16. Read a book by an author who is new to you

[Martha]

As everyone reads different books, I can't make a list of authors who will be new to everyone. So here are some authors I particularly love, some of whom may be new to you, so you can consider this a recommendation to give them a go!

Examples from my "Favorites" shelf
Audrey Niffenegger - The Time Traveler's Wife or Her Fearful Symmetry
Aimee Bender - The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, or as Marina recommends, An Invisible Sign of My Own
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone & the rest of the series. In fact if you haven't read HP, stop what you're doing immediately and read it. Where have you been?!
Sarah Winman - When God was a Rabbit or A Year of Marvellous Ways
Carlos Ruiz Zafón - The Shadow of the Wind and the rest of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books series
Erin Morgenstern - The Night Circus
Alexander McCall Smith - while I haven't considered any of his books to be so outstanding in their own right that I've added them to favorites, I always enjoy his books and his writing. It's easy, and the kind of thing you can curl up on the sofa with. I enjoyed the Corduroy Mansions series, and am looking forward to reading the The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and 44 Scotland Street series

Discussion prompts
- What did you / will you read for this prompt? What did you think?
- Do you often try new authors or stick with ones you know? Why?
- When trying a new author, how do you go about choosing? Or do you try them by default because you've picked up a new book?
- Are there any authors you feel you should have read?
- Which authors would you recommend to other challengers on this task?

[Martha]

Ooh how is Dark Places going Kassay? I've never read any Gillian Flynn - I was going to read Gone Girl, then I saw the movie, and I always find it hard to read books after seeing the film because I already know what's going to happen...

For this task I read The Quality of Silence by Rosamund Lupton as part of the Richard and Judy book club. I really enjoyed it, but the ending was a bit anti-climactic which is always disappointing. See review here

It's actually quite rare for me to read books by the same author, I've amassed so many books by now that I haven't "chosen" any based on knowing and liking the author and I'm trying to get through my TBR before buying new books (with limited success). The authors I mentioned at the top are probably the only ones where I've loved them so much that I've sought out more of their books.

I quite often feel that there are loads of authors I "should" have read, usually those who have written classic books - Charles Dickens, the Brontes, Jane Austen etc. I think that's more just my inner elitist judging me for not being more high-brow! I've dipped my toe in the water and really enjoyed Of Mice and Men and Rebecca, but hated The Great Gatsby. To be fair, I tried those for their own merits just as much as feeling I need to read work by John Steinbeck etc. Anyway, I'm trying to take the pressure off - who case if I never read any Dickens? He won't care - he's dead! ;)

[Kassay]

Dark Places was really good. I read that book so fast, I couldn't put it down. I loved watching everything unfold & see who was really guilty. And I've purposly been trying to not watch Gone Girl so that I could read the book, although I think I have seen a few parts...

[Marina]

For this prompt I've read Magical Thinking by Augusten Burroughs. I liked it, although there's no way all these things really happened to the author. It was very explicit in parts, and some of the stories were much better than others, but overall I'm glad I read it.

I often try new authors. I like to broaden my reading horizons.

However, I choose books based on the storyline and/or my interest in the subject matter, so I don't really go about searching for authors. This book, for instance, was recommended to me by a friend and I decided to read it - I didn't pick it just because I wanted to try a new author.

Well, there are plenty of authors I feel like I should have read, it makes little sense to list them all here. For instance, I feel like I should have read more German language authors, what with having a Master's degree in German Literature.

There are many authors I would recommend. For example, I would recommend a great Italian author who is somewhat known abroad, too, Italo Calvino. I love nearly all of his books. I would also recommend Fyodor Dostoyevsky, in case you haven't read anything by him yet. My favorite author is definitely Elias Canetti, though I'm not sure I would recommend his books as they are difficult ones and I know that many people don't like them.