Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Series Slacking

In a prime example of slack-itude, I actually wrote a draft of this post about a year ago—but never finished it. Lame. Then the other day, Ally and I were talking about series we need to finish, and I remembered that I'd started this post. Um, better late than never?

When I first joined Goodreads and discovered those magical things called recommendations, I wanted to read. All. The. Books. My library was only happy to indulge me in this endeavor, offering an endless supply of reading riches from which to choose. And I took advantage of this bounty, checking out a host of series openers.

In my efforts to catch up on all the awesome titles I'd missed during the long stretch when reading was pretty much absent from my life, I started a bunch of new series, only occasionally following through with the sequels, even if they were already available. With less reading time at hand nowadays, I've been trying to focus on getting caught up on some of the series I've started. I have about 25 in progress that I'd like to continue and want to work on. I don't have a set deadline, but I am going to take my best shot at not series hopping as much as I used to do.

I totally get why some readers prefer to wait for all of the books in a series to be released so they can binge read the whole thing. I don't know what I would have done if all of the Parasol Protectorate books hadn't been available because that was a series I absolutely needed to read straight through—so good! That being said, there are still some series that I have to read as soon as a new book is released, like The Raven Cycle.

I'm curious to hear how other readers approach series reading. Do you like waiting until you can read a series in its entirety, or are you okay with starting and returning to it later? Are there any particular series that you've been meaning to continue but haven't gotten around to picking up again?

6 comments:

  1. I much prefer reading a series in its entirety as close together as possible. That rarely happens though, just based on book availability and me choosing other books instead. I also just can't seem to stop starting new series! It's like I must sample them all and then see which ones are worthy of a second glance! I just added a bunch of sequels to my reading plan for the coming months, so hopefully I stick with that.

    Angie @ Pinkindle

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    1. That's my plan, too- to read more sequels in the near future. I'm the type of person who likes to see a task through from start to finish, but I've been utterly failing at sticking with one series at a time, lol.

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  2. I am terrible about this..read the first book like it, want to read the sequel..never get to it..get lured by the shiny new book! LOL

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    1. Same here, lol! That's why I'm determined to do some serious catching up this year with series that I have in progress.

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  3. I'm horrible at finishing series as well. I start a series and even if I loved the first one I rarely finish the whole thing. It's horrible. At the beginning of the year I counted how many open series I had and I got to 26 and that was without seriously researching all of the series. Not to mention how many sequels I need to read in each of those 26 open series. This year I want to finish a good chunk of them.

    I don't really like marathoning series. I've tried it before and I guess I just need a break from the series after reading a few books back to back because if I don't I will end up in a reading slump. It is weird, I know. Also, I don't like waiting for all of the books in a series to release, not just because I have to read some sequels. I like waiting anxiously for a new book to release because for me it adds something to the whole reading experience. You wait months for a book to release and for whatever reason that makes the series more dear to me because I guess I like following a series for years. I don't know if I'm making sense, I hope I am, but that's the best I can explain it.

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    1. You made perfect sense! :) There are some series, like Throne of Glass and The Raven Cycle, where I HAVE to have each new book when it's released. It would be impossible for me to wait until all of the books were available because I would go crazy from not being up to date on those two series.

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