In for the Long Haul

There are one-offs, novels that catch our eye, written by someone we haven’t read, which when we’re done don’t send us hunting for more by the same author. There are books by writers we’ve read a lot that we abandon early on or perhaps decide to give a pass based simply on the description in an advance review or a promotion; we’ll still look for the next book by the writer in question. (For me, Richard Powers falls in this category.) And then there are those we read as a matter of course (often re-reading too).