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View Poll Results: How to read series? | |||
Read the entire series from start to finish. | 60 | 38.71% | |
Read until fed up, read another book, and return. | 52 | 33.55% | |
Read one book from series, then another, and return. | 33 | 21.29% | |
Read two or more series at once. | 10 | 6.45% | |
Voters: 155. You may not vote on this poll |
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02-04-2013, 05:15 PM | #1 |
Grand Sorcerer
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How do *you* read series?
Don't say: "From beginning to end", because it's not funny
What I mean is this. I've just started to read the Shannara series by Terry brooks. It is very... looooooong, and many books are 400+ pages. While they do tie together, each book is a story onto itself. If you never read a Shannara book, you could just pick one if you wanted, and read it (at least, most of them). In the past, I've tried to re-read other long series, but tired of it during the third or fourth book, so now I'm thinking to do it differently. There are quite some books that I did not read yet, but that have been on my To-Read list (and often, in my possession, as paper, eBook, or both) for ages. These are the options I'm considering: 1. Against all odds, try to re-read the entire series from start to finish. 2. Read the series until I tire of it. Then finish the current book, and pick a different one after that. Return to the series after one or two other books. 3. Read one book from a series, then read a different book that is not in a series. After that, return to the series. 4. Read two or three (or more) different series at once. First read a book from the first series, then one from the second, then from the third, and return to the first series again. As I am a fantasy reader, I have many triolgies, quadrilogies, and series that often span 10 books or more, and I wish to re-read much of them. Also, I am thinking to (finally, after 15 years) branch out into other genres. I do occasionally read books in different genres, but not very much up to this point. I'm thinking about these: Detectives (Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes) Mystery (Dan Brown's stuff) Asian-oriented stuff (in the vein of Shogun, and Musashi, both of which I have read already) Read more classics So, how would you handle (re-)reading series, and at the same time, branching out to different genres? Last edited by Katsunami; 02-04-2013 at 05:19 PM. |
02-04-2013, 05:18 PM | #2 |
affordable chipmunk
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I read them with a groan
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02-04-2013, 05:27 PM | #3 |
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Read the entire series from start to finish. ... In a perfect world where the entire series is published.
At the moment, I read primarily dystopian fiction, which usually comes in trilogies (why, oh why!), and urban fantasy, which comes in series, and which I get as audiobooks usually. I *try* to stay away from trilogies until the last book is out (not very successful at it), and then read the entire tirilogy in one go. With urban fantasy series, they are ongoing, and are all still being written, so I try to listen to as many in a row as I can get. I am like a crack addict on withdrawal at the moment, because I have gotten to the last published book in all my series, and have some trilogy installments still waiting to be published. No idea how to cope!! Last edited by xendula; 02-04-2013 at 05:29 PM. |
02-04-2013, 05:32 PM | #4 |
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I rarely read entire series. More often than not I find myself losing interest after a few books. A lot of the series I do read are not yet finished, so I tend to read the new books as they come out and switch between series as books come out.
I've been reading Honor Harrington that way for close to 20 years, and Kris Longknife for about 10 (I think). I'm largely caught up on Jim Butcher and Seanan McGuire, too. Big fantasy doorstops like Robert Jordan tend to leave me cold these days. I used to read them in sequence, but that series just died for me. (Books felt like they were too long and nothing seemed to be happening so I stopped reading the series). |
02-04-2013, 05:34 PM | #5 | |
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02-04-2013, 05:44 PM | #6 | |
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http://www.terrybrooks.net/novels/reading-orders/ And just to let you know, I do read each book starting at the front and ending at the back. |
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02-04-2013, 05:50 PM | #7 |
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When I decide to read a series I read all the books in the series that are available at that time. Non-stop. (Re-reads, too.)
Now, "decide to read it" will depend on a lot of factors: whether the series is open-ended, whether individual volumes are more or less self-contained, whether the author is actively working on the series and new volumes come out on a regular basis. Some series (Wheel of Time, Song of Ice and Fire) I'll wait until the project is finished and the verdict is in that the mega-novel works. (I call it my "TWIN PEAKS" rule.) Finished narratives I'll do in one sitting. LORD OF THE RINGS, for example, I read back-to-back-to-back. Twice in the same week. (I was 17 and impressionable, okay?) Ditto for Tarzan and the bulk of the ERN canon. (Same time period.) Once I read PRINCESS OF MARS I scavenged every volume in print and ran through the full catalog. Took six months. Availability factored in, of course; so I read other stuff while waiting for the mail to bring in the next load. (Plus the six years that it took me to locate a set of the APACHE DEVIL/WAR CHIEF set.) But TARZAN I read all 25 volumes in a row. A very fun month. Let's say I'm "somewhat" persistent... okay, stubborn. Last edited by fjtorres; 02-04-2013 at 05:53 PM. |
02-04-2013, 05:53 PM | #8 | |
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But anyway... I prefer a series of one these days, but I'll occasionally read a duology/trilogy. But a massive series with many, many installments and even sub-series within it?? Just ain't happenin' for this reader anymore. |
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02-04-2013, 06:03 PM | #9 | |||||
Grand Sorcerer
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Njaaarghh, I'll never reach the end of it that way. Quote:
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A friend of mine (whom I just met at school) gave me Baldur's Gate to play a short while after it was released at the end of 1998. "You should try this." Wow. Medieval stuff. Me like. "That's fantasy, AD&D. Here, now read this book." Lord of the Rings. Hm. Let's see. Fat one, that. *read, read* Oh... my... gawd Now, 15 years later, I'm still playing Baldur's Gate (and it's sequels, and many other Fantasy/RPG games), and still reading Fantasy novels in English, and I still re-read Lord of the Rings and other Tolkien works at least once a year. I basically dropped everything else beside Fantasy, including Dutch books from Dutch writers. Baldur's Gate and Lord of the Rings never tire me, however often I play it or read it. After I finish, I feel like some sort of Teletubby: "Again, Again, Again!" (I wish I could feel like that when doing something that would actually make me some money. For some reason, i never did any work or had any job where I had that feeling; the best I can do up until today is not feeling bored for 8.5 hours a day. But that is another story.) However much I like Fantasy, I think it's time to do something else once in a while now, because I feel that I just *can't* re-read a series such as Shannara from beginning to end and not get bored. Last edited by Katsunami; 02-04-2013 at 06:33 PM. |
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02-04-2013, 06:29 PM | #10 |
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I used to read almost no series, but that changed in the past couple of years. What usually works best for me is reading a few books in between the series books. Sometimes those in-between books might be from other series, sometimes not.
As it turns out, almost everything I've read so far this year has been series books. |
02-04-2013, 06:45 PM | #11 |
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I mostly read them start to finish. There are exceptions, of course, and I really could have checked an 'All of the Above' box on your poll.
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02-04-2013, 06:53 PM | #12 |
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re: Pratchett, you don't have to - probably don't want to - read them all in publication order. This map gives the sub-series. for example, I love the City Watch stories, but could live without Rincewynd (or however it's spelled) and the other wizards. On the other hand, Granny Weatherwax FTW.
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02-04-2013, 07:06 PM | #13 |
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I like to read really good series from start to finish and in chronological order. Examples are Cornwall's Sharpe Series, Brust's Taltos Series and Modesitt's Recluce Series.
Not so great series I will read off and on until I finish them. Apache |
02-04-2013, 07:07 PM | #14 | |
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Fantasy reading I'm deemphasizing of late. Most of my reading these days is non-fiction and SF. For now I get enough fantasy from Skyrim and the Witcher. And HBO. Looking forward to March 31st Last edited by fjtorres; 02-04-2013 at 07:13 PM. |
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02-04-2013, 07:11 PM | #15 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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That was my mind boggling and my brain having a short circuit in Dutch. Wait. I'll have to digest this. I heard Pratchett did some weird stuff, but I've never seen one of these graphs. |
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