Looking for a new favourite writer.

I'm still reading Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier. It just isn't the same captivating read that her others were. I have a couple weeks to go, and I am over half done with the book, so I do expect to easily pass my dismal record of one measly book in last years less than epic attempt. My goal is one a week to meet my National Just Read More Novels Month quota for this year.

Maybe what I need to read more novels is a new favourite author. All my life, there was a favourite author who was relied upon for something to read when I finished all the new stuff I had. Sometimes there were two favourite authors whose work I could not put down, whose work I searched for seriously, and who usually did not publish often enough.

I used to find my new favourite author simply by picking something of theirs up and beginning. It was almost accidental, but before I knew it, I had to read everything they wrote. Pretty soon I had all the books they wrote in my own library in paperback, and then began the cycle of waiting for the next book.

The simple truth is that I have not read enough lately to have a favourite fiction author. I was really enjoying Edward Rutherford, but he has not had anything new out for several years, and I have all his others. Tom Clancy is still publishing but its a consortium now and the books are just not the same. I loved reading the Jack Ryan and John Kelly stories. Without the backup of a current favourite, I seem to be adrift.

I probably ought to try Amy Tan. I read The Bonesetters Daughter, and found it disturbing in a way. The first copy of the book was an airport buy, and I gave it away before the end of the trip. But the book never left my head. I had to buy a second copy so I could read it again, and have read it several times since. Each time, I find more. It is probably a sign that I should read more of her work, and her current book, Saving Fish From Drowning sounds very interesting.

In truth, some days, I am enjoying knitting so much that it is very hard to make myself go out to find new books. I confess that the knitting is fulfilling in a way a book could not be unless I wrote it myself. Knitting is coming from my soul. It is coming from a place deep inside me that just wants to touch the souls of all the others in time and history, to all those who did these things before me, and who will continue to do them after me, by participating in an old and noble task.

It isn't that I'm not a reader anymore. I am still a reader, its just that right now in this moment, I have these other things to learn and do and there are not enough hours or enough clear eyesight to do it all.