One thing I have always done, when I come across a book that I really liked, is to buy everything I can find by that author, and seldom have I been disappointed. I think the first author I did that with was John Steinbeck. Known for only a few of his books, Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, The Pearl, and East of Eden, he has written more than thirty books, and some of the others are every bit as good, I think. When I was in high school, I bought every John Steinbeck book I could find, and bought others many years later, when the Internet allowed me to access books that I couldn't find otherwise. I've done that with W.P. Kinsella, Gunter Grass, Erskine Caldwell, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, John Updike, Orson Scott Card, John Irving, Robert Penn Warren, Philip Roth. Lois Lowry, Philip K. Dick, Richard Brautigan and Cathie Pelletier, to name a few. I would include Ken Kesey and J.D. Salinger as well, but they didn't write very many. I do think that Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion was a better book than his better known One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. There are others too, but I'm not at home so I can't refer to my library. These are the ones that come to mind.
I also often binge read books by the same author when I read one book and really like that author. When Dan Brown came out with DaVinci Code, I read all of his other books after I read that one. Another similar author that I have enjoyed is Steve Berry, who also writes historical suspense novels. HIs novels are always about some well-known historical figure, or an event in history, so I not only enjoy the story; but I also learn new things about the event in history at the same time. Thomas Perry is also fast becoming one of my favorite authors. He wrote the whole Jane Whitefield series, which I borrowed from the library online and read. Jane is a Native American woman who has the skill to take a person who is being pursued and hide them out and also help them start a brand new life. She only helps good people who need her help, and not bad guys who are hiding from the police. Thomas Perry also has many other books that are not about Jane, and I am now hoping to read some of them, too.
I do that too, but it find that after awhile their books aren't so good. James Patterson is a good example. I loved his first few novels but couldn't really get Into the later ones. Authors that I've binge read are Koontz, King, Kellerman, just to name a few. That was years ago though since now I read mostly non fiction. @Ken Anderson , I also binge read Steinbeck after visiting his museum in Salinas, Ca. My daughter and I bought a few books there in the gift shop. I especially enjoyed them since I know many of the areas he wrote about. http://www.steinbeck.org
Whenever I buy several novels by a single author, I tend to spread out my reading, so that I might read one or two books in between. I've read all of Anthony Trollope's 'Barsetshire' novels, of which there are six, but reading them one after another might have been hard going. Trollope wrote around 75 novels, so it's a fair bet I'll never get to read all of them. With Dickens, Dostoevsky, George Eliot and a few others, I'm still in with a shout.
I have done this... and more than once, but looking back, I have to say that I *have* been disappointed a few times. There are some authors who jump genres and really aren't nearly as good in the second genre. I've also bought an author's complete works in a particular series, but then bought all her books in another of her series and it turned out to be a complete waste of money because they were terrible. Bottom line, if it's one of the "big" and well-known writers, I've found their work to be consistent. But newer writers... I don't know if it's a matter of beginner's luck for the first few books... or I've even heard it said that sometimes they outsource to another writer to complete their series, but some later works can be pretty terrible.
Once they get the notoriety, I think some of them trade off on that in order to sell a book that they didn't put any effort into. Kurt Vonnegut published a few books that looked to be scribblings that he found in his desk, that I considered a waste of my time, and I got the feeling that he just needed the money and knew people would buy it because it had his name on it.
I've noticed that, too, Chrissy. Plus sometimes you can almost tell at the end that the author was just rushing along to get it finished. I don't like abrupt endings and I don't like the same formulas being used to the point that I know how it's going to end when I'm just a few chapters in.
I'm on my second-to-last in the Hamish MacBeth series by M.C. Beaton. I've read all of her Agatha Raisin books and the Edwardian Murder Mysteries, which I am sad she decided to discontinue. I really liked those. She is extremely prolific, and has published under several pseudonyms, so I'm going to start reading those next. Some of my favorite authors I've read everything from are Lawrence Sanders, Andrew Greeley (so sad what happened to him), Agatha Christie (read all those when I was young), and Mary Higgins Clark. I was into romances when I was young, and read all the Victoria Holt, etc. authors Now I'm into mysteries, so I've finished up the Kinsey Milhone mysteries to date by Sue Grafton and am looking for another author to binge read. I tend to like the lighter stuff. I only read for fun. I only
I tended to binge read only a few authors when I was reading. It was easy for me.... I worked in a new and used bookstore and could borrow anything used I wanted. I never read all their works but at least several.
I do the same, especially nowadays, because the market seems to be cluttered with a lot of sub-par e-books, so sticking to favorite authors can help save time. Like @Chrissy Page, I enjoy reading books set in places I'm familiar with, it helps me to be able to picture the places and adds to the experience.
My kindle is full of sub par e books. All the cheap and free ones and only a couple are worthwhile. I used to be such an avid reader but lately can't get into it. When I would buy my books at a bookstore, new or used I read them all. They were mostly the bestsellers and known authors. Now I'm wondering if that's the reason I don't read I just thought it was a long phase I was going through.
I think that because e-publishing has become so "do-able" for almost anyone that wants to write and publish their work, we do get a lot of sub-standard books nowadays. I have ordered some health or gardening tutorials that looked like they were just copy/pasted from the Internet someplace, put together into a book , and then uploaded to Amazon. Like @Chrissy Page mentioned, at least when we got used paperbacks, they were a better quality of book than many of the ebooks are. One of the problems with having favorite authors, is eventually you have read all of their books, and have to branch out into unknown waters. The library online has been a good help for finding the better books because that is mostly what they seem to carry. I do look through the selection that Bookbub sends me each day, and sometimes get one of those to read, plus just doing a search on Kindle for the kind of book that I am looking for, and there are some excellent books to be found. Some of those cost as much for the book as getting the print edition though, so you just have to keep an eye out for what looks promising, I guess.
I also look through my BookBuB every day, and some days to buy one and always get the free one. I have read a few excellent ones but most arent that great.
My binge reading authors are Iris Joahason, Lee Child, Sue Grafton, Karen Kingsbury to name a few. I used to buy all the books but when I started down sizing I donated a lot of books to our Public Library and now I just have them put any new books by my favorite Authors on hold and check out the rest of them.