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Jun 29, 2007
About My Library
My library contains reviews of just about every book I have read since the beginning of 2003. Most of my TBRs are also here, but I couldn't face adding all my other books. so I'm adding them as and when I re-read them.

Reading Likes and Dislikes

There's nothing worse than finding a new author that you like only to discover that he writes the same thing over and over again. I was thrilled with the first Jonathan Carroll book that I came across, but although his plots are unusual and fantastic and not like anyone else's, I soon got fed up with his heroes who all seem to be very withdrawn and have bad relationships with their fathers. I prefer authors who never write the same thing twice, like Liz Jenson and Magnus Mills. So I prefer stand-alone novels to never-ending series and if you can't tell the story in less than 500 pages (preferably less than 400) I probably can't be bothered with reading it. Writing samey books is a cardinal sin in my eyes, which explains why I have always liked reading short stories and have zero interest in reading either official TV spin-offs or fan-fiction.

Of course there are exceptions. I really enjoyed the excessively long "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell" and even bought it in hard-back (which I hardly ever do) because one of the reasons I don't like long books is that they are awkward to read in paperback without completely ruining the spine (although I am not one of those crazy people who reads the book half shut in order to avoid creasing the spine at all). One series I really did enjoy was Iain M. Banks' Culture Series, because the novels are stand-alones set in the same civilisation rather than continuing the same story.
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