Just here to tell you there are many, many, so many other books you can read. Don't feel you are bound to read an author simply because they are popular.

@cj1986x fuck it let's overshare with a well meaning person on yt today. And Spoiler and Content Warning. I found The Way Of Kings on a blind date with a book in early 2019 and sat it on a shelf and forgot about it. Working mom, I'd buy a book sometimes but didn't really read anymore. I didn't feel like I had time. I had never heard of Sanderson or read the Wheel of Time and didn't really watch booktube until then. Lockdown happened (UK for me) and I went through alot and was in a super dark place that year mentally (child loss, husband's affair, divorce, medical stuff, had to leave pretty much my entire life behind so 2020 for me like so many people absolutely sucked) Anyway I was loosing my shit, met a therapist went on a grippy sock vacation and then part of my homework was taking the time to do something I loved before I got married. For me, that was reading, so I picked up Stormlight with zero context and absolutely fell for it. Sanderson gets a lot of well-deserved flack, but reading about Kalidin and his mental struggles during a time when I was there on the edge myself was... important for me. Maybe if I had picked up The Way of Kings at a different time, it wouldn't have meant soo much to me, but I remember spending months in therapy talking both this book and Worsds of Radiance. I don't just read popular books and wasn't even aware of its popularity when I read it. That whole period of my life is how I found Jess actually cause I was trying to find more book recommendations online . So, with Oathbringer, I still love the world building, etc. I just don't like Dalinar, and there was so much Dalinar, and it wouldn't freaking end. In Rythm of War, I don't like the Shadesmar arch. I don't like the dreamscape, journeys to an alternate reality, or timeline trope in books it's not Sandersons fault lol I just don't enjoy that specific thing but the series is special to me and I'd like to get through the arch so I can continue. I also think part of my Sanderson love finding him online was just how much that man loves and is super respectful of his wife, and in my headspace at the time, that was a huge deal for me for all the obvious reasons. I feel like there are certain books that I have just read at the right time for me, and they've been an anchor, and The Way of Kings was one of those books for me. I just don't agree with some of the narrative choices he's made. I read other things eventually that year The Bear and The Nightingale, City of Brass, The Last Unicorn, The Spellmomger series, Get a Life Chole Brown, The Lies of Locke Lamora, Strange The Dreamer, His Majestys Dragon, Ryeria Revlations were all books I definitely remember picking up after The Way of Kings. I definitely read beyond popularity, but I do appreciate the sentiment, and I get it. For me there are a select few autors I will push through tougher parts for bc of my emotional attachment to their stories, and he happens to be one of them.

I work at a bookstore and the amount of people getting it for there families for Christmas 😭😭😭 like yall it’s TRASH

@@thejenmath I pulled through and I was so dissappointed like... what are people praising about this book, as you said, literally NOTHING happens :D Waste of time