Same authors or different ones?

[Ikiri81]

If i read a book that I like i have to go and read all of their other books. I have quite a few authors who I like, and i try to read all of their books.

[npandit]

If there is an author that I really like, it makes me more likely to want to read something they've written again. However, I've noticed that many good writers follow a 'pattern'. They either repeat themes, or plot, or something which starts to make reading their work repetitive.

I am, though, always up for trying new authors too .

[gali]

I dabble in both, between authors I love and new ones that interest me.

Likewise! I read both old and new authors.

[Maud Fitch]

If there is an author that I really like, it makes me more likely to want to read something they've written again. However, I've noticed that many good writers follow a 'pattern'. They either repeat themes, or plot, or something which starts to make reading their work repetitive.....

Yes, I agree. With certain crime thriller authors, their work becomes so repetitive that I'm glad there's a break between books. That's when I branch out and read different authors. Alarmingly, or naturally, authors read each others work and sometimes the same author will seem like the different one - via buzz word or theme.

[Craigable]

I used to read multiple works by significant authors since that helped establish a good foundational understanding of literature. But since I finished my literature studies and moved on to librarianship I generally read one work per author only. Otherwise I feel like I'm kinda spinning my wheels.

[Aithne]

If it's a great series I'll read it all.
If it's a brilliant author I'm inclined to read all their stuff in my preferred genres.

I still read new authors however and some good or good/average ones I never read anything of theirs again

-- 13 Nov 2013, 21:59 --

I used to read multiple works by significant authors since that helped establish a good foundational understanding of literature. But since I finished my literature studies and moved on to librarianship I generally read one work per author only. Otherwise I feel like I'm kinda spinning my wheels.

when you say literature do you mean the 'classics', all books or the kind of elitist idea of what makes good fiction?

[Craigable]

when you say literature do you mean the 'classics', all books or the kind of elitist idea of what makes good fiction?

I mean literature with a small L. At the time I'm referring to in my life, when I started reading lots of fiction, I was on a forced three-year hiatus from college after my freshman year. I wouldn't decide to be an English major for several years to come, but in the meantime I felt compelled to do a sort of self-guided survey of the mainstream stalwarts of American and British literature. I was employed in mindless, soul-killing jobs, so investing in a self-education (i.e., a bona fide intellectual activity) was both therapeutic and wonderfully distracting. As it happens, most of what I read turned out to be written by well known dead white men. It took me a few semesters of being an actual English major before I self-corrected and started reading many more female authors and, perhaps more importantly, non-white/non-western authors. But there's plenty of those folks to slog through, too, without leaving the realm of the stalwarts of literature. Anyway, since eventually my plan was to become a college literature professor (most probably specializing in American lit), it seemed necessary to make myself a competent generalist before delving into the murkier depths of obscurer writers. But I ended up a librarian rather than a lit professor, so I now have the luxury of reading obscurer stuff all the time.

I should add that I was never interested in issues of what constitutes, as you say, good literature. Rather, I possessed a simpleminded mercenary attitude: read, read, read as much as I could of the authors that I thought ought to be read. No one told me who those authors were. I think I must've gleaned a lot from looking at library bookshelves, selections in secondhand stores, and lit anthology tables of contents.

Ultimately you could boil all this blather of mine down to a simple question: What does it mean to be well read in English language literature? Whatever the answer to that question is seems to have been my goal, whether I knew it or not.

[Aithne]

Certainly a gallant goal and I can see how reading could give you a purpose during those soul killing jobs. I think I take a very different aim which is why I felt the need to clarify. I read to be entertained. I have read some classics but not many. For me, the writers that "ought" to be read are those whose stories interest me rather than those whose stories have reached some sort of benchmark in another's mind. Though I can understand if what read you thought was worthy and it happened to coincide with the literary big ones - that can happen.

I still have one or two classics on my list, though. War of the worlds for one . Have you ever read what others term "genre" fiction before or is that just not your cup of tea?

Interesting discussion, anyway

[DATo]

when you say literature do you mean the 'classics', all books or the kind of elitist idea of what makes good fiction?

I mean literature with a small L. At the time I'm referring to in my life, when I started reading lots of fiction, I was on a forced three-year hiatus from college after my freshman year. I wouldn't decide to be an English major for several years to come, but in the meantime I felt compelled to do a sort of self-guided survey of the mainstream stalwarts of American and British literature. I was employed in mindless, soul-killing jobs, so investing in a self-education (i.e., a bona fide intellectual activity) was both therapeutic and wonderfully distracting. As it happens, most of what I read turned out to be written by well known dead white men. It took me a few semesters of being an actual English major before I self-corrected and started reading many more female authors and, perhaps more importantly, non-white/non-western authors. But there's plenty of those folks to slog through, too, without leaving the realm of the stalwarts of literature. Anyway, since eventually my plan was to become a college literature professor (most probably specializing in American lit), it seemed necessary to make myself a competent generalist before delving into the murkier depths of obscurer writers. But I ended up a librarian rather than a lit professor, so I now have the luxury of reading obscurer stuff all the time.

I should add that I was never interested in issues of what constitutes, as you say, good literature. Rather, I possessed a simpleminded mercenary attitude: read, read, read as much as I could of the authors that I thought ought to be read. No one told me who those authors were. I think I must've gleaned a lot from looking at library bookshelves, selections in secondhand stores, and lit anthology tables of contents.

Ultimately you could boil all this blather of mine down to a simple question: What does it mean to be well read in English language literature? Whatever the answer to that question is seems to have been my goal, whether I knew it or not.

You took the words right out of my mouth .... errrrr .... fingertips !

(By the way, I totally admire the way you express yourself. Have you ever done any writing? If so, and if it is online, I would love to read it.)

[Craigable]

By the way, I totally admire the way you express yourself. Have you ever done any writing? If so, and if it is online, I would love to read it.

Thanks for the kind words.

I've only published academic scholarship to date, but not even much of that. But I do have plans to do things that are of a more creative nature. Possibly 2013 might see me start that process. All my creative work in the past has been more or less for private consumption.

[Aithne]

Better get moving then - only a month and a bit left.

[Craigable]

Aye aye.

[VoraciousReader13]

I do both. If I enjoyed an authors work, I will usually go out and find other books by that person. However, I enjoy going to my local bookstore and perusing the aisles until a book catches my eye. Some of the best books I've read, I had come across by accident.

[Fran]

I do both. If I enjoyed an authors work, I will usually go out and find other books by that person. However, I enjoy going to my local bookstore and perusing the aisles until a book catches my eye. Some of the best books I've read, I had come across by accident.

I've posted here previously that I am absolutely certain that books find their readers. Many of my absolutely favourite books literally fell into my hands either from a library shelf or bookstore shelf. I am certain books sit there on the shelf & pounce on unsuspecting brousers!
I'm one of those people who, if I find a book incorrectly shelved in a library or bookstore, I absolutely have to restore it to it's proper place or at least put it back on the "to be shelved" trolly .... this obsession on my part has introduced me to many books and authors I never would have chosen off my own bat.

[lera_elizabeth]

I like to stick to one author at a time. I read all her/his books, then move on to other authors like the previous one or the total opposite. It depends on how I feel about the previous books.