I’ve also been reading in piecemeal fashion The Outlandish Companion, by Diana Gabaldon. As the title suggests, this is a companion to her Outlander series, published (oddly) before the series was over. I didn’t buy it when it first came out, but most fortuitously found it used a few days ago. It has some interesting things, like why characters are mushrooms, onions, or hard nuts, a character list, and frequently asked questions, and some less-interesting things (astrology characters for the two main characters?). There are also synopses of the then-existing books, though I didn’t read those because, well, I just did. It would probably be interesting to see what the author thought the main points were, though.
Anyway, I didn’t read every word of this, but it did well for dipping into. It also contains something called the “Methadone List,” books that might scratch some of the same itches raised by the series. I’m a little dubious about some of the titles in it, but that’s fine because I used the book itself as my methadone—and, joy of joys, I have The Fiery Cross, book five, sitting in front of me right now. So, I’ve got my fix, and don’t expect to hear from me for however long it takes me to read all 979 pages of it . . .