BTT: Series

Series (from Booking Through Thursday)

1. Do you read books that are part of a series?
2. Do you collect all the books in the series before starting?
3. What if the series is brand new, and the only book that's been published so far is Book 1?
4. As subsequent books in the series are published, do you go back and re-read the preceding books?

The answer to the first question is a definitive 'yes'.  I particularly love reading series because you get a more in-depth view of the characters and their world.  I have repeatedly mentioned my love and adoration for Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series.  I am waiting with bated breath for the latest one to be announced; her website says it should be published this coming October.  I am also eagerly awaiting the third in Deborah Harkness' All  Souls Trilogy.  I just read the last book in Nicole Peeler's Jane True series.  I have read all three series by Robert J. Sawyer (Quintaglio Ascension; Neanderthal Parallax; and WWW).  I loved J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series.

I am generally a picky reader so I will get only one or two books in the series to read before I judge whether I like it or not.  I've read five of the nineteen books in Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series.  They are cozy reads and I intend to read the rest eventually but I find the series formulaic and not nearly as good as her Corinna Chapman series.  I liked the first in the Rogue Angel series by Alex Archer [pseudonym] and intend to read more.

I have no qualms about reading a brand new series, even if only the first book has been published.  That's how I fell in love with Deborah Harkness' All Souls Trilogy.  The waiting/anticipation for the next books is good because it amps up your excitement but this can also have the disadvantage of amping it so high that the book doesn't meet your expectations.

I generally do not reread the preceding books in a series unless it has been so long that I vaguely remember what happened in the last one.  I reread Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman series at least once a year, if not more.  I might reread "Cooking The Books" before the next one comes out.

The fourth in Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series, "Inferno" just came out in May.  I haven't read it yet but it's on my TBR.  Although the Robert Langdon books are a series, I have found that they are also standalones; you can read them out of order.

I've also read books in series by:
*Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy)
*V.C. Andrews (Landry, Casteel and Cutler series)
*Nick Bantock (Griffin & Sabine)
*Jack Canfield (Chicken soup for the soul)
*Laura Childs (Scrapbooking mysteries)
*John Dunning (Cliff Janeway)
*Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones...and I just discovered #3 comes out in October!!!)
*Molly Harper (Jane Jameson)
*Lucy and Stephen Hawking (George)
*Sable Hunter (Hell Yeah!)
*E.L. James (Fifty Shades)
*Susan Kaye (Frederick Wentworth, Captain)
*Sophie Kinsella (Shopaholic)
*Lissa Matthews (Simple Need)
*James McGee (Matthew Hawkwood)
*Stephenie Meyer (Twilight)
*Beth Pattillo (Jane Austen)
*Lincoln Peirce (Big Nate)
*Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson and the Olympians)
*Nora Roberts (Key Trilogy)
*Alexander McCall Smith (44 Scotland Street)
*Jeff Smith (Bone graphic novels)
*Kevin Sylvester (Neil Flambé)
*J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of the Rings)
*Angela Verdenius (Big Girls Lovin' Trilogy and its spin-offs)
*Mélanie Watt (Scaredy Squirrel...and I just discovered the next one comes out in August!!!)
*Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Cemetery of Forgotten Books)
*Sevens series by seven different authors

Read on,
Paula