Discovering a new writer is like falling in love

[Dappy777]

I don't know who said that, but it's kind of true. You know, you think about them all the time, want to know all about their past, their opinions on everything, etc. Have you ever had this experience? I've 'fallen in love' with Iris Murdoch's writings lately. I'd never read her before, but now I want to go through everything she wrote.

I've had this happen a few times. When I was young, I loved Aldous Huxley and read everything I could find (without understanding half of it, of course). Also had it with Oscar Wilde, Virginia Woolf and Evelyn Waugh. I think I might have a bit of an obsessive personality. I get like this about other things as well – food, for example (I'll discover a new sandwich or type of chocolate and then keep going on and on about how delicious it is until someone tells me to shut up).

I had it a couple of times. After reading g Golden Hill I wanted to read everything Francis Spufford wrote.

I absolutely do this. In fact that’s how I read really: a crush on a writer I’ve discovered and I hoover it all up, book after book.
Then I’m a bit lost until I find my next “ prey” to pounce on.

I’m not sure it’s so much obsessive as “getting in the groove”‘of their style. And you almost want to read their other works to flesh out your understanding of each individually.

Also, it’s helps to soften the blow of finishing a book you’ve really enjoyed.

Yup, I had this with Maggie O'Farrell last year. Luckily she had a fantastic back catalogue, each as brilliant as the last. It's a wonderful feeling.

yes! Octavia Butler was the last one for me and I'm so sad she's dead so there's an end to her back catelogue

It's funny how much our relationship with writers is like our relationship with real people – we have crushes on them, fall in and out of love with them, meet up with them after years and find that either they're just the same or have changed completely (because we've changed). I suppose it's the 'voice'. Every writer has a distinctive voice/personality that comes through in the words, no matter how they try and hide it. P. G. Wodehouse, for example, is unmistakably Wodehouse. And reading him is like meeting a much-loved friend for a coffee – someone kind, funny, a bit innocent/unworldly, but someone who always cheers me up. I feel the same about Douglas Adams and Jane Austen. Evelyn Waugh, on the other hand, though also funny, is darker, colder and nastier. I can't read him when I feel low. I need to be in a good place – just as I need to be in a good place to take the company of a funny but sharp and edgy friend.

It's interesting to return to a writer after several years and find the magic has gone. Again, it's like meeting up with a teenage boyfriend in middle-age and being amazed that we ever felt so deeply for him. When I was young I was dazzled by Aldous Huxley and Oscar Wilde. I wanted to talk like the characters in their books (you can imagine what an odious, pretentious twat I was). Reading them again in my 40s, I still love and admire them, but I see them with a more critical eye. The love is no longer unconditional. I see their faults (Huxley's lack of human warmth, Wilde's arrogance).

I felt like this after reading The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. I then read the Alice Network, loved it and bought all the rest. Unfortunately I have started and failed two of those so far and been so disappointed.

This is so true. When Bridgerton first came
out I started reading the source Julia Quinn novels. They lasted about a month and then I moved in to Georgette Heyer, the absolute empress of Georgian fiction. That led me to a treasure trove of Georgian history and between them they took up a year of my life.

I can definitely agree. Over the years, I have had it with Oscar Wilde, Jostein Gaarder, and Irvin Yalom. Quite eclectic, I know.

My most recent literary crushes have been Peter Grainger's series about King's Lake (2025), Joel Dicker (2022) and Chris Hammer (also 2022). Of longer standing, I am very fond of Quentin Jardine, Charles Cumming and Henry Porter. I mainly like crime, thrillers and spy fiction.