Fossils
Not every taste survives. 24 specimens went dormant — the deepest sleep is Randall Munroe (6 years quiet) . Below: extinct genres, moods, and authors, plus a few that clawed back.
Extinct genres
Tags that once marked the shelf, then stopped appearing.
- 5 y quietGenre
Crime
8 books tagged crime, last sighted 2021.
2020–2021 · 8 books
- Snapshot 2021
- Farewell, My Lovely 2021
- The Lady in the Lake 2021
- The Long Goodbye 2021
- 4 y quietGenre
Memoir
3 books tagged memoir, last sighted 2022.
2021–2022 · 3 books
- Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls 2022
- A Moveable Feast 2021
- On Writing 2021
- 4 y quietGenre
Essays
2 books tagged essays, last sighted 2022.
2021–2022 · 2 books
- 3 y quietGenre
Biography
12 books tagged biography, last sighted 2023.
2020–2023 · 12 books
- Persepolis 2023
- Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls 2022
- Everybody Behaves Badly 2022
- Julius Caesar 2022
- 3 y quietGenre
Drama
4 books tagged drama, last sighted 2023.
2021–2023 · 4 books
- A Streetcar Named Desire 2023
- Macbeth 2023
- Julius Caesar 2022
- The Old Man and the Sea 2021
- 3 y quietGenre
Literary
3 books tagged literary, last sighted 2023.
2023 · 3 books
- 1Q84 2023
- A Scanner Darkly 2023
- Babel 2023
- 2 y quietGenre
History
16 books tagged history, last sighted 2024.
2020–2024 · 16 books
- How Fiction Works 2024
- Dubliners 2024
- Dance Dance Dance 2024
- The Awakening 2023
- 2 y quietGenre
Science
8 books tagged science, last sighted 2024.
2020–2024 · 8 books
- I Am a Strange Loop 2024
- AI Superpowers 2021
- I Contain Multitudes 2020
- What If? 2020
- 2 y quietGenre
Short Stories
7 books tagged short stories, last sighted 2024.
2022–2024 · 7 books
- 2 y quietGenre
Humor
6 books tagged humor, last sighted 2024.
2020–2024 · 6 books
Buried moods
Emotional weather that blew through and never returned.
- 2 y quietMood
Inspiring
Showed up on 28 books through 2024, then went dark.
2020–2024 · 28 books
Abandoned authors
Writers you finished more than once, then left behind.
- 6 y quiet
- 6 y quietAuthor
Siddhartha Mukherjee
2 books, last in 2020 — 6 years quiet.
2020 · 2 books
- The Gene 2020
- The Laws of Medicine 2020
- 5 y quietAuthor
Brandon Sanderson
8 books, last in 2021 — 5 years quiet.
2020–2021 · 8 books
- Steelheart 2021
- Firefight 2021
- Calamity 2021
- Snapshot 2021
- 5 y quietAuthor
Raymond Chandler
8 books, last in 2021 — 5 years quiet.
2021 · 8 books
- The Big Sleep 2021
- Farewell, My Lovely 2021
- The High Window 2021
- The Lady in the Lake 2021
- 5 y quietAuthor
Agatha Christie
3 books, last in 2021 — 5 years quiet.
2020–2021 · 3 books
- 5 y quietAuthor
Fumio Sasaki
2 books, last in 2021 — 5 years quiet.
2020–2021 · 2 books
- Hello, Habits 2021
- Goodbye, Things 2020
- 4 y quietAuthor
Ernest Hemingway
3 books, last in 2022 — 4 years quiet.
2021–2022 · 3 books
- Fiesta 2022
- The Old Man and the Sea 2021
- A Moveable Feast 2021
- 4 y quietAuthor
Liu Cixin
3 books, last in 2022 — 4 years quiet.
2021–2022 · 3 books
- The Dark Forest 2022
- The Three-Body Problem 2021
- The Supernova Era 2021
- 4 y quietAuthor
David Sedaris
3 books, last in 2022 — 4 years quiet.
2021–2022 · 3 books
- 3 y quietAuthor
Philip K. Dick
2 books, last in 2023 — 3 years quiet.
2021–2023 · 2 books
- 3 y quiet
- 3 y quietAuthor
William Shakespeare
2 books, last in 2023 — 3 years quiet.
2022–2023 · 2 books
- Macbeth 2023
- Julius Caesar 2022
- 2 y quietAuthor
Cal Newport
3 books, last in 2024 — 2 years quiet.
2020–2024 · 3 books
- How to Become a Straight-A Student 2024
- Deep Work 2020
- Digital Minimalism 2020
Revivals
Genres that vanished for years, then resurfaced — Lazarus tags.
- Business 4 year gap first 2020 · returned 2025
- Self-Help 4 year gap first 2020 · returned 2024
- Science 3 year gap first 2020 · returned 2024
- Psychology 3 year gap first 2020 · returned 2024
- Adventure 3 year gap first 2020 · returned 2024
- Thriller 3 year gap first 2020 · returned 2025
A fossil is a taste with a real run that went quiet for at least two years. See the full arc on Evolution, or the midpoint cut on Metamorphosis.