I have never had much luck with authors recommended by authors, bar two exceptions. I think when an author recommends their favourite writer who influenced them, I can find that writer dated and, I hate it when this happens, cliché-ridden (even if that writer was at the forefront of establishing those clichés). Even when they are recommending contemporaries, those writers may be further down a stylistic or genre rabbit hole than I am willing to explore.
There are two exceptions to this, and I am grateful to George R.R. Martin and Douglas Adams for sharing their love for Maurice Druon and P.G. Wodehouse, respectively.
I am of the camp that does not mind if the Game of Thrones series is ever completed. I was happy enough to read what there is and leave it at that. Though maybe this is partly assuaged by the excellence of Maurice Druon's tales of French nobility in the 14th century. Based on the historical record, this series, even more than Game of Thrones, recreates the claustrophobia and paranoia of feudal zero-sum games. If you are not trying to increase your holdings at the expense of fellow nobility, you can be sure that they are. The consequences of failure are dire, and the monstrosity some of the nobility descend into is chilling.
On a brighter note, P.G. Wodehouse is a balm for the soul and a ray of light after reading darker material. As I have said in another thread, as much as I enjoyed Douglas Adams in my younger years, I may have read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy for the last time. So thank you for leaving me another humourist, who had a very different relationship with productivity! Of course, Wooster and Jeeves and the Blandings Castle set are fantastic, with a wordsmith at his peak, sparkling prose littered with perfect similes (similes perhaps only equalled by detective noir author Raymond Chandler). So deep have I fallen into Wodehouse that I am through the Psmith (the "P" is silent) books and into his school-days oeuvre, which, thanks to the influence of the British public school, has many similarities to my upbringing, a century and a continent away.
Still, my appetite for reading means I will not discount genuine author recommendations, just perhaps not put as much weight on them as on other sources: word of mouth (thank goodness for older sisters who read even more than you do), the odd paean on r/books that makes you think, that sounds interesting, or the books that just look like they want to be read while sitting on a library shelf.
Happy reading to all, wherever you get the inspiration!
by goshafoc