If you consider yourself a reader… someone who truly enjoys a good book … then you undoubtedly have a favorite author or two. I sure do.
But what happens when that author stops producing? Or if your favorite author is from a by-gone era and hasn’t written anything in decades? You probably scrabble and claw for those scraps of writing that some relative or agent uncovers and releases. But after that … well, sometimes the outlook is bleak.
For years I was an avid sci-fi reader (back in the days when the term ‘sci-fi’ was considered insulting). Most of my true favorites were writing in that genre, but more and more, the output is less and less. And then I felt that the sci-fi market was glutted with hackneyed writing and nothing but serials. Serials and series’. Really? Does no one write just a book any more?! But let’s be honest… most of that probably came from publishers, trying to capitalize, not from the writers themselves.
So how do you find a new favorite?
For me, it’s just a matter of reading a lot. If I read a short story I like, I search the author’s name on Amazon and Goodreads and wishlist their books. Sometimes I discover the new author through recommendations of friends. And of course there are the blogs… reading posts by other readers has been a great way for me to find new favorite authors.
And sometimes you get lucky and chance upon a book or story that wows you and you want to read everything they output. That happened to me recently when I was reading the nominees for the Hugo Award (science fiction’s fan-based reader awards).
And now I may have run across a new favorite. You’ll hear more about him in the coming days. Watch for a few new reviews and see if you can figure out who my new favorite is. In the meantime, tell me…how do you find your new favorite author?!
Looking for a good book? …Always!
Looking For a Good Book 