Thursday 3 November 2011

Author Obsession

For the last few weeks, I've had a completely insatiable craving to re-read Chocolat by Joanne Harris. As far as I can tell, there's no particular reason for this, and since I initally read Joanne Harris because my mum loved her and don't actually own any of her novels, I had to get hold of Chocolat from somewhere (ReaditSwapit), and then of course I had to have the sequel, The Lollipop Shoes as well. Since it arrived it's been sat on the table, begging me to read it and I will, but meanwhile a copy of Blackberry Wine caught my eye online today...

Does anybody else either read one book by an author and then have to immediately go out and find every single word they've ever written, or decide to re-read a book and then just go on a huge splurge of reading  like all of one particular author's books, or only that particular author for a while? A good friend of mine regularly has what she calls 'Jodi Picoult phases' and 'Sarah Rayne phases' (by the way, why does nobody ever talk about Sarah Rayne? She is amazing), and then of course there's the biannual re-reading of Harry Potter... Is it just because once you finish a book which gives you *that feeling* you can't face the thought of reading anything less awesome? I recently discovered this problem after reading The Night Circus - cue jumping up and down squealing 'ohmygoditsthemostawesomebookeveryoumustreaditnow!'  - and have only recently pulled myself out of it through the combined genius of Terry Pratchett and Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf . If Erin Morgenstern had written other books, I would have been devouring them and not leaving the house. The other thing is that with some authors (mine are Terry Pratchett, David Gemmell, Douglas Adams, Scarlett Thomas and the ever indomitable Louisa Alcott), reading their novels just feel comforting. I know I'm always going on about Little Women, but every single time I read the first sentence of that book, I feel better about everything. An author I've discovered this year whose books I did (and will be doing again) this with is Sarah Addison Allen. I got Garden Spells from the library totally on spec and fell in love with it. The combined amazing of the library and RAK provided me with The Sugar Queen and The Girl Who Chased the Moon respectively, but I'm stuck on The Peach Keeper, and if nobody gets it for me for christmas, I may just cry for days...

Anyway, I digress. My question is, do other people do this? Is there a book you'll re-read and then have to read everything else you own by that author? Is there an author you've discovered recently and then had to rush out and get hold of all their other books? I'm interested!

5 comments:

  1. Absolutely. I do it frequently. My latest obsession was rereading Anne of Green Gables and Harry Potter again over the summer.

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  2. Ooh Anne of Green Gables is one of my favourites! :-D

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  3. When I first read To The Lighthouse, a year later I found myself with over 50 books by, about, or somehow relating to Virginia Woolf, so yes, I get you!

    Just bought Anne of Green Gables yesterday!

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  4. Have you read Anne of Green Gables before? I didn't get on well with To The Lighthouse, but I feel like I probably need to give Virginia Woolf another go. Any recommendations?

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  5. Pride and Prejudice is my feel better book. All the characters are so familiar to me I feel instantly relaxed. Then I have to read everything Austen again...!

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