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

Dealing with squeamish content

A coworker and I were discussing the impact that language and writing style can have on your enjoyment of a book.  I also find that language and writing style impact what I can tolerate reading.

I am a squeamish person with a healthy imagination, therefore I can't watch horror movies.  However, because of the language and writing style, I had no problem reading the graphic details of the experiences of a burn victim in "The Gargoyle" by Andrew Davidson.  And I mean graphic.  The details of what happens to your skin when it burns, the medical process of trying to heal a burn victim.  Yeah, so grateful that isn't me.  But it's because of the writing style, the somewhat-detached tone of voice of the main character, that allows me to read it.

The same goes for "The Resurrectionist" by James McGee.  The book is about the history of the study of anatomy.  Therefore, there's dissection and the digging up of dead bodies.  And I (the squeamish person) found it to be the most fascinating and enjoyable book of the whole Matthew Hawkwood series.

I don't like to read murder mysteries/police procedurals for this squeamish reason.  The few that I have read have not had the language and writing style necessary for me to distance myself from the graphic content.  I also intentionally avoid them to happily maintain my naiveté.

Read on,
Paula

Reading goal for 2013

Considering how many books I own (239) and how many of them I have yet to read (102), I've decided to read my own books in 2013.  My original goal was to read only books I own in 2013.  But then I actually counted how many I had and realized that it's not enough to sustain a full year's worth of reading.  As of the beginning of December of this year, I've read 203 books and the year isn't over yet.  So I will dedicate as much of 2013 as it takes to read all of the unread books I own and then I will continue on with books from my to-read list.  Looking through my bookshelves, I've already identified a few I want to read first...I just have to figure out the actual order by January 1, 2013.  In case you are interested to know, the titles I'm most eager to read are:

*People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

*Iterations - Robert J. Sawyer

*100 Cupboards - N.D. Wilson

*Musicophilia - Oliver Sacks

*Inseparable - Emma Donoghue

*Ruined By Reading - Lynne Sharon Schwartz

I've also decided that I will also read any unread ebooks that I've already downloaded.  Any ebooks I download in 2013 will be filed away into a 2013 file until I've finished reading what I already own.  Some of the ebook titles I'm eager to read are:

*Rebellion (Matthew Hawkwood #4) - James McGee

*Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebeccca Skloot

*Bachelor Girl - Betsy Israel

*most of the Rogue Angel series - Alex Archer

*Nature Principle - Richard Louv

I don't usually set myself any reading challenges but I got this idea from an episode of The Readers podcast.  I'll let you know how it works out.

Read on,

Paula

Bon voyage...sort of.

I've never done this before and I'm both excited and nervous.  That's right, I'm taking a whole week off work and have NO plans.  I tend to only take time off for statutory holidays and special events, for visiting family, etc.  But work has been stressful and I finally decided to take one whole week off work and stay home.  Although I say I have no plans, I mean no big plans.  I have vague plans like 'read' and 'tidy my apartment'.  Nothing too specific, nothing too taxing, nothing that absolutely HAS to be done.  So it's all going to be a new experience for me.  I imagine that with so much time on my hands, I'll probably bore easily and flit from one thing to another.  I recognize this in myself and accept it.  Hell, I am prepared even to flit from one book to another.  I have 10 library books and 5 books I own (not including the other books in my personal collection) that I would really like to read this week.  In case you're curious, here are some of the titles:

*"Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading" - Maureen Corrigan [own]
*"Rebellion" (Matthew Hawkwood #4) - James McGee [library]
*"Hunchback Assignments" (Hunchback Assignments #1) - Arthur Slade [library]
*"Eyre Affair" (Thursday Next #1) - Jasper Fforde [ library]
*"Lost Art of Walking" - Geoff Nicholson [own; I've been reading this one off and on]
*"Devil in the White City" - Eric Larson [library]
*"Phoenix Rising" (Books & Braun #1) - Pip Ballantine & Tee Morris [own]
*"100 Cupboards" (100 Cupboards #1) - N.D. Wilson [own]
*"The Name of This Book Is Secret" (Secret #1) - Pseudonymous Bosch [library]

In fact, all of the books I have planned to read fall into any of three categories: historical, steampunk, and/or books about books.  Even the non-fiction ones.  Weird.  I totally didn't plan that.  Thankfully, I have a collection of books that do not fall into those categories that I can fall back on should I get bored of the other ones.  I'll let you know what happens.

Read on,
Paula

Buying more books

I googled "cheap books online" and one of the results was for Better World Books.  I don't know if I will ever buy from anywhere else again.  The site promotes literacy, offers free shipping worldwide, and most of the books that I searched for from my to-read list were under $20, 95% of them were under $10.  The books that hovered around the $15-$30 range were ones published in the last two years.  And of the titles I searched for, there was only one I couldn't find.  That's a lot of books they have.  I'm thrilled!  Cheap books, free shipping, AND for every book you buy they donate one to charity.  Seriously!  I'm over the moon about this site.  I'm telling all my book-loving friends.

I bought myself a new hard drive this week and am staying up until the wee hours getting caught up on blogs, videos, music, and all sorts of things I couldn't do with my cantankerously-slow outdated hard drive.  Thankfully, I'm now snowed in for the long weekend.

There is so much I want to get done online.  But I just got "Rapscallion" by James McGee from the library yesterday and it is calling my name.

Read on,
Paula

Currently reading

There's a reason why I don't usually add titles to my "currently reading" list.  Because I usually have many on the go at the same time.  I read based on what I feel like reading at the moment.  If a non-fiction book I'm reading doesn't feel appropriate for me to read at work, I'll read something else.  If a book I'm reading is slow-going, I'll pick up something else temporarily.  I started reading "Infernal Devices" by K.W. Jeter because I'm exploring the steampunk genre for the first time.  I had read the first four books in Gail Carriger's 'Parasol Protectorate' series and loved them.  They've been tagged by others as steampunk.  The Jeter book is claimed to be the first book to give the steampunk genre its name.  But I had picked it up simply because "Resurrectionist" by James McGee had not arrived for me at the library.  It arrived yesterday.  So it has taken preference over the Jeter book.  I also have three non-fiction books on the go.  One has stalled due to too many more interesting books and one is on my BlackBerry for whenever I have to wait for something (in line, for taxis, etc.).  So I currently have about six titles on the go.  And I have about 495 other titles on my to-read list.  And my work schedule has changed so that I now work only one Saturday per month instead of two.  This extra day will undoubtedly be used for non-stop reading.  I love those days when I can do nothing but read.  They are rare and that's why I love them all the more.

Read on,
Paula