The Issue with Authors

OK, so maybe it's not the author's fault I'm an obsessive reader. How was he to know that I would fall completely in love with his book? Could he have possibly predicted that the manner in which I devoured page after page was akin to a man dying of thirst in the dessert and finding the sweet relief of an oasis? Was it his duty to make sure I read the book slowly, savoring it?

The true problem here is me. I love books. And when I love a book, I stay awake until the wee hours of the night/morning, reading as much as my dry and sore eyes will allow. And when I finish one book, I find other books by the author, and devour those in much the same manner.

Me, except with books instead of booze. 

Occasionally I will try to force myself to slow down. If I know the book is the last or second-to-last in a series, I try not to read the whole thing in a day. Sometimes I miserably fail. For example: When I was in 9th-ish grade, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince came out. I was enthralled. I remember getting the book- I demanded my mom take me to Barnes and Noble, where I had pre-ordered it as soon as humanly possible. I got it at around 11 in the morning, and as soon as we got in the car, I opened the book.

I read the entire book in a single day. That's 652 pages.

I think I ate dinner.

At one point near the end of the book, I was seriously confused about what was happening. Characters were talking about scenes I had no clue happened. So I flipped back through the book, and realized, to my horror, that I had somehow skipped an entire chapter.

It was at that moment my older brother told me I should slow down.

But I didn't. I simple read that chapter, and finished the book.

(Side note: I feel no shame in remembering every last detail of that day. I loved that book.)

So the problem today? I made the mistake of reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I sobbed like a toddler who had just been told Mickey Mouse was no longer going to be on TV. I absolutely loved the book, and as soon as I finished it, I read it again. Then I moved on to A Thousand Splendid Suns. And I loved that one just as much.

And now, there are no more books. I have checked up on Khaled Hosseini multiple times, and I've never found anything about books he's working on or any that will be published soon. And it kind of breaks my heart.

Two books is not nearly enough to satisfy me. I need more of his writing.

So to deal, I read A Thousand Splendid Suns and The Kite Runner multiple times a year. My copies of both are kind of beat up, and I'll probably have to replace them in a few years.

But really, it's all Khaled Hosseini's fault.

Him and his amazing books.