I find essay collections tough. The most recent one I read was Philip Pullman. Besides being a blowhard and incredibly tiresome on the subject of atheist (and *I'm* an atheist!), he also repeated themes over and over. 400 pages of his thoughts was 200 pages too much.

And even when authors don't repeat themes/are strong essayists (e.g., Mary Gaitskill), I find that reading so much of one person's thoughts can be a bit much. One or two at a time is what I can handle without starting to feel personal animosity towards their opinions. :P