I completely agree that when considering what to read, you should consider authors more than topics.
I mean, topics come and go, but a voice that resonates should not be missed.
Honestly, I have found this true at conferences too. You will do best to skip what is being talked about and focus on who is giving a particular speech.
The truth of it is that a person you find interesting will be interesting on an array of issues.
Understand: It is not an accident that I have read all of Donald Miller’s books.
What my memory seems unable to track back to is the point at which I began to consider authors when making a choice of what to read. I passed the question of authorship without really noticing it. I didn’t know much but I did know that literature, like life, was inconsistent. Authors of many good books will sometimes lose the gift and write just as many bad books, and usually any number of middling books. Some might say that I’ve done that myself, although I have my defenders.
-Larry McMurtry, Literary Life