[yomismoaqui]

I think that literate people can recover from a period of not reading (books) at all.

I recently had more than a year of not reading any books that was interrupted when I found about The Culture series. I read Use of Weapons and had to read all novels from that universe. After that I tried to find some books similar to them, tried to read some recommended ones (didn't finish any of them) and stopped reading.

In my case reading books is a kind of fever that I get every year or so.

[AlotOfReading]

Unfortunately there really aren't any other books like the culture series. You might enjoy Banks' "The Algebraist" and the completely unrelated though similarly named "The Alchemist".

[yomismoaqui]

As I like how Banks writes and they are not directly related to The Culture they won't have to meet the expectations of the others I tried.

Thanks, will read them.

[AlotOfReading]

Only the first is written by Banks, to clear up any ambiguity. They're very different books, just similarly named.

[ozyschmozy]

After getting a hankering for more Culture books, I recently started going through his other fiction and they're all really fun and scratch a similar itch. I read Feersum Endjinn and The Algebraist, and I'm most of the way through Against a Dark Background now, and they're all great (and quite different from The Culture and each other)

[phil21]

Yeah, reading for me is hot and cold streaks. I’ll read for 3-9mo straight, then go about the same not reading at all. Tends to coincide with life stress and work schedule for the most part, but also just picking up other interests that soak up time!