The other day Mark opined that I have a lot of books that I don't like and that buying the books is giving money to folks who produce them will only encourage them to write more books that I don't like. This was after I mentioned that it was easier to get through some of Dion Fortune's more turgid prose in the Mystical Qabalah if one read it in a Monty Python accent.
I thought about it some, and concluded that possibly Mark was expressing a desire to hear more about what I found useful, interesting, or entertaining about books read over the last year.
On the Neopagan front, I am looking for rigorous books written by a more priestly Ronald Hutton, or a more scholarly Starhawk, who is writing for a general audience generally, and who might address a cis-gay-male audience specifically (if only because I am a cis-gay-male). Recent books I have read have been more folk-magic/lucky-charms focused than focused on Ritual High Magick as it pertains to a Platonic just life. Insert the speech about diversion, superstition, and habit countered by goals of celebration, communion, and transformation here.
On the fiction front, I've been rereading old favorites more than new releases. For fiction, I suppose I'm looking for the next Ursula Le Guin: she was able to write about social issues with a skillful use of language that rewarded the reader instead of exhausting or depressing the reader (or at least me). I'm thinking perhaps science fiction and fantasy is still recovering from grim-dark dystopia works (and hasn't been helped by COVID and world politics).
...And now, time to nap.
