If I'm understanding your point correctly, I kind of agree. If someone *had to* read something for a class, it kind of doesn't count. However, maybe they chose the major or class in part because it interested them and they wanted to read the books on the syllabus and examine them in detail.

The real test is, say person says they LOVED book 1 from Author A. Then tell him/her that book 2 from Author A is also fantastic, and offer to lend it to him/her. If person expresses no desire to read book 2 then you have your answer. This has happened many a time. It's sad.

When someone has read 1 book each from all their favorite authors, it's kind of sad. Like reading Midnight's Children or Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie but not both and not any of his other books. Beloved by Toni Morrison and nothing else that she has written.

Now I could understand only reading 1 novel, and then if you think it was just ok, you don't read any other books by the same author. But if you LOVE IT, how can you not be interested in checking out other books by the same author? The exception to this rule would be authors who just had the one hit wonder type of book. For example, I thought Catch-22 was great but I just wasn't compelled to check out his other books.

Actually now that I think about it, if there's any author that deserves the "one hit wonder" label, it's Card with Ender's Game. AND YET, his books still sell. People love ender's game that much, they can't help but want to check out his other books. (The one caveat is that the relatively unknown Hart's Hope by Card is also great. It actually seems like it was written by Tanith Lee, not Card)