Musing Mondays (Aug.24)

This week Rebecca asks:

Do you prefer to read stand-alone books, or books in series? Do you stick with a series the whole way through or stop after the first installment? Are there any particular series you enjoy?(question courtesy of Elena)

I don’t really have a preference either way, I don’t think. If there’s a book whose cover & blurb both appeal to me, I’ll try it, regardless of whether/not it’s part of a series. Mind you, if it’s book #3 of a series, I’ll of course go and look for book one, first, as I’m kind of particular about that — I need to read the series in order, most of the time. I’ve read series’ out of order before, and it bothered me that I’d missed things — I don’t like the references to things I have no knowledge about (from previous books).

This is the reason why I created a whole website/blog dedicated to keeping track of the order of the series books I hope to read (or have already started reading through). It’s called All In Order, and it’s my work-in-progress.

Of course, if I read book one of a series and really enjoy it, I’m also going to go and find more, and keep reading through. Gaelen Foley — one of my favorite authors — has her Knight miscellany, of which I started with book 2 (“Lord of Fire“) when I found it in a local store the one day. Then I went back and read book one, and from there, I’ve read all of the books she’s written to date, save for the latest 2. And her books are in series-form, so this is one instance where I’ll definitely read the series books, and even seek them out.

 Then there is Christian Jacq’s “Ramses” series, of which I started with book one, and then right through to the end (book 5).

There are many series’ that I’ve started but not finished. I’ve read book one of both Tess Gerritsen’s “Jane Rizzoli” series, and of Kathy Reichs’ “Dead” series. Both were really good, and I have the other books of each series. But, I haven’t gotten around to reading any more, yet. Same with the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling — I’ve only read book one, so far.

I’m currently reading a series — Christopher Pike’s books, starting with “The Last Vampire“, are bundled into volumes 1 and 2, called “Thirst“. I’m on book 2, and am really enjoying these!

And, of course, I read all of the “Twilight” series by Stephenie Meyer.

So, yeah… I’ll occasionally read books that are part of a series. But I don’t necessarily prefer them over non-series books; nor do I prefer non-series books over series ones. And, I don’t always finish the series’ I start. It depends on how good the first book was.

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To read more answers to this week’s question,
please visit Rebecca’s blog!

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