Booking It--Favorite Unknown

Who’s your favorite author that other people are NOT reading? The one you want to evangelize for, the one you would run popularity campaigns for? The author that, so far as you’re concerned, everyone should be reading–but that nobody seems to have heard of. You know, not JK Rowling, not Jane Austen, not Hemingway–everybody’s heard of them. The author that you think should be that famous and can’t understand why they’re not…


Hard question. I'm not sure that I have a favorite "unknown" author. There are a couple of authors that I really like, and I know others read them because they are famous and on the best seller list, but nobody that I know personally reads them. When I read a Jodi Picoult, I have plenty of people to talk about the novel with. But when I read Patricia Cornwell or Daniel Silva, it's me, myself, and I.


Am I mistaken? Are there any other Cornwell or Silva admirers among my readers?

Booking It--Thankful

What books and authors are you particularly thankful for this year?

Hmm. Well, I'm thankful to have discovered Jodi Picoult, an author who fulfills my need for recreational reading without forsaking literary quality. She writes with style and depth; her plots are complex and thought-provoking. I don't have to feel guilty about reading her, but I can also relax and be pulled along by the storyline.

Booking It--The Whole Shabang

Which author(s) do you like enough to have read all his or her works? Are there any authors that you've enjoyed one or two of their books so much that you plan to read their whole body of work?

I'll probably leave somebody out, but here goes. As a kid, I loved Beverly Cleary and Laura Ingalls Wilder so much that I read all their books. This one may not quite fit because it had multiple authors, but I also read the whole Trixie Belden series--at least all that had been printed at the time.

As an adult, I've read all of Jane Austen's (big surprise there!), Eudora Welty's, Patricia Cornwell's, and Daniel Silva's (well, just bought his latest, but you get the idea). I've read all C. S. Lewis's novels and quite a bit of his nonfiction, but not all his works.

Oh, I've read all Harper Lee's novels. (Wink, wink.)

Some authors that I've encountered and intend to read more of are Barbara Pym, Marilynne Robinson, Jodi Picoult, Anita Shreve, Sarah Waters, and Barbara Kingsolver. I've only read one book by some of these authors--like Pym and Robinson. With others, like Picoult, Shreve, and Kingsolver, I've read quite a few of their novels, but there are still a good number yet to read.

As they say, so many books, so little time. This is a hard question. I just know I'm forgetting some great authors.

And you?

Booking It--Which is Worse?

Which is worse?

Finding a book you love and then hating everything else you try by that author, or reading a completely disappointing book by an author that you love?

I think it’s the latter. Once I find authors I love, I anticipate their next book. I feel like it’s a promise. I can’t wait for it to be released (or for me to find and purchase it, if it’s an author who’s been writing a while but I’ve just discovered them). I have such high expectations. I can’t wait to leave my world behind and enter the one they’ve created, knowing I’ll be completely lost in it for a while. But then, if it’s disappointing, the let-down is so much greater than it is when I just pick up a book I know nothing about and discover it’s not worth reading.

I have had authors I love disappoint me in the middle of a series, only to redeem themselves later, but a little of the trust is gone. With every new release I wonder, will it be worth it?

Of course, all of this is unfair. Who can be at the top of their game all the time? And who’s to say it’s not my taste that’s off rather than the author’s skill?