Weird phobias - a generally pointless ramble
I have a peculiar phobia which I don't know if there's a word for, but its definition is "fear of being let-down by a favourite author". It is this phobia that causes me to go out and buy the latest book by one of my favourite authors the very second it comes out, and then let it languish on my "to-read" pile while I give it nervous glances for weeks. I'm always afraid that it won't be as good as I hope it will be, and I'll be disappointed and have to wait for another year or two at least to go through the process again. It gets even worse with series'. The most recent installment of Garth Nix's brilliant "Keys to the Kingdom" series Lady Friday (book 5 of 7), sat around for about three MONTHS before I finally got up the courage to open it (I needn't have worried - it was fantastic. Even better than the one before it). The most recent victim of my phobia was Diana Wynne Jones' The Pinhoe Egg, which I was doubly nervous about because it was revisiting the Chrestomanci Universe and in particular featured Cat Chant, my favourite character in that series. But today I finally plucked up the courage and it was WONDERFUL. The perfect return to this series. Total relief and enjoyment. Heh, maybe I'll finally get around to catching up with the latest Vlad Taltos book now.
(ETA - I should add that this phobia has some basis in fact. Every single one of my favourite authors has produced the odd clunker or two in their repertoire, some of them so dire that I cringe whenever I see that book in amongst all the other excellent pieces (yes, I keep them. I am a collector and completist. And sometimes, very rarely, I'll come back to a book a few years later and discover that actually it was quite good, I just wasn't ready for it at the time. It doesn't happen often, but it has been known to happen). To be fair, noone can please everyone all the time, and some of the books I couldn't stand others have loved. And when you have written as many books as some of my favourite authors have done, there is simply no getting around the fact that not ALL of them will be good.)
(ETA - I should add that this phobia has some basis in fact. Every single one of my favourite authors has produced the odd clunker or two in their repertoire, some of them so dire that I cringe whenever I see that book in amongst all the other excellent pieces (yes, I keep them. I am a collector and completist. And sometimes, very rarely, I'll come back to a book a few years later and discover that actually it was quite good, I just wasn't ready for it at the time. It doesn't happen often, but it has been known to happen). To be fair, noone can please everyone all the time, and some of the books I couldn't stand others have loved. And when you have written as many books as some of my favourite authors have done, there is simply no getting around the fact that not ALL of them will be good.)