Quick Chat: Series

Today I want to talk about my inability to keep up with series (serieses? Seriessss?)!

I don’t know about you, but frankly, I’m awful at continuing basically every series I love. And yet, I do have the ability to complete a series: Harry Potter, Enola Holmes, the Abhorsen Trilogy, The Golden Compass. There are others, obviously, but I’m not here to post about every series I’ve completed.

I want to talk about the ones I’m not completing. I could likely spend a year reading only books in a series and still not finish the series I currently have going. This is, in part, because I wouldn’t actually make myself do that. But also, it’s been so long since I touched some of these that I’d have to start over, thus taking even more time!

Thinking about a longer set, like Katharine Kerr’s 15-book Deverry series, makes some sense. I think many of us would struggle to read that many books in a timely manner. Especially when they deal with character reincarnations across centuries and a really broad plot sprinkled with lots of mini-plots. And I’m sure, like, series fatigue is a thing. Just because you love the world and characters doesn’t mean you want to read 15 books in a row. And with an older series that like one, all the books are out.

Of course, when a series is still in the works, it’s obviously not one I can finish until the author finishes. But that leads to problems too because sometimes waiting a year or more between books puts me right back into the “I don’t remember what happened before and now I need to reread everything” boat. It’s a big boat.

Those things aside, what’s stopping me from reading the last book in the Lady Trent series by Marie Brennan? I bought it, in haste, from the UK because I didn’t want to wait for the paperback in the US (only to discover it was a different publisher and therefore slightly shorter than my other books, which will forever drive me nuts.) And that was *checks LibraryThing* oh, in APRIL 2017. One book – I just had to read one book – and the series would be complete. Yet, here I am, still not reading it!

All of this is to say, I really don’t know why I don’t keep up with series. Sometimes it’s waiting for the author, but more often than not, I have the books, I’m just not reading them! Sometimes I even groan with disappointment when I see a book that sounds interesting and then learn it is part of a series. Because I’ll probably never finish it!

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How about you? Are you good at finishing a series you start? Are there reasons why you don’t finish? You know I love to hear I’m not the only one with these “problems!”