Quote:
Originally Posted by Timboli
I can't see the point of even starting a series, if you are not prepared to invest in it. Once I am invested, then I stay that way, unless they do something real bad. I enjoy my reading on many levels, certainly once I have invested. Sequels for me, don't have to be as great as the original, just so long as they do a good job of continuing the story and characters and giving me more of what I enjoy. Being as good or even better, is kind of a bonus.
I quite accept though, it is a personal thing.
Perhaps a summary for my approach, is I enjoy on either an emotional level or an intellectual one or both. So long as one of those at least, is well enough engaged, I am happy enough to continue.
Books and stories, are like people to me ... none of whom are perfect.
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Apparently I'm more difficult to please than you. Almost certainly I'm more easily bored. I admit that I have not enjoyed an awful lot of books that I've read. And no, it's not something I can predict with reasonable accuracy before reading. More often than not the book just doesn't engage me enough on any level to stay interested in it. The same with many series (not all, though).
Generally I try to finish every book I read, unless it's egregiously bad or boring (imho, of course). I'm quite willing to drop a series, though, if I can't stay interested. And there are many reasons why I can't. Sometimes the first few books have been better edited, have tighter plots, more interesting worldbuilding or character-building. Then in later books the quality drops, too many sidetracking or elaborating on insignificant minor details, the intensity and emotion which were present in the first books are lost. Characters become boring or unrecognizable from the persons they were at the beginning. And yes, I'll start to yawn.
For example there was one series that started out emotionally and psychologically intense, the emphasis was on the characters and their interactions. I enjoyed it immensely. Don't know what happened to the author, but after the third book the series transformed suddenly into a pretty boring military action-flick, like hundreds of others of the same ilk. All the originality and intensity that drew me to the series was just gone. Needless to say, I was terribly disappointed. I still bought the later books and someday I might even attempt to read them. But I don't expect much.
Well, naturally everyone's hopes and expectations are different, and that's all to the good, because otherwise we would all read the same handful of authors.