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Oct
21
Tuesday Thingers: Serial Reading
2008 at 8am Posted by Rebecca Joines Schinsky
Today’s question: Series. Do you collect any series? Do you read series books? Fantasy? Mystery? Science fiction? Religious? Other genre? Do you use the series feature in LT to help you find new books or figure out what you might be missing from a series?
You know, I never really got into collecting series. Or, maybe I just never found a series that I wanted to read all the way through. When I was in middle school (more than a decade ago), my mom got hooked on Jan Karon’s Mitford series, and when I ran out of books on vacation, I read five or six of them in rapid succession just to have something to do. I also read the first couple books in the Left Behind series when it first came out because I had to know what all the hype was about, but I haven’t followed it since (it’s not my thing, for several reasons I won’t bore you with here).
I have read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy and all of The Chronicles of Narnia, both as a child and an adult, but I think that’s about it. And oh yeah, I’ve read all of the Harry Potter books and, unfortunately, the entire Twilight series. Pretty par for the course in terms of series that most avid readers are aware of and that many have read.
Rather than collecting series, I tend to find authors that I like and then collect all of their works. Richard Russo’s books kind of read like a series because the settings and characters are usually very similar (and this is a good thing), and I’ve enjoyed reading John Irving’s books and seeing how his writing has developed. I LOVE Toni Morrison and really enjoyed reading her novels in chronological order, and I have everything by David Sedaris.
I think it might be fun to find a series to follow, to have the anticipation build as I wait anxiously for the next book to come out. Given what you know of me, what would you recommend? Do you read/collect any series?
No related posts.
I have the Twilight series.
I also happen to have the Sweet valley high series.
I love Nora Roberts and her 2 sisters or 3 brothers trilogies. All are great. But my library has good stock of her books, so i don’t buy them.
I did for sure -
The Chronicles of Narnia, The Sword of Shannara series by Terry Brooks, David Eddings’ series, Anne of Green Gables, The Lord of the Rings, and the Earth’s Children series.
I was much more into series as a child, which I think is not unusual—Narnia, the Chronicles of Prydain, Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables. I think I pretty much gave them up entirely for years until college when my boyfriend got me into mysteries, so I have a couple detectives I read (Nero Wolfe, Philip Marlowe). Also, after college I started reading Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series which is kind of like a hot water bottle for my brain. Bad day? Read one in a couple hours and the world seems nice again.
Nicole, I think you’re right that it’s more common/not unusual for kids to be into series. I also loved Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables, and I was crazy for Nancy Drew and The Babysitters’ Club.
I think I read a few Sweet Valley High books, but they just didn’t do it for me.
I don’t know if it’s technically a series, but I just finished Philippa Gregory’s Tudor books and enjoyed them all. Otherwise, I can’t say that I’m much of a serial reader. I’ve read several of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books, but the same characters bore me over time. I think that might be why I found that I like series of historical fiction. It’s following a history instead of a person.
Like you, I do have several authors I love and will be quick to read: Mark Haddon, Patrick McGrath, and Stewart O’Nan come to mind. Great post!
I thought I didn’t read a lot of series, but I guess I do (mostly YA ones).
Read the Uglies series STAT!
I tend to do the same, with collecting books by certain authors. I’ve done it with Sophie Kinsella, Katie Fforde, Isabel Allende, Julia Alvarez and a few others I’m sure that I can’t remember right now.
I love series because I get into the characters and like to follow them. I am currently finishing Breaking Dawn of the Twilight Series.
Have you ever read any Nora Roberts? She is a romance writer, but there is a good trilogy that I am on pins and needles awaiting the final book. Here is a link to the first one.
http://www.amazon.com/Blood-Brothers-Sign-Seven-Trilogy/dp/0515143804/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224600144&sr=1-8
Many, MANY years ago I picked up a book in a K-Mart bargain bin, Chiefs by Stuart Woods. I took it home with the huge stack of other books I bought that day and read them all. Chiefs was my absolute favoriote book and still is to this day. A few months after I read the book, lo and behold there was a mini-series on TV with Charlton Heston playing in it. I soon found that it was Mr. Woods first book, Chiefs. I continue to read his books to this day. I have everything in book form he has written and I am running out of shelf space. Let’s just say I’m loyal. I am not of fond of his writing today but will continue to read his stuff. His first 10 or so books are fabulous and he has had another one made into a mini-series, Grassroots.
I collect works of authors I like as well – I own all of Rushdie’s works, for example, even though I’ve only read about 5 of them.
I read series, but I don’t collect them. I actually collect very few books these days. I don’t have room for them with all the new ones coming in!
Thanks for stopping by my blog! I dislike/distrust Edward in the Twilight series for more than just being a Pretty Boy.
I’m the same way–more likely to read a bunch of books by a single author if they’re not a series.
I loved the Mitford series, and plan to start the Left Behind ones – I’ve heard such great things about them.
Here’s my first Tuesday Thingers post: http://wendisbookcorner.blogspot.com/2008/10/tuesday-thingers.html
Wendi
I forgot the Narnia book. I loved those too.
I’m going to have to answer this question on another day, but I do have the Harry Potter boxed set.
And I’m pretty devoted to buying the latest (if not reading lately) in Elizabeth George’s Lynley series and Laura Joh Rowland’s Sano Ichiro series. gosh just mentioning them makes me want to chuck review reading for the rest of the year and get caught up.
I dropped Left Behind after the first three.
I read a lot of series books, but they are mainly paranormal – they are my light and fluffy guilty pleasures when I just want something easy to pass the time.
Like you, I tend to collect author’s rather than a series. I do enjoy the mystery series of Elizabeth George and Peter Robinson. Their mysteries are quite deep psychological tales, and their recurring detectives always have a story line of their own that usually fits in with the main murder mystery. Plus, they’re all set in the UK which is a plus for me (a closet Anglophile!)