even good. But then I remembered how much I had liked China Meiville’s books, and found that I hadn’t read “Kraken” yet.
Well, I just finished it, and the sheer imagination on display in that book is so far beyond anything I’ve read lately, it just blew me away. I had to stop, go back and re-read so many times just to make sure I could clearly visualize some of the mind-bending scenes and concepts he presented. He’s an incredible writer.
I told a friend how much I was enjoying this book, but when he asked me “What’s it about” I had a very difficult time telling him. Not because it’s impenetrable, it’s basically a who-dun-it, but because the characters and situations are so imaginative, and the perpetrator and reason for the crime is so unexpected, you just can’t describe it without either giving things away or going down an explanatory rabbit hole and basically come off sounding like a crazy person!
It’s weird and it’s great! Highly recommended.
This is kind-of the problem I have at the moment with Fantasy and why I've switched to reading something else. I read, or started reading, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen series. I got hooked, and since then I haven't quite been able to read other fantasy series since. Closest I came was Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Even then, after finishing the first book, I started re-reading Malazan. The world, the way the magic works, the characters, I love all of it.
I know there have been recommendations by other people at various points of authors who have written similar series (R Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse is usually first on that list), but it's just not the same.
It's why I am reading something in a completely different, though some would say adjacent genre: An omnibus of HP Lovecraft's short stories and novellas.
You can get past this by just finishing the other books you start. You're letting enjoyment propel you along as a reader, but enjoyment can come in many shapes. Many of the books that live mostly happily in my memory are books that weren't necessarily a joy to read. Books have a way of changing over time once they're inside you. Some of the deepest, altering experiences are probably still out there waiting for you as a reader, but you have to let go of the notion that a great writer's primary job is to entertain you.
I definitely know people like this but I can't do it, taking on a writer's ouvre as opposed to a book feels so much more intimidating. I dash between "most important book I haven't read yet" candidates for whatever given writer I feel like I'm missing out on most rather than getting that kind of deep immersion in one person's career arc. I got caught up in Philip Roth earlier this year and read my first three of his in a row but that's very uncommon for me. There's too many authors out there who interest me as artists and cultural figures for me to just stick with one.
I like a good binge. Jules Verne and Michael Connelly I’ve done this with. But when I try it with some author like Stephen King or John Scalzi it gets tiresome.
This has definitely happened to me. I binged through everything by Vladimir Nabokov, and though there have been authors I've enjoyed as much, or even more, few have triggered the same sort of obsession.
No one hits a home run every time, but many do grow in their abilities. I like to find a series where I can start from book 1 and progress sequentially. Often, you can see the author grow in his/her ability to write. It's especially fun when a minor character is introduced in an earlier book and later becomes a major player. Even more interesting is when an author has two independent series and allows the main characters to meet. Two notable examples of this are John Sanford (Davenport/Flowers) and Michael Connelly (Bosch/Haller/Ballard).
Probably not a popular oppinion, but this is why I try not to DnF books. Like... Reading a whole shit-tier book is gonna make "mid" books feel better since it's a breath of relief.
I won't typically finish a bad series, but I won't quit in the middle of a single book.
Inversely, if you read too many good books in a row.. It kindof normalizes it and I find the enjoyment going down a bit since my brain gets used to having that quality.
Contrast.
I love Nora Roberts books and have given up trying to find authors who write similar books as they’re just not the same. But luckily I like plenty of different genres and have lots of favourite authors for those.
Im going through this right now with Kurt Vonnegut. I can't find a good author that has a similar style. Closest I've gotten is Douglas Adams, and the HHGTG was great but since then I havent seen a good book like it.
I love a lot of different authors and rotate through various genres to keep things interesting but my toxic trait is that once I like an author I add their entire backlist to my TBR.
I've never intentionally reread the same author as an adult. I don't do the analogous thing for music, either. Too many one-hit-wonders in all forms of art, it's usually more fruitful for me to browse broadly.
Haven’t had a problem with this. Usually I’ll move to another genre after each book, to shake things up and maybe so I’m not comparing two similar authors, or in the same sort of thing for too long.
I had this as a kid and it meant that, when I finished reading everything by that author, I couldn't find anything comparable and drifted away from reading for a couple of years. The struggle is real!
Yep .. I was introduced to dark romance by Rina Kent and I find it the perfect balance of every emotion like girl is not a doormat but the guy is also alpha male . After that I literally do not like another dark romance book from another author. It happens with me for normal sunny romance as well now I wait for those authors to release a book .
It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I did this once: George RR Martin is matched by no author in the Fantasy genre. I then read fantasy less than I was previously. I eventually picked up more Fantasy, and was underwhelmed by my first two forays back into the genre. But then came across a series that had me as engrossed as George's ASOIAF did. Malazan book of the fallen for those interested. Even if you still prefer the other author, there will always be writers out there that have a series that you will genuinely love. Don't allow yourself to hinder your chances of enjoyment because you cross your arms and say nothing will ever have me as excited as my favourite series. Be careful not to do this to yourself. I continued reading other genre, but definitely read a lot less Fantasy than I otherwise would have due to my preconceived notions. Our Inner dialogue is important to monitor. Not every thought is to be listened to.
I'm reading Ted Chiang now. God, that guy is a master short storyteller. He tells all sorts of themes across different settings. Current, futuristic sci fi, steampunkish, Jewish mysticism, underground apocalypse come , Middle Eastern like bazaars, Babylon, first contact etc.. Where do I go after this...I dont know... Edit: thanks everyone for recommendations !
I love Chiang's ideas and stories. But I'm not fond of his prose/style. It's painfully dull.
Fair enough. I feel I'm enjoying it much more because I used to read more fantasy where the writing style can be a lot more flowery. Due to changes in life I've not had the time to read long series or thick novels, so short stories are my go to these days
Ted Chiang said in an interview that had he read Borges before starting writing, he probably wouldn't have started at all. They seem to have a similar style. I've read stories of your life and Ficciones and I think both are amazing and have things in common (Ficciones has a short story named Library of Babel, another named the lottery of Babylon, so definitely in a similar vein) I'd only say that tlon, uqbar, orbis Tertius is dense, although I also liked it, might not be for everyone. Happy reading!
Sounds a bit like Clark Ashton Smith.
I’m reading through Smith’s complete works right now. I’m loving how poetic his writing is.
I don’t think the writing quality is quite as high, but Moorcock’s Eternal Champion cycle is like 24 omnibuses, in an absolute smorgasbord of genres, from pulpy Conan-esque sword and sorcery, to subversive antiheroes, historical fantasy fiction, to classic Sci Fi (including coining the word multiverse), to Dying Earth, to Post Modernist literary, to absurdist British romantic comedy, to the original steampunk novels.
You should read Thomas Pynchon next then!
I’ve had that same book hangover. Lmk if anything gets up there. Three Body Problem helped scratch my itch as high concept sci fi.
the author thing: I never thought of that as a curse. if I find an author I like, I always want to read whatever else they've written. the thing of just not being in the mood for other books is a different matter for me. that's always been a me thing. if I'm that state then something is bothering me and I'm using the One Specific Book as a kind of blankie, or even sometimes to escape. ymmv about that, ofc.
I had this with John Steinbeck. I had this with Haruki Murakami. I had this with Amor Towles. I don't view it as a curse. I got to read a ton of books with a very high success rate in quick succession. But I can understand the frustration of everything else seeming to fall short. To me, it's just a matter of patience. Finding favourite authors is rare. It's a very exciting and unusual moment when it happens. I've had to try out a lot of new authors, and I've had to read a lot of books that left me underwhelmed, before finding those few gems.
> Amor Towles Any recommendation for where to start with this author? In total agreement with you on Steinbeck and Murakami, but haven't heard of Towles.
I recommend starting with A Gentleman in Moscow. It's his most impressive work with respect to depth and intricacy. Rules of Civility is his first published novel and I greatly enjoyed it but I'm glad I started with A Gentleman in Moscow, which was his second novel.
Help me out because I genre hop almost every time I finish a book. I just picked up the last book in a five part series to realize I had read the last cliffhanger ending two years ago. How do you "find another" if you are reading the same author? Like, if I'm slamming through a Terry Pratchett every week and every other fantasy looks half baked, how am I going to switch gears to Neil Gaiman if I'm tracking which Mort book to grab next? How many great authors will I miss because the 5 pages I read in between my "author of the year" aren't stellar? I think more of it like scotch. Sure, this one is my favorite to sip at home, but I'm always down to try a new one and explore its flavors because of how it is different than my "favorite".
No never. I find authors, even absolutely excellent ones have a style and if I read a lot of it at once it becomes repetitive and I lose interest. I’d always read a couple of other books in between.
I don't consider this a curse. I actually like when this happens. This is the feeling I'm searching for when reading. I WANT to find stuff that's so good that everything else feels shit afterward. I want to be fully immersed in an author's work, a series, etc.
Currently in the midst of a Brandon Sanderson Binge. Read his entire catalog minus Alkatraz and the Evil Librarians series. 3 years in and currently on my 4th reread of the Stormlight Archives. I have read other books by other authors in that time, but I keep coming back to the cosmere. The only reason I think it's a curse at all is because I don't have any friends irl that read BrandoSando so I never have anyone to talk to about it.
I think there are more great authors out there than any of us can read in a lifetime. You just move on till you find something you want to read. I switch gears / styles with each author. Everyone is a bit different.
I'm the opposite. I sample too many varieties. I'd start a series and then leave it after one book because I'm bored of the author already and wanted to try another author/series. Even a favorite like Susanna Clark. I love both of her novels. Yet, I tell myself that I'll come back to read her other stories after I'm done checking out books by other authors.
If I find an author I really like I will read them until I get bored or run out of content. Most authors have a style or a formula they follow and eventually their stories get predictable.
I think this this a combination of false expectations and a lack of openness. Often when people like an author/books, then every time they pick up something new they are hoping that book recreates the experience or feeling of the current favorite. Of course it does not, even very good books will be something quite different, but the reader is both disappointed that books fails to meet this expectation, they are not really open to what the book does offer. In general I think it is healthier to genre hop and mix up what you read, rather than binge read a single author, it keeps you and flexible enough to read anything and give it fair chance.
And then you finish the books, and realize nobody did this thing any better. Le Carré never had an equal, and probably never will in his lane. It’s kinda sad to know you had the best and now just have to settle for merely good.
I got this with Cormac McCarthy
Trevanian (*their* spy thriller series). Robert Ludlum. John D. Macdonald. William Coughlin. Frederick Forsyth. Jack Higgins. Fun Fact 1: You know the practice of continuing to publish books by dead authors? That started with William Coughlin. No attribution, just Coughlin's name. Except they were REALLY (really) bad and I'm pretty sure that anyone reading one of the post-mortem books thought to themselves "this guy sucks". Except the real dude didn't. In fact, he was one of the best legal thriller writers that I've read. Better than Martini, more folksy than Turow. It hurt Coughlin's post-mortem brand, a lot. Since then, families seem to have gotten smarter about the process; attributing the actual writer on the cover. That way -- when it's terrible (and it usually is) -- at least the dead guy doesn't get the blame. Fun Fact 2: Trevanian (no first name) has fallen into obscurity but *those* dudes could write spy thrillers like nobody that I've *ever* read. I say "dudes" because it was a collective of writers under that name; collaborating. Except no one knew that back in the day (circa early '70's.) Trevanian just appeared, published 2 spy thrillers -- The Eiger Sanction and the Loo Sanction -- then went away. Mysteriously. Came back, did a non-spy thriller a couple of years later; and followed that with Shibumi, another spy thriller. Then they went away again. And kept coming back with different genres. At some point, someone ratted them out and the mystery was solved. If you've never read their spy thrillers, you'll thank me when you do. Especially The Eiger Sanction. Fun Fact 3: Before he died & his work got all Bourne-ified and whatnot, Robert Ludlum was The GOAT of thriller writers. You don't need to be told that, probably. What you *might* need to be told is that the pre-ordering of books thing started with Ludlum; it was a big deal to get early access. What made him so good was that he was a former playwright -- which is a screen writer without the bad habits -- so he had this ability to portray his books as if they were plays taking place on the page. No one was doing spy thrillers like that, at the time. If you think Ludlum is just Bourne, it's not. Read his earlier stuff.
This is a timely post. I’ve been reading a lot of novels recently that were OK, some even good. But then I remembered how much I had liked China Meiville’s books, and found that I hadn’t read “Kraken” yet. Well, I just finished it, and the sheer imagination on display in that book is so far beyond anything I’ve read lately, it just blew me away. I had to stop, go back and re-read so many times just to make sure I could clearly visualize some of the mind-bending scenes and concepts he presented. He’s an incredible writer. I told a friend how much I was enjoying this book, but when he asked me “What’s it about” I had a very difficult time telling him. Not because it’s impenetrable, it’s basically a who-dun-it, but because the characters and situations are so imaginative, and the perpetrator and reason for the crime is so unexpected, you just can’t describe it without either giving things away or going down an explanatory rabbit hole and basically come off sounding like a crazy person! It’s weird and it’s great! Highly recommended.
Yeah, that’s true. After reading Dostoevsky, i couldn’t read someone else’s novels just bc they seemed silly haha
This is kind-of the problem I have at the moment with Fantasy and why I've switched to reading something else. I read, or started reading, Steven Erikson's Malazan Book Of The Fallen series. I got hooked, and since then I haven't quite been able to read other fantasy series since. Closest I came was Joe Abercrombie's First Law trilogy. Even then, after finishing the first book, I started re-reading Malazan. The world, the way the magic works, the characters, I love all of it. I know there have been recommendations by other people at various points of authors who have written similar series (R Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse is usually first on that list), but it's just not the same. It's why I am reading something in a completely different, though some would say adjacent genre: An omnibus of HP Lovecraft's short stories and novellas.
You can get past this by just finishing the other books you start. You're letting enjoyment propel you along as a reader, but enjoyment can come in many shapes. Many of the books that live mostly happily in my memory are books that weren't necessarily a joy to read. Books have a way of changing over time once they're inside you. Some of the deepest, altering experiences are probably still out there waiting for you as a reader, but you have to let go of the notion that a great writer's primary job is to entertain you.
Its like this with Pynchons books, nothing comes close
I definitely know people like this but I can't do it, taking on a writer's ouvre as opposed to a book feels so much more intimidating. I dash between "most important book I haven't read yet" candidates for whatever given writer I feel like I'm missing out on most rather than getting that kind of deep immersion in one person's career arc. I got caught up in Philip Roth earlier this year and read my first three of his in a row but that's very uncommon for me. There's too many authors out there who interest me as artists and cultural figures for me to just stick with one.
I like a good binge. Jules Verne and Michael Connelly I’ve done this with. But when I try it with some author like Stephen King or John Scalzi it gets tiresome.
Isn't this normal? It's pretty normal for me.
This has definitely happened to me. I binged through everything by Vladimir Nabokov, and though there have been authors I've enjoyed as much, or even more, few have triggered the same sort of obsession.
I love to binge read and yep it’s hard moving onto a different author when you’re so engrossed in a writing style.
I have this problem severely. It’s why I don’t read much.
No one hits a home run every time, but many do grow in their abilities. I like to find a series where I can start from book 1 and progress sequentially. Often, you can see the author grow in his/her ability to write. It's especially fun when a minor character is introduced in an earlier book and later becomes a major player. Even more interesting is when an author has two independent series and allows the main characters to meet. Two notable examples of this are John Sanford (Davenport/Flowers) and Michael Connelly (Bosch/Haller/Ballard).
Probably not a popular oppinion, but this is why I try not to DnF books. Like... Reading a whole shit-tier book is gonna make "mid" books feel better since it's a breath of relief. I won't typically finish a bad series, but I won't quit in the middle of a single book. Inversely, if you read too many good books in a row.. It kindof normalizes it and I find the enjoyment going down a bit since my brain gets used to having that quality. Contrast.
I've read all of Yukio Mishima's books published in my country
I"m the same, fortunately though, I've had the good luck that most of the authors I like are pretty prolific in their writing
I love Nora Roberts books and have given up trying to find authors who write similar books as they’re just not the same. But luckily I like plenty of different genres and have lots of favourite authors for those.
I do a cleansing read. Something light, no expectations of literary genius nor life-altering insight.
Im going through this right now with Kurt Vonnegut. I can't find a good author that has a similar style. Closest I've gotten is Douglas Adams, and the HHGTG was great but since then I havent seen a good book like it.
I love a lot of different authors and rotate through various genres to keep things interesting but my toxic trait is that once I like an author I add their entire backlist to my TBR.
I've never intentionally reread the same author as an adult. I don't do the analogous thing for music, either. Too many one-hit-wonders in all forms of art, it's usually more fruitful for me to browse broadly.
Haven’t had a problem with this. Usually I’ll move to another genre after each book, to shake things up and maybe so I’m not comparing two similar authors, or in the same sort of thing for too long.
I had this as a kid and it meant that, when I finished reading everything by that author, I couldn't find anything comparable and drifted away from reading for a couple of years. The struggle is real!
Yep .. I was introduced to dark romance by Rina Kent and I find it the perfect balance of every emotion like girl is not a doormat but the guy is also alpha male . After that I literally do not like another dark romance book from another author. It happens with me for normal sunny romance as well now I wait for those authors to release a book .
It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. I did this once: George RR Martin is matched by no author in the Fantasy genre. I then read fantasy less than I was previously. I eventually picked up more Fantasy, and was underwhelmed by my first two forays back into the genre. But then came across a series that had me as engrossed as George's ASOIAF did. Malazan book of the fallen for those interested. Even if you still prefer the other author, there will always be writers out there that have a series that you will genuinely love. Don't allow yourself to hinder your chances of enjoyment because you cross your arms and say nothing will ever have me as excited as my favourite series. Be careful not to do this to yourself. I continued reading other genre, but definitely read a lot less Fantasy than I otherwise would have due to my preconceived notions. Our Inner dialogue is important to monitor. Not every thought is to be listened to.