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Autarch_Kade t1_ixq2loz wrote

After reading The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe, I didn't pick up another book for years. Other books felt so simple, straightforward, and shallow by comparison. Reading became a hollow experience. I thought that I wouldn't ever again find another book on that level, that my reading hobby had peaked and it was all downhill from there.

And that's been true. I've since read many books and enjoyed them, but nothing comes close to that experience, and I doubt anything will. I'd love nothing more to be wrong here though!

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cantspellrestaraunt OP t1_ixr1pi2 wrote

That's something I hadn't really considered. A phenomenal book can also put you into a reading slump.

A good friend of mine said when she first read The Bell Jar, every book she picked up afterward rang hollow. There was something so blunt and poetic about Plath's prose that she couldn't quite shake off the voice.

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