I’m sure you know the feeling. You’ve just finished reading the last page, last paragraph, last word of a fantastic book. You close it, put it down, and are struck with that itchy feeling, that need to just keep reading. But what? It’s going to have to be something good to live up to the book you’ve just put down. Will the next book you pick up have a character quite as lovable as that one hero you grew so attached to? Or will it have someone quite as chilling as that other character that was so ambiguous you couldn’t figure out if they were a hero or a villain (but you were so invested in them nonetheless)? And what about that ending?! And the way it tied so well back into that chapter where there was that confrontation that made you question everything you’d thought about where the book was heading. How are you going to find another book as good as that one?
Maybe though, this wasn’t the feeling you got when you finished your last book. Maybe you slogged through it. Getting slowly through page after page of foolish characters doing foolish things over and over and over and over. Maybe none of the characters were particularly good people and you dragged yourself through chapter after chapter of them all making each other unhappy with their poor decisions, hoping that maybe once, just once one of them would do something redeemable, but they never do. Maybe the characters aren’t even that bad, but the combined mix of foolish decisions and self-interest just put you off them entirely. Maybe the author’s writing style just didn’t catch you. Perhaps they included too many descriptions of food, of oatfarls and elderflower cream and shrimp and hotroot soup and acorn scones and dandelion tea (I’m looking at you Brian Jacques!), or not enough descriptions of food and too much dialogue! If you’ve been reading a book that you really struggled to get to the end of (but still persevered through to the last page) you might be left with a bad taste in your mind and the need to consume something actually good, or at least better suited to your tastes.
Whether or not you enjoyed the last book you read, upon closing its cover for the final time you will be, I am very sure, be beginning to ponder over the question “But what will I read next?”
And that’s what I’m here to help with! So sit back, pour yourself a glass of dandelion tea, and ready yourself for wall of text I’m about to present you with.
