Thursday, February 18, 2010

Serious About Series

Okay, I’ll admit it. I love reading series books. I love sequels, too. It must be because I read Trixie Belden books when I was young. I could always count on reading about Trixie, her brothers Brian, Mart, and little Bobby, and her best friends Jim, Honey and Diana. I so envied her for being a part of the Bob-Whites of the Glen, the “club” they created. There was always a good mystery in each book, but it was the friendship they shared and the comfortable feeling I had when reading. Many years later, I read Stephen King’s books, and the one thing I especially liked was that characters from previous books often made small appearances. Reading about them always made me smile.

I know I’m not the only series reader. Look at the popularity of the Twilight series and, only twenty or so years back, The Baby-Sitters Club. Little House on the Prairie, Amelia Bedelia, The Boxcar Children, even Mercer Mayer’s Little Monster books. There’s more. Oh, lots more!

Let’s face it. We’re all readers here. We all have likes and dislikes, favorites and not so favorites. Just for grins and giggles—and to appease my curiosity—here’s a list of questions that have been rolling around in my mind.

Are you a series reader?

Do you like reading about characters from past books who slide easily into and out of stories?

If you had a choice between a non-series book and a series book by, say, your favorite author, which would you buy?

Do you read each series book as it comes out, or do you save them to read one after the other?

What’s the one thing you especially like (or dislike) about series?

With the poor economy we’re dealing with, would you forego buying a series book, feeling that once the first is bought, you’re locked into buying the rest?

Have you always, like me, loved series books?

What’s your favorite series, whether from childhood or as an adult?

Have fun!

11 comments:

Pamela Stone said...

Hi Roxann,

I love series books. My favorite, hands down, is Nora's Chesapeake series about the Quinn brothers. I have no shame. I read them as soon as they come out. Then I read them again if they were great when the next book comes out. When she released the fourth book a few years after the others, I got so excited, I read half of it the first night. It's like catching up with old friends you haven't seen in awhile.

Anonymous said...

Hi Roxann,

I'm a series addict. As a child, I'd say the biggest were Little House on the Prairie and Nancy Drew...but they were by no means the only ones.

I love the MacGregor series by Nora Roberts. After I started, I had to go out and find every last on of them. Pamela - I'll have to read the Chesapeake series!

I'm also hooked on Linda Lael Miller's books that involve the Creeds and the McKettricks (both related). Susan Wiggs is another.

There are so many HAR and HSR authors who have written books that stand alone, yet involve the same community or families, that I love. Like Pamela said, these characters are your friends. The more books in a series, the more involved you become in their lives and in their community.

Like I said, I'm an addict and I'll buy books from a series as they come out...as long as I liked the first one. I have to set time aside for reading though, otherwise I wouldn't get any writing done!

Rula Sinara

Estella said...

I love series books. Reading a series is like visiting with old friends while making new ones.
I always try to read a series in order.
My favorite series is JD Robb's In Death.

Sara said...

I like reading series books - Depends on how I go about reading them - if they are coming out monthly then I'll read them as they come out ...

If it is a few - like Nora Roberts IN THE GARDEN series - I wait til all three are available and read them all at once...

Sara said...

My favorite series books were from when I was a child - and those were the Nancy Drew mysteries...

Of course, there were the Bobbsey Twins, The Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, and Cherry Ames....

I read them all!!!

Maryanne said...

Hey Sarge! I think we've had the discussion before about how much we both loved Trixie. You're so right about it being all about the friendships. My current favorite series are the Stephanie Plum novels. I buy each one as they come out. I've even started my mom on them.

linda s said...

I will pick out a series romance before a stand alone if I liked the earlier ones. I've read a lot of them. The one that comes to mind is set in Mistletoe, Georgia by Tanya Micheals. It's like old friends.
I read series in any order I find them. I never feel locked into a series.

I read all the series as a child from Nancy Drew and Trixie Beldon through all the nurse series to all the Anne books, the only series I read in order. I liked the best: Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys series by LM Alcott.

Linda Henderson said...

I do enjoy series books. I like to read them fairly close together but sometimes that just isn't possible. My favorite series is J.D.Robb's In Death series.

Rox Delaney said...

Wow, you all really are series fans! Very cool. I started Linda Wisdom's Hex series and need to schedule more reading time!

Nicole's Book Musings said...

I love, love series books. I love revisiting characters as the series goes on, you get to see how their HEA is going. I especially like seeing couples having babies or expecting. Some series I like that I can name off the top of my head are Lori Foster's SBC fighter , Gena Showalter's Lords of the Underworld, Kate Angell and Jill Shalvis' baseball series, and Christine Rimmer's Bravos.

Anonymous said...

Heck yeah I'm a series reader! LOL :) I love it when we see old favorite friends show up in a new book, while everyone or mostly everyone have a focus (a.k.a a book) of their own. . . always gives us something to look forward to, to know someone's story is coming.

How I read them depends on how they come out. For example since I started reading Susan Mallery, I guess two years ago, she had two series come out, those were one book every month, so there I waited until getting all of them. If they come out more the usual one or two books a year, then I'll read the one and bring it out again to reread before the new one so I can refresh my memory. I'm also quite anal and whenever I can will read them in order, although I absolutely do not read any books that must be read in a particular order; most of the series I read can be stand alones. But I don't care, must read as they came out. ;)

And if I have a favorite author, I'll read stand alones and series books, doesn't matter to me. :)

The thing I usually consider my like I mentioned in the first section there; what I dislike is waiting (LOL), but I won't start a series that I have no clue when it's going to end. But that's ultra rare mostly.

Hmm, favorites; well, the brain's slow right now, but what's coming to mind is Julia Quinn's Bridgertons, Lisa Kleypas's Wallflowers/Hathaways, HelenKay Dimon's Hawaii series, and all the others that I loved that I just can't think of right now. :)

Lois