Been reading quite a bit this year which is great, but I struggling with series. I’ve recently forced myself to read more series, and I just finished my 2nd trilogy in a row. I enjoyed the books, enjoyed them being series, but I still feel a little tired thinking about starting a new one. Now it just ends with me looking at the books I already have on my Kindle and thinking, “is this just part1 out of X?”
Do any of you struggle with the same thing? I don’t feel like only ever reading standalones, but I don’t like having to force myself to start books that I want to read when I know that they are Part1/3-5.
Any thoughts on this?
by LittleMizz
12 Comments
Sometimes I need to be in the right frame of mind to dive into a new story let alone a new series. But I’ll get around to that frame of mind eventually, until then back to these old familiar worlds…
Yes! Sometimes you just want something to be a complete story in one book. I just started a series I’m enjoying so far but it’s a “book candy” sort of story if that makes sense and I can’t fathom how it’s a saga (so far! I think she’s putting out more)
I get excited when a book is part of a series because if I love the first one, there is so much more to look forward to! There is also no obligation to keep going after the first one, no one will call the police if you drop it and move on. I have definitely done this more than once, no shame, not all books are for everyone. For longer series that I do like, I often read 2-3 books at a time interspersed with other totally different books to keep it fresh.
I tend to steer clear as I find them a bit hard going especially if there’s a lot in the series and I think I’ll never read them all
I guess I’m just reading the wrong genres because I hardly ever encounter anything that is the start of a series.
That’s entirely natural I read a lot of science fiction and it seems like nowadays everything is 500+ pages and part of an epic series. Your mind does the math and asks “do I *really* want to read a few thousand pages of this?” I’m on book 3 of 3 (~2000 pages, give or take) with Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trilogy and, much as I love it, I’ll be glad to inhabit another world for a while when I’m done.
If you’re lucky, you latch on to a series as it’s being written, so you can catch a breather between books. It’s far more daunting to stare down a completed series all at once.
I prefer older novels, back when 200-250 pages was the norm.
I tried reading Mistborn on someone’s recommendation and just couldn’t do two more books of it, so maybe you just aren’t into the series as much as you’d like to be?
Yes, I get intimidated by the commitment of it. My favorite writer is Ruth Rendell and I’ve mostly read her stand-alone novels rather than her Inspector Wexford books. (Those aren’t exactly a series but they do have repeating characters.) And I’ve also been avoiding Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.
But recently I finished My Brilliant Friend by Ferrante and I’m eager to read the next three in that series.
I treat first books in series like a test drive to see if I like the writing, the characters, and the world enough to fully commit to the rest of the series. I usually don’t feel like it’s a loss if I decide not to continue, I just treat it as a learning as to what I like and don’t like to read.
The idea of needing to continue any series I start reading would be exhausting. Maybe try the first books in a series more as a trial run?
Sure. Sometimes I don’t want to commit to 3 or more books. This goes for reading but also for buying new books. Sometimes I just want a story that is done in 300, 400 pages.
Typically, I try to break up series with a standalone after I finish the series so I can have a break before committing a new longer story. It keeps things fresh.
Sometimes, I try not to force myself through them. I’ll put it down, start something else then eventually come back to the series when I’m ready.