Guess who’s fuzzy presence was assisting me?
Why do I have trouble sticking with some series and not others?
I think it might have to do with availability. If I come into a series late, where several books are already published, I can gobble those up and then wait patiently for the next to come out (such as with The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher). If I read Book 1 and Book 2 does not yet exist, I tend to shelve the series until the series has several more books in it or is complete.
Does anyone else have this stilted approach to series?
Look, I don’t want to rush an artist, like say, Patrick Rothfuss. The Name of the Wind was incredible. Yet I haven’t read the sequel, The Wise Man’s Fear, yet because, in part, it didn’t exist when I finished Book 1. In my heart I am waiting for Book 3 to come out and then I will barricade myself in my room with all three books and chew threw them all at once.
I will confess I have done the same thing with other favorite authors, like Jacqueline Carey and N. K. Jemisin. Does such behavior make me less of a fan?
All the authors mentioned so far have treasured places on my book shelves. I even have a few signed copies. For these authors, I savor every word. I slow my reading down for their works. For some of them, I even have the audio versions of their books to go along with the paper/ebook versions.
I think this ‘dedication’ issue might have something to do with the fact that I can easily be distracted by a shiny new book. SQUIRREL!
I prefer to read books in a series consecutively. At the same time, if I leave off and the next book isn’t out yet or I can’t find it, it generally takes me a long time to come back to it (and that would be GRRM and Elizabeth Haydon. I’ve got the next books in each of their series’, it’s just been long enough since I read the first that I don’t feel the urge to read them immediately).
Elizabeth Haydon? Hmmm ::taps info request into internet machine::
I have mixed feelings with this one – I confess that I find it very irritating when I read something and then have a long wait but sometimes I simply can’t wait. If Patrick Rothfuss happened to release his next book tomorrow I would be in line and buy it in a New York minute – same goes for Scott Lynch and Peter Brett! On the other hand, with some of the other books I’ve recently read – I know that I’m going to have at least a twelve month wait but frankly I have so many other books waiting to be read that the time in between doesn’t seem as unbearable.
Lynn
I’d like to say that I prefer series where there are already at least a few books floating around, so like you, I can gobble them up, in hopes that by the time I run out of reading material, the next book is floating around. Yeah, that’s the ideal. so what happens instead? I get addicted to a brand new author while reading their debut book, and now I have to wait for the next one, and then years for the series to finish! arrghh!
Who’s sat on the kitchen floor eating cereal at 2:30 am with the last few pages of book 2 and book 3 ready to go? Me.
I is POSTER CHILD for serial love. (haha, that sounds weirder than I intended it to)
I love meeting a new author, learning their style and schtick, and coming to trust them to tell me a good story. It’s an immense sense of relief, like meeting the Hubs, knowing that this dating and searching and dumping and dating cycle is over. I’m in love with New Author and we’re in a happy relationship.
I do totally get my heart broken though when the later books in the series take a wrong turn at Stupidville or head down Badly Edited Road. I’ll wait til the cows come home for the next, delicious morsel of my story arc if the wait equates to awesome. Know what I mean?
I don’t think it’s dedication or lack of fannish love to swap around between book series. Sometimes the next book is ready and willing to be read, sometimes not.