Who can blame readers for supporting an author they know can produce good output that they enjoy. Maybe there are good books by other lesser known authors out there, but then you have to take a risk with something new.

Up until 6 months ago, I had read probably 3 books in 10 years. 6 months ago I started reading again.

I started with Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles, books 1 and 2. That set a high bar.

Next was the Dune trilogy after I saw the movie. Overall it was good but a bit heavy for reading before bed, I often didn't manage for more than 30 mins before starting to drift off, whilst with Kingkiller chronicles I could easily read 1+ hours. I gave up on Dune book 3, I'll read it on vacation some time.

Then I tried Ready Player One, which opened up a whole world of realizing that books can be really bad, just like other art forms. I feel like I've never read a bad book before this (despite not reading for 10 years, I did read a lot as a teenager).

The first 25% of the book relies 80s references every other sentence, clearly the writer is trying to nostalgia trip the reader into enjoying it. Then after that he is describing playing a video game. People bemoan how there is a big cultural shift towards watching people play video games, but here is even worse; he describes a super boring boss battle involving an 80s arcade game. Every chapter I read, I got more annoyed at how bad the book was, until I realized I could just abandon it.

And now I just started Sanderson's Mistborn #1: The Final Empire, and it feels good to be reading something quality again.