Books I Want to Read vs. Books I Should Read (Sanderson's Latest)

In which I decide that I am not going to read "Wind and Truth". And also that 63 hours on audio is just ridiculous.

This is me defending myself against a very narrow criticism, from a small number of people. I’m not sure how interesting it will be. But I could end up being surprised.

Recently Brandon Sanderson, fantasy writer extraordinaire and fellow Utahn, published the fifth book in his Stormlight Archive series: Wind and Truth. I had read the previous four, and this represented a finale of sorts.¹ Consequently, I fully intended to read this book. However, within the course of about a week, my opinion had flipped so completely that I might never again read another Sanderson book.

When I mentioned my intention to skip this latest book to my friends they were baffled. (As you might imagine Utah has a large number of very devoted Sanderson fans, and while it’s an “event book” for all fantasy fans, that’s even more true here.) I was initially unsure myself why my opinion had flipped so dramatically, but I did feel relieved by the decision. It took a bit of introspection before I eventually arrived at an explanation for the change. It’s not an earth shattering epiphany but it has given me a framework of saying “no” to more things. A valuable skill to have during the contemporary cataclysm of content.

Also I think this reason ties in well to my recent thinking on the Everest Fallacy.

The first strike against Wind and Truth was its length. I intended to listen to it as an audiobook, and even pre-ordered it months ago. That’s when I discovered it clocked in at nearly 63 hours. 63 hours!!! Yes, the previous entry was 57 hours, and even the shortest book in the series still clocks in at 45 hours, but something about it being over 60 represented an alarming state change. 63 hours is as long as Atlas Shrugged, it’s ten hours longer than the Count of Monte Cristo, It’s longer than the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy! The length did not stop me from buying the book (though it obviously played a part later) but it did annoy me and make me worry about which direction the trend was headed.

The real trouble didn’t start until I decided I needed to brush up on the story. I went looking for a “Previously on the Stormlight Archive” post or video. I found an excellent three hour video that recapped everything that had already happened. In addition to reminding me of everything that had happened, the video had two other interesting second order effects. Both of which were negative.

1. The video impressed upon me the vastness of the Cosmere— Sanderson’s expanded universe where most of his novels are set. The video illustrated both how expansive, but also how intricate the Cosmere is. (An additional 23 books and hundreds of hours of audio). I was left with the feeling that I not only needed to read all of these other books, but that I should be periodically re-reading the previous Sanderson books, in order that I didn’t miss anything. (And I know lots of people who have.)

2. Worst (Best?) of all, it filled my Youtube feed with lots of Sanderson related content. Including numerous reviews of Wind and Truth. Most of which appeared to be negative. Common themes included humor that didn’t land, stilted prose, weird character choices, and a large emphasis on therapy.

When these two items were combined with the ridiculous length of Wind and Truth suddenly reading it went from an enjoyable diversion to a significant burden. What if I spent those 63 hours of audiobook time (not literally 63 hours because I listen super fast) and hated the book, as so many of the reviewers did. And to be clear, every one of these reviewers talked about the great love they had for the first few books. A feeling I share, but somehow their love did not extend to book five.

By this point there were actually a lot of things going on, and it took a while for my thoughts to distill into a final epiphany. I think it’s worth pulling on these various threads, and since this is my blog, that’s what we’re going to do.

Though my opposition to reading Wind and Truth seemed very reasonable, still I worried that I had allowed myself to succumb to a bad attitude. I notice that I’ve gotten more critical as I’ve gotten older, such that one dumb decision by an author can spoil an entire book. Consider for example my reaction to Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead or my recent reaction to Royal Assassin by Robin Hobbs. In my defense, maybe authors shouldn’t write dumb things. Also despite my annoyance at the premise of Speaker of the Dead I nevertheless gave it a positive review. Still I was worried that I had let the “haters” poison me, and destroy what otherwise might have been a very enjoyable reading experience. Unfortunately I don’t know of any method for unhearing what I have already heard, of extracting the poison. I can resolve to avoid such criticism in the future, but I’m still not sure what effect it had. At the moment I’m inclined to think it was actually a good thing, that kept me from wasting a lot of time. But I am open to the idea that the criticism kept me from enjoying something I would have really liked.

This next point may seem like a tangent, but bear with me for a moment. In 1977, when Star Wars came out I was six years old. My dad took off work early and we went to see it at the best theater in town. It is no exaggeration to say that this was one of the most magical moments of my entire life. It’s a memory and experience I treasure. At some point (probably after watching The Last Jedi) I realized that the new Star Wars stuff was so bad that it was retroactively chipping away at the magic of that very first viewing. At that moment I decided to stop consuming any more Star Wars.² I needed to hold on to what remained of that moment when I was six. Reading the first book in the Stormlight Archive, The Way of Kings, was not as pivotal an experience as watching Star Wars in 1977, but I do have a similar worry. There is some chance that in addition to not enjoying Wind and Truth, reading it will retroactively degrade my memories and enjoyment of the earlier books. Obviously in the grand scheme of things this is not a big deal, but it would be super annoying to lose some great experiences on top of wasting 63 hours of audio time.

Perhaps I should really pin all of the blame on YouTube. Watching that first video led me to all of the critical reviews, and by the time I was done watching the reviews, all my recommendations had been colonized by science fiction and fantasy booktube. Suddenly my feed was filled with lists of the top fantasy series.³ Consequently, not only was I soured on Sanderson, suddenly I was also presented with a whole host of other authors and books to spend the 63 hours I had just freed up. (Probably 600 hours if you count everything of his I haven’t read.)

All of this brings me to the central question. One I’ve been skirting around this whole time. How does one decide what books to read? I’m unusually public about my reading, and you can look back and see some pretty schlocky stuff I decided to read. I’ve put dozens of hours into things like Expeditionary Force and Dungeon Crawler Carl. As such you may think it strange that I decided to draw the line at reading more Sanderson. (Though to be fair Dungeon Crawler Carl made a lot of best of lists for 2024 on fantasy book tube.) I’ve also recently raved about the Monster Hunter series by Larry Correia. A series I fully intend to finish. But somehow I’ve decided not to finish the Stormlight Archive?

This is where we finally arrive at my epiphany. I realized that for me there are two classes of books. Books I should read, and books I want to read.

Allow me to get more specific with my definitions. At the far end of the spectrum a book I purely want to read is like junk food. My doctor has advised me to avoid it, my wife tells me I should eat something else. I know there is healthier food out there, but dang does it taste good. At its most absolute I’m reading it strictly because it brings me a lot of enjoyment.

For example the Monster Hunter series. Do I have an obligation to read Monster Hunter? No. And to go even farther, on some hyper productive, only doing my absolute best, I shouldn’t read it. Do I want to read it? Heck yeah! For whatever reason it really scratches a certain itch. It may not scratch that same itch for other people.

Now let’s travel to the other end of the spectrum. I’m currently working my way through Gulag Archipelago by Solzhenitsyn. Do I want to read it? Maybe a little bit, but it’s more along the lines of that quote from Caleb Thomas Winchester:⁴

A classic is something that everyone wants to have read and no one wants to read.

Should I read it? Of course, and I’m embarrassingly overdue for having done so. But it’s not a diversion. Parts of it are painful. It’s closer to a duty. It’s definitely closer to broccoli than a ding-dong.

To provide an even better example consider parts of the Old Testament. As a Christian it certainly feels like I have a duty to at some point read the entire Bible, but parts of Leviticus? Sections of The Prophets?

Sure I want to have read it. On other occasions I want to be the kind of person who wants to read these sorts of books. I’d like to develop a taste for broccoli, and to a certain extent I have, but it’s not junk food and it never can be. It’s not even bacon, though you can combine bacon with broccoli, but perhaps I’m stretching the metaphor too far.

Turning back to Wind and Truth, whatever YouTube did or didn’t do, at some point that book left my “want to read” category. This forced me to ask whether it was still in the “should read” category”. Should I read it because everyone else is? Should I read it because it’s one of the seminal modern fantasy series? Should I read it because I’ve already read the first four books? (Perhaps I’m so close to the “summit” of the series that I should pay the $80 for the helicopter ride?)

Once I had reframed it in this fashion, the answer to all of these questions was clearly “no”. Perhaps someday enough people I trust will tell me to read it, or I’ll hear that it aged well. Or I’ll end up deciding to read the second half of the Stormlight Archive. And my sense that I should read it will grow, or it will end up back on the “want to read” list.

But for now, all I can think of are the more direct comparisons:

• Why would I read Wind and Truth rather than something by Steven Erickson (who appears to be on all the best fantasy lists)? There is no reason.

• Should I read Wind and Truth or the few Ursula Le Guin books I’ve never gotten to? Don’t be ridiculous!

• What about Wind and Truth or some of the few Vonnegut, Atwood or Gibson books I’m missing? Are you crazy?

• What about Wind and Truth or books two through four of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series? I’ve read book one and I’ve always meant to continue. This is my chance.

• And to really crystalize things. Instead of reading Wind and Truth I can read the entire Lord of the Rings as narrated by Andy Serkis. Now, I’ve read Lord of the Rings at least a dozen times and yet it still seems a better idea to read them again then Wind and Truth.

…63 hours… SMFH…

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I know this is only one more data point, but the timing was interesting. Just this last weekend my nephew, who also loved the first four books of Stormlight, told me that he had finished Wind and Truth and he would not recommend it.

1. The series is expected to eventually be ten books, but the first five and the second five are their own, mostly self-contained, arcs.

2. I was prevailed upon to watch Andor. But I don’t think I’ve watched anything else. Not even the first couple of seasons of the Mandalorian.

3. Some people have wondered if I couldn’t have just read Wind and Truth in the same time it took me to watch the videos. First, no. You can watch a lot of 10-20 minute reviews and countdown lists in 63 hours… Also these videos are something I can have on in the background while I work. The same cannot be said for the conclusion to an epic fantasy series that also ties into 23 other books.

4. Most people credit Twain with the quote, and he did use it, but he himself credited it to Winchester.