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I feel like this is a problem that we all face as readers: too many series. I find it really hard to dedicate a long period of time and energy to the same story, which makes reading an entire series a bit of a problem for me. I mean, I'm a girl who gets bored if she reads the same book for longer than four or five days, so I'm pretty much incapable of reading series books one after the other. I have to take (long) breaks between books, which leads me to forget what happened in the first book, which leads to my forgetting about the book that I wanted to read altogether. It's not a good cycle.
I just checked my Goodreads, and I have 57 series that I intend to finish, but am at least one book behind on(usually more). Aside from that, my "first in series" shelf on Goodreads is 475 books deep. Yeah. It's excessive. I really do want to finish these series, but I get caught up in everything else that's out there. I'm easily distracted, okay. I
That's not to say that I don't enjoy series. I do. I like reading a story that is expansive enough to fill up multiple books and keep me longing for more at the end of every book. For instance, The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer is a great series. It is exciting and never repetitive, and each book builds on the last. It keeps my interest from page one until the very end, and that's exactly what I look for in a series. I also love that there are new elements to each book, with the addition of the new titular character (Scarlett and Cress, thus far). The same goes for George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series - it's dense and heavy and truly epic. It certainly wouldn't work if it was condensed into one long (long) book.
In all honesty, I think my main problem with series is that there are just so many books out there that I want to read! I get impatient and antsy because I just want to read everything, even though I know that it's not possible. There are so many standalones that want to be read. So many series to be read. By me. Immediately. So many books, so little time. Which reminds me of that short-lived Mary Kate and Ashley TV show from 2001. This is where a random number generator comes in mighty handy - I yield all choice in which book to read next and just let the computer decide for me!
Do you have series fatigue? Do you love series, or are you frustrated that every other book seems to be part of a series? Are you an impatient reader like me?
I'm afraid to even count how many series I have started. I usually don't read books from a series back to back either, and it doesn't help me remember what happened in the earlier books when I'm read them as they're released and I have to wait a year for the next one to come out.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty scary stuff! I really wasn't expecting my number to be quite so high. I'm glad someone else doesn't often read series back to back and then forgets the events of the last book. It's actually one of the bigger reasons why I started blogging, just to be able to look back on those reviews and jog my memory!
DeleteYes, me too! I could do all that on Goodreads, but I like projects so I started my own blog.
DeleteI feel you on this one! I know I feel overwhelmed with all the series out there. My best piece of advice that I give to myself (and others) is let your main focus be the books you LOVE and don't let the other books get you down. I love the Lunar Chronicles, the Heroes of Olympus and Unwind. I'm a big fan of those books so I anxiously await the next book.
ReplyDeleteOther first in a series, I feel okay with so I get to the next book when I can. I don't overwhelm myself by trying to read them all (if they're out) or mark the next release date down. I'll get to them when I can. They will always be around so there's no big rush. That definitely helps my "stress level".
Alison @ The Cheap Reader
There are SO MANY! It's kind of ridiculous, if you ask me. I totally agree that you have to focus on the ones you love. Most of my favourite series are actually complete, strangely enough, and I'm pretty sure I'm caught up in almost all of them.
DeleteI don't have the patience to continue with a series in which the first book got less than 3 stars from me. I rarely truly anticipate new releases in series. The only books I read immediately after their release are Richelle Mead's books. I was so excited for Cress when it was released, and then didn't end up reading it until two months later... There are just so many series that I want to finish but aren't super high priority, which sucks.
It doesn't help when you finally pick up the latest in a series, only to encounter something super disappointing (looking at you, The Forever Song).