Continuing a Series

I found myself reading more and more stand-alone books. Growing up, I read a lot of series but as I started college and my career, this has drastically tapered off. I’m guessing it’s a combination of books I’m interested in being stand alone but I think it’s more that I’m terrible at finishing series.

I noticed this last week on WWW Wednesday when a commenter mentioned finishing Elena Ferrante’s The Neopolitans series. Even though I’d read the first book and enjoyed it, I didn’t feel any desire to pick up the second book. I noticed that I’ve done this with several books. Nancy E. Turner’s Sarah Angus Pine series, Brad Meltzer’s Culper Ring series, and Louise Penny’s Armand Gamache series are just a few examples since I started this blog. I’ve read the first book of all three of these series and enjoyed it, but I have no idea when, if ever, I’ll finish the series.

I think part of this is due to how I structure what I’ll read next. I’m faithful to my TBR to a fault. I always try to read what I’ve been waiting for the longest time to start. That means that if I read a book and enjoy it enough to want to read the second in the series, I’ll add the second but it goes to the bottom of my list so it will be a while before I get to it. This really spaces out my time between books and makes it easy to be less excited about the second book in a series. There are times I’ve forgone my strict TBR like when I binge-read Veronica Roth’s Divergent series, but this isn’t the norm.

I think the other reason is that I reason with myself that even though I liked the book and I’d probably enjoy the sequel, I’d probably like to read another book more, so I might as well forgo the series and start on something completely different. This happens to me more than you’d think. I won’t even put the book on the bottom of my TBR and I’ll continue as if there’s not more to know about the awesome story I already started and really liked. I’ve found myself thinking of the book months later and only then adding the next in the series to my TBR. I found myself doing that with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire and with Ruth Downie’s Medicus series earlier this year. I’m now in the middle of both series and do plan on reading more of them… eventually.

How about you, reader? Do you have an easy time finishing a series or do you struggle as much as I do? If you struggle, what makes you put it off?

Until next time, write on!

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