Will be interested in finding new authors until I'm dead and gone.

I have found new authors the way may people do: someone recommends something, the book next to the one I’m getting looks interesting or Fantastic Fiction suggests authors similar to ones I’m looking up. Sometimes just the title interests me, sometimes the cover art. And sometimes I want to read books from a certain era (deeply into 1920’s mysteries right now) and I check out Historical Mystery Homepage.

I may, however, have found a new author in a way I’d never thought of. My dad and I read a lot of the same books. I don’t know how long it might have taken me to find how much I enjoyed Louis L’amour if he hadn’t been reading them first. And I think it’s likely that I’ve introduced him to an author or two as well. Hooray for friends and family!

This is where things get tricky. A friend recommended the novel Relic, by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston. I ended up reading three books in that series before I lost interest. During a visit to dad, he mentioned a new author he was enjoying. He told me the name, of course, and a brief synopsis of the series. I thought I had filed it away to a safe spot in my brain, but sadly such was not the case.

Here, in its entirety, is all I could think to ask him: What was that book series you were telling me about, where our main detective sort of lives off the grid? Preston something? Lincoln something?

You can see where I got the names, yes? Despite this terribly unspecific request, it was enough! (Cracked is right, our brains do get better, not worse over time!) The author I was looking for was Lee Child. I guess I remembered L. Child, confused that with Lincoln Child and even managed to throw Preston in there. So I put in a request at the library for the first book in the Lee Child series, The Killing Floor.

At which point we get another twist. When I requested it online, I went by title. And ended up with a completely different book than the one I was asking for. Same title, different author. But it looks interesting, and it is part of a long series so hopefully they’re not awful. Can you even get more than a couple published if they’re terrible? I’m going to read it, since it’s already in transit to my local library. And if I like the book…a new series to get into discovered in a heretofore unheard of manner.