Several years ago, I read a description of someone who said that he read almost everything. A questioner went through the categories -- Do you read biographies? Science? Novels? Technical books? Books about finance, child raising, architecture,deep sea diving, gambling, automobiles? ... -- and the answer was that he read almost everything within a limited set of categories . I'm the same way. Though I've never boasted of being the omni-reader, it's only been in the last few years that I realize that my reading tastes look like a bell curve -- and right in the middle are science fiction novels. I can't even say that I read all of them, either. I like science fiction that at least makes a nod to hard science, and certainly ones that have a plot, and characters about whom I care. And like my finicky eating tastes, I hardly ever read material from an author I haven't read before.

To that end, I was delighted to come across the Vorkosigan novels, by Lois McMaster Bujold. The very first one I read was a handoff from someone who thought that I'd enjoy it. The title was 'Cordelia's Honor'. I read it, but quickly -- it was interesting, but it didn't grab me. Some time later, I came across a hardcover novel titled Cetaganda -- that being a planet and a race of people. To my surprise, it was a continuation of the Cordelia story, many years later. I was hooked -- it had a plot, an interesting main character, and strange people with alien viewpoints. Further, it had hard science deftly mixed in, and it was written well. Well enough that when I reluctantly came to the end, I went looking for the others in the series. And now I've read all but two. One really doesn't sound like something I want to read, but the other does, so I'm looking for it. In the meantinme, I'm rereading Cordelia's Honor. For some reason, it's better, second time around.

I occasionally wonder: does it irk a professional author that they can work years to turn out a body of work that an enthusiastic reader can polish off in a month?