Reply #21: Honestly, it's been ages since I've read a novel that really knocked my socks off.

[Zavulon]

It's as if the standard just dropped through the floor. Even my favorite authors are churning out clunkers now.

I'm slogging my way through the new Dan Brown (not a favorite) because my girlfriend read it and wants my opinion (this is the same trap that got me to read a few books I'd never open otherwise, which sounds good in theory but hasn't worked out well for me at all). I'm 260 pages in and see nothing that I didn't see in his previous four books - twists and turns that are so formulaic that I can actually call them in advance.

I'm with you, I think everyone should read more and put down the remote, but I've been really disappointed in the last 15 or 20 hardcovers I've bought. I'd like just one good new book, because to be honest I'm getting tired of re-reading the older good ones annually.