How do you fully read an Author?

[krishna_lit]

Obviously, for us, there are more number of Authors that we read than the population of our respective countries. So, let me ask you: When you like a book by an author do you also read his other books consequently or do you always switch between different authors and then complete all their books with time?

I personally prefer reading books of different authors and different genres at a time.

[cafolini]

Obviously, for us, there are more number of Authors that we read than the population of our respective countries. So, let me ask you: When you like a book by an author do you also read his other books consequently or do you always switch between different authors and then complete all their books with time?

I personally prefer reading books of different authors and different genres at a time.

You have to do it foolly.

[MorpheusSandman]

Depends on the author and my mood. If I read something from and author, love it, and really want to read more then I'll start their next book. OTOH, there are those authors that I love (like Dickens) whom I can't imagine "marathoning" in such a manner--they just wrote too much and I'd get burnt out, so it's better to spread it out over a longer period. There are also authors whom I'll marathon for a while, then put down for a while, and come back to later. It just all depends.

[hannah_arendt]

Sometimes I read also other books. I did it with E. M. Forster and Tolkien.

[kiki1982]

Switch. I've doe all Austen's major work now, but that was fun inbetweenies. :) Trollope and Wodehouse (I think) now have that roll. I love Hardy, but I think I would get depressed if I read two or more of his one after the other.

[JBI]

It's much, much easier pre-print. I mean how many works are extant from Dante, all form of correspondence included. After that, you need to reread quite a few times.

In Chinese this is much easier, since usually after one's friend died (or before one dies) as a sort of envoi the artist, be it prose writer or poet, will make a major catalogue of their works (this is post-print era). Where if you are, for instance, Su Shi, you will also preface a lot of the works (Henry James seems to have liked to do that too). In that sense, the editions are rather available.

As for pre-printing press, you read what is available - generally a few scattered poems - in Chinese, pre-tang you would be lucky with maybe 10, closer poets in proximity got out with a couple hundred, in comparison to someone like Du Fu who had over 1500. This is not restricted to unknown literati, or professional writers, but rather true of emperors as well - even Tang works seem to have been burned, lost, or destroyed through the many wars and inquisitions.

The same is true of the West - we think of an entire corpus as all that the person has ever written. Pre-print, this meant one or two extant books. The big exceptions being people like Augustine, who got about 2 or three feet worth of codex, many didn't even get to leave their names, or their biographical records. As for Today, an entire written works can be thousands of books long - think of how many essays, letters, emails, bills, etc. you have written in your life. Those are all part of the process. So if I wanted to write a report on any author today, I could investigate their visa bills without much difficulty and come to a conclusion - bought lots of alcohol, ate lots of red meat, needed so and so medicine etc - and all that would be perfectly traceable.

Now, to read an author's complete works, generally this is not necessary at all. It is only desirable, and interesting if you are a specialist on that exact individual. Like if I was a Dr. Sues specialist, I may want to read his correspondence, and tax returns.

That being said, this is a thing of the past - our paper trails, text messages, phone calls etc. included, are endless. In order to fully "read" someone, one must quite literally live their life.

[mona amon]

For me, 'most fully read' would be Charlotte Bronte - I've read a lot of her Juvenilia, her four novels, biographies of her, and correspondence. And Bernard Shaw - all of his plays (with the prefaces), his correspondence and a biography. Haven't read his five novels - life is too short.

[kiki1982]

Yes, the problems begin when there is a lot to read. The Brontës and Austen are still managebale, but people like Hardy mean a longer task. ANd he wasn't even that prolific compared to some...