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ceitfianna asked me to write about authors I will always read if they have a new book and why for the 28th.

This is a ever-shifting category, so 'always' is kind of an inexact term. There are authors I could have sworn five years ago that I would go on reading forever that I have not read a new book by in years.

Also, there are a couple of different reasons I will always read an author's new book! I mean, of course there are the authors in whom I have absolute trust that I will love everything they write, and will prioritize my life to acquire the book and then fit it into my reading list. Frances Hardinge is kind of leading this category right now. Everything she writes is so GOOD, and, also, so different from everything she has written before; unless something drastically changes, "new Frances Hardinge book!" will always jump to the top of my list of everything.

Then there are authors who have not yet written a book that I flat-out love, but whom I am convinced will someday write a book that I flat-out love. Alaya Dawn Johnson was one of these authors, and then she wrote The Summer Prince, and all my hopes were fulfilled. I will of course keep reading everything new that Alaya Dawn Johnson writes in hopes that she will write me another book as perfect as The Summer Prince.

There are very few people I expect perfect books from all the time, though, and I always feel a little guilty when I do (sorry, Frances Hardinge) because nobody can write perfect books all the time! When I've just read a truly amazing book, I try to make sure to manage my expectations about the next thing the author writes, because I know ALL TOO WELL that it is really hard to duplicate that kind of feat.

I think all of my must-acquire authors fall somewhere on the spec-fic spectrum, which I guess is a sign of affiliations at heart or something -- I try to read fairly broadly, but the authors I really latch onto enough to remember when they have something new coming out never tend to be the nonfiction authors or the Acclaimed Literary Fiction authors, or even the mystery authors (although, honestly, who can even keep up with the mystery authors?) But who knows, that could change in five years, too.

Who are your must-buys? Maybe they're the same as some of mine!