What I really want to talk about today is The Really Annoying Problem of Reading Unfinished Series (aka TRAPRUS which I say as 'trapped are us'). Waiting on the next installment of a series is not a fun roller coaster ascent or intensity inducing foreplay; it's annoying, frustrating, and honestly it makes me a bit pissy. I can still remember finishing the most amazing Knife of Never Letting Go while I was on vacation in Ft. Myer's Beach. I spent the next few hours trying to find a bookstore so I could immediately start the second in the series, The Ask and the Answer. Then I think I actually cried a bit when I found out I had to wait a few months for the final book, Monsters of Men.
Despite knowing this about myself, I keep putting myself through the pain of waiting. Part of the pain is knowing that when the next book makes its way to my eager hands, I will first have to re-read the previous installments. I did this with all seven books of Harry Potter. Yep, I'm that person.
Lately I've been getting better at this, re-reading my reviews instead of the entire book(s), but that bothers me. I love the concept of series, the continuation of plot, the depth of characters, the realness of the world, oh the joy. But I want to read them like they are this big long movie I am watching. I want to totally immerse myself in hours and hours, days and days, of the world - without the giant month to year gap between stories and without reading anything else in between to replace the details of one story with another in my mind.
I'm curious to know how you guys deal with series. Do you wait until all the books are out? Do you re-read the entire series for each installment? Does it not bother you at all?
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Reviews this past week: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Reviews coming this week: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke and No Safety in Numbers by Dayna Lorentz
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And finally, what's up with you this week? In other words, Wassup My Ninja?
I'm okay with series that have a close at the end of each book, like Harry Potter. There's an overarching story and characters that make me want to keep reading, rather that extreme cliffhangers. I have a tendency to discard series that end on cliffhangers. If it takes a cliffhanger to make me want to read the next book, the series probably isn't worth bothering with, imo. (I felt that way about the Knife of Never Letting Go, actually - I read it sevearl months before the second book came out, was frustrated by having to wait because it was such an extreme cliffhanger, but by the time the second book came out, I was no longer interested, and realized I didn't actually LIKE the first book. I only wanted to read on because of the way it ended.) So now, if a series book ends to abruptly, I refuse to read the next book for at least several months, because I want to make sure I actually do want to read it. So I dont' mind reading the books as they come out. I kinda like the anticipation of waiting for the next book! I wish I'd done more of that with Harry Potter, though I didn't start reading the series until after Half Blood Prince came out.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd. For me, it doesn't matter if the book ends on a cliffhanger or not; I still hate waiting for the next.
DeleteI don't think I've gotten caught up in a series like that since Harry Potter so It's not an issue for me these days.
ReplyDeleteHarry Potter still ranks as my number 1 YA series. I keep hoping for another that captures me so intensely.
DeleteI am like you - I prefer to read them after the entire series is out, but still get tempted by new titles and end up reading them one at a time. I just finished reading The Testing aloud to my boys, and was very pleased to find out that book two is already out. But once we read that, how long will we have to wait for book three?
ReplyDeleteI also often end up rereading - like right now I am listening to A Breath of Snow and Ashes and will finish out the series on audio before Diana Gabaldon's newest comes out this summer. I've reread the whole series so many times, though, that I thought the last few books was probably good enough. Which is a good thing, because they are all crazy-long!
By the time the last HP came out, I felt like I had the series memorized. :)
DeleteOh man, unfinished series. There's a fantasy trilogy I read in high school that STILL doesn't have a third book out. It seems like maybe the author has just given up, which is totally frustrating! The second book ended in a huge cliffhanger, which drove me nuts for a long time.
ReplyDeleteThat would kill me Kim. Like an unfinished part of my life!
DeleteI do tend to do the re-read of previous books thing if the stories are really connected or if there are a lot of nuances or characters. I've also been reading a couple of books behind on some series so that I don't catch up to the end until, hopefully, the next book is out. Trilogies are easier and better to wait on because there's only three and they're likely to be one long story with cliffhangers. I have a ridiculous number of series going though too which kind of helps because when I get frustrated waiting for one, I switch to another. It's not the best solution though. :)
ReplyDeleteTrilogies are definitely easier to handle than the longer series. And I too have way too many series going at once.
DeleteEverything I do with series is slap-dash. Sometimes I luck out, and happen upon a series like Chaos Walking when it is completely done. Then I have me a marathon. Some of them I start, but lose interest and don't finish (Divergent). And some I just sit and wait for the next one to come out, like a good girl. I do hate the waiting, but except for HP I almost never re-read. I just don't have enough time nor do I read fast enough.
ReplyDeleteI'm always so freaking thrilled when I find out that the series I just started is already completely published.
DeleteI haven't got a policy on reading unfinished series, but I do tend to steer away from a book if I know it's part of a series that hasn't wrapped up yet. There's a part of me that morbidly imagines how upset I'd be if I got super into the series and then the author DIED and I'd never ever know how the story ends. I used to think about that a lot when the Harry Potter books were coming out.
ReplyDeleteI'm terrible. I very rarely even know if the series is finished before I start reading. I'm too spontaneous with reading. And the dead author thing totally freaks me out too.
DeleteI'm so terrible at reading series books that by the time I'm ready to read the next volume they will all probably be published. Except Harry Potter--that one I did read immediately after the next issue was released. I mean, how could I not?! But as a general rule of thumb I like to avoid series books all together. I know, so weird.
ReplyDeleteI love series so they are my first stop when I'm picking a new book. It's a conundrum.
DeleteI don't wait until a complete series is out to start reading it. For some reason, it doesn't bother me if I spend years dipping in and out of a series. I do reread the last read book in the series before I continue.
ReplyDeleteI wish I had a bit of your attitude towards series. :)
DeleteI agree that TRAPRUS is extremely annoying but I've solved that problem by (mostly) avoiding series books entirely. On some, I've managed to keep it in check - for example, I have been reading Hunger Games as the movies come out. Have read Catching Fire but not yet seen the movie. I may never get to Mockingjay with how long this is taking me. I read Divergent but it didnt' do enough for me to read on. I read Pullman's first book, too and don't even know what the second one is in that Glass something or other series. I read Harry Potter after all books were released. The one sad mistake: I threw The Knife of Never Letting Go across the room then stomped on it and was tempted to set it on fire I was so mad. So mad that I won't even read on in that series. Oh that one made me angry. Maybe it just depends on that first book? Best to you on your strategies to deal.
ReplyDeleteI wish, sometimes, I could avoid series. But I love them; hell, I lurve them.
DeleteIn theory I agree that it would be best to wait until all the books come out, but the reality is that I am too impatients and get so excited to see the new book that I tend to read them straight away and then have to wait!
ReplyDeleteExactly!
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