Building up to Something New

When faced with a memorable artistic release like the publication of a new book or album by a favorite band, people tend to approach the event in one of two ways:

1. They go into media blackout and forgo reading anything about the author or musician because they want to approach the new work with a clear fresh mind
2. They obsess about leaked details and teasers about the work and endlessly ponder what it might be about

I actually combine the two tendencies: I don’t want to read about any details about the new book or album, but I do start obsessing about the artist’s previous releases. For example, when a new church album comes out, I listen to the band’s previous albums so that I the context for the new release is fresh in my mind. And when one of my favorite authors writes a new book, I read up on their back catalog so that I’m familiar with their themes and tricks and am ready to think about how the new book fits into their oeuvre as a whole.

This approach has its advantages and its disadvantages. It’s actually ruined a few authors for me, as when I started obsessing about J. M. Coetzee (after reading fantastic The Master of St. Petersburg and Disgrace back to back) only to realize that he tends to continually write about the same thing (and also displays the tendency of the aging male syndrome that Joel describes here). But for the best authors, it reveals more about their books than I would have remembered otherwise. Such is the case of my buildup to Murakami’s 1Q84, I’ve re-read both The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and After Dark and have loved my re-experience of them both.

What about you? How do you approach new books? Do you think I’m obsessively crazy in my approach?

Related posts:
Murakami's Boundaries

Do You Know What I'm Saying? (Review of The Wind-up Bird Chronicle)
IQ84
What Makes Murakami Addicting?