Recommend Me A Series To Binge Read

[MorganM]

............

[pdurrant]

Now that's an interesting question! Oh, there's so many good series, to pick just one is hard. I'll try to go for a less-known series, then.

The Rabbi Small series by Harry Kemelman. Published from 1964 to 1996, Rabbi Small ages with the series, and is a delight all the way through. There are twelve books in all in the series, although note that while 11 are mysteries, one (Conversations with Rabbi Small) is more a discussion of Judaism, and can be missed out or left to last without harm to the fiction.

Here's the description for the first, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late.

"David Small is the new rabbi in the small Massachusetts town of Barnard’s Crossing. Although he’d rather spend his days engaged in Torah study and theological debate, the daily chores of synagogue life are all-consuming—that is, until the day a nanny’s body is found on the rain-soaked asphalt of the temple’s parking lot.

When the young woman’s purse is discovered in Rabbi Small’s car, he will have to use his scholarly skills and Talmudic wisdom—and collaborate with the Irish-Catholic police chief—to exonerate himself and find the real killer.

Blending this unorthodox sleuth’s quick intellect with thrilling action, Friday the Rabbi Slept Late is the exciting first installment of the beloved bestselling mystery series that offers a Jewish twist on the clerical mystery."

[JSWolf]

I highly recommend the Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Mason

Perry Mason is a fictional character, an American criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason features in 82 novels and 4 short stories, all of which involve a client being charged with murder, usually involving a preliminary hearing or jury trial. Typically, Mason establishes his client's innocence by finding the real murderer.

The character of Perry Mason was adapted for motion pictures and a long-running radio series.[1] These were followed by the well-known adaptation, the CBS television series Perry Mason (1957–1966) starring Raymond Burr. A second television series, The New Perry Mason starring Monte Markham, ran from 1973 to 1974; and 30 Perry Mason television films ran from 1985 to 1995, with Burr reprising the role of Mason in 26 of them prior to his death in 1993.[2] A third television series, HBO's Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys, started airing in 2020.

The Perry Mason series ranks third in the top ten best selling book series. In 2015, the American Bar Association's publishing imprint, Ankerwycke, began reissuing Gardner's Perry Mason books, which had been out of print in the United States.

[pwalker8]

Binge read - hum. One issue with many long running series or really serials, is that they were a bit repetitive. Many were serials in magazines that basically gave the reader a known quantity. I would say that Perry Mason, Ellery Queen, Tarzan, Doc Savage, Conan the Barbarian all fall into the same basic grouping. They were designed so that reading one didn't depend on reading the previous story. There was, of course, Sherlock Holmes.

[poohbear_nc]

Georges Simenon - Maigret series

Anthony Powell - A Dance to the Music of Time

Liz Williams - Inspector Chen series

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Binge read - hum. One issue with many long running series or really serials, is that they were a bit repetitive. Many were serials in magazines that basically gave the reader a known quantity. I would say that Perry Mason, Ellery Queen, Tarzan, Doc Savage, Conan the Barbarian all fall into the same basic grouping. They were designed so that reading one didn't depend on reading the previous story. There was, of course, Sherlock Holmes.

I’m going to disagree with your definition. To me, a series is composed of books with discrete plots that are complete in themselves (even if elements carry forward), and they are repetitive and hence not suitable for bingeing. A serial is composed of books where the point is the continuing story, even if some kind of conclusion is reached at the end of each book. Those are the ones you binge on, because you want to see what happens next, and not because you want to regroup and start anew.

An example above of a serial that I think fits the binge bill is Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time; I’ll add Patrick O’Brian’s Napoleonic War series, the Aubrey/Maturin books.

[crossi]

David Eddings Belgariad and Mallorean series. 10 books in all.
J.D. Robb's In Death series. Over 40 books.
Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series. 17 books. Also Penric and Desdemona series.
Heron Carvic's Miss Seeton series. Only the 5 written by Heron Carvic (not the others)
Eric Flint's Assiti Shards (1632) series. About 15 books.
Katherine Kurtz's Deryni and King Kelson series. 6 books in all.
Elizabeth Peter's Amelia Peabody series. About 20 books.
Terry Pratchett's Diskworld series. Over 30 books.
James H. Schmitz's books. Not really a series, just set in same universe with some recurring characters.
David Weber. A lot of series.

Those are all series I've liked enough to reread numerous times.

[John F]

Harry Potter

[hobnail]

Temeraire series by Naomi Novik.

Abhorsen series by Garth Nix.

[Uncle Robin]

DEFINITELY Discworld, 40 books that actually make up several related series, each of which can be binged separately. Also, CJ Cherryh's Foreigner series, and Martin Walker's Inspector Bruno series. It's a tribute to that last series that I really like most of the books in it despite their loving focus on oenology. I'm unable to ingest alcohol, but I still enjoy the Bruno stories and don't mind the detailed attention to all things wine that they include.

[Victoria]

The Liaden Universe books, by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. If you’re interested, it’s a good month to try them, as they are on sale at Baen throughout November. https://www.baen.com/novemberpromotion. Or, you could jump in with a multi-book volume from Amazon or Baen at a steal of a price.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

DEFINITELY Discworld, 40 books that actually make up several related series, each of which can be binged separately.

Not this serious misinformation yet again. You have to read Discworld in the order it was written to get the most out of it. There are no Discworld books that are standalone.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not this serious misinformation yet again. You have to read Discworld in the order it was written to get the most out of it. There are no Discworld books that are standalone.

When it comes to leisure reading, no one HAS TO do anything, least of all what you tell them they HAVE TO do. I did read all of them in publication order, and once again you are quite simply, WRONG. Purely as an example, not given as a definitive list, two books of the Discworld series that can easily be read as standalones are Pyramids (meh, but probably the most "isolated" of them all) and Small Gods (sublime). There are several suggested reading order lists online, and there is absolutely no need to read from book 1-40 (as I actually did). The Wee Free Men have no real connexion to Rincewind, reading their stories separately from the Wizards arc will not impair the reading experience at all.

[DiapDealer]

Give it a rest, Jon. People aren't obligated to read in a manner that satisfies you.

[MorganM]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not this serious misinformation yet again. You have to read Discworld in the order it was written to get the most out of it. There are no Discworld books that are standalone.

Ugh, its to early in the morning to be dealing with book gatekeepers.

As for the people who replied with some series.