When you start reading a book in a series...

[Nida]

Do you tend to read all the books in the series in a row, or take breaks to read something else in between?

For me, it usually depends on the length of what I just read. I can only do audio books, so a fantasy book that is 47 hours long tends to make me want to alternate to something else. Only problem is they often contain a variety of characters and plot lines that by the time you get back to that series you've forgotten so much between books.

 

[Fat4all]

i usually read a series back to back to keep the earlier books clear in my memory

 

[Slayven]

Depends, sometimes i do just as a palatte cleanser, sometimes i go right into the new book

 

[Deleted member 48813]

I did it for Chronicles of Narnia last year but I feel like that one kinda doesn't count, since the version I have has everything in one book. But in general yeah, I'll probably read straight through a series if I like it enough.

 

[Freakzilla]

Read? You mean like outside of era? What?

 

[Pau]

I try to read it straight through. Otherwise I tend to forget stuff. D:

 

[King Alamat]

I can think of only three times I did this: The Millennium trilogy, the IO series by Wesley Chu and the Lock In series by John Scalzi and technically, those last two series haven't even been completed yet.

 

[Fat4all]

make sure you read the Poirot stories in chronological order

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles [1920]
• The Murder on the Links [1923]
• While the Light Lasts (UK Short Story Collection) [1997]
• Poirot Investigates (Short Story Collection) [1924]
• Poirot's Early Cases (Short Story Collection) [1974
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd [1926]
• The Big Four [1927]
• The Mystery of the Blue Train [1928]
• Peril at End House [1932]
• Lord Edgware Dies [1933]
• Murder on the Orient Express [1934]
• Three Act Tragedy [1935]
• Death in the Clouds [1935]
• Poirot and the Regatta Mystery (Published in The Complete Short Stories: Hercule Poirot, 2008) [1936]
• The ABC Murders [1936]
• Murder in Mesopotamia [1936]
• Cards on the Table [1936]
• Problem at Pollensa Bay (UK Short Story Collection) [1991]
• Murder in the Mews (Short Story Collection) [1937]
• Dumb Witness [1937]
• Death on the Nile [1937]
• Appointment with Death [1938]
• Hercule Poirot's Christmas [1938]
• Sad Cypress [1940]
• One, Two Buckle my Shoe [1940]
• Evil Under the Sun [1941]
• Five Little Pigs [1942]
• The Hollow [1946]
• The Labours of Hercules (Short Story Collection) [1947]
• Taken at the Flood [1945]
• Mrs McGinty's Dead [1952]
• After the Funeral [1953]
• Hickory Dickory Dock [1955]
• Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly [2014]
• Dead Man's Folly [1956]
• Cat Among the Pigeons [1959]
• The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (UK Short Story Collection) [1960]
• The Clocks [1963]
• Third Girl [1966]
• Hallowe'en Party [1969]
• Elephants Can Remember [1972]
• Curtain: Poirot's Last Case [1975]

 

[The Albatross]

It depends but usually I read straight through as far as I can... SOmetimes I get fatigued by it and take on something else.

Or, some of the "Series" I read aren't really related to each other in the story, like John le Carre's George Smiley spy novels (Tinker Tailor, the Honorable Schoolboy, Spy who Came in from the Cold, etc). There's an order he wrote them in and some make more sense if you read them in an order, but most are independent stories from one another that you can read in any order.

i read the first 3 books of A Song of ICe and Fire straight through, but A Feast for Crows wasn't out yet at the time, so I had to wait a couple years for that, and then wait..... 5 or 6 years for ADWD. Now I don't even care anymore.

Axctually... yknow... thinking about it I think I usually *don't* read them straight through. Like, I started Robert Caro's Lyndon Johnson biography series about a year ago and did the first two, and then had to pause because a man can only read 2500 pages about Lyndon fucking Johnson before getting fatigued.

Before that I started Wolf Hall then went straight through to Bring up the Bodies but paused before the third. Oh I guess that one's not even out yet NM

 

[sredgrin]

Trilogy, I'll go back to back. If it has like more than 7 I'll take breaks for sure.

 

[Kuro]

Kinda hard to do that unless the entire series is already out. The only time I remember doing this was all the Narnia books in elementary school.

 

[Deleted member 56069]

I need to take a break between books in a series. It's too much otherwise.

 

[Cyrus_Saren]

Depends on how into the book I was and if I got invested enough to want to keep going in the series. Usually, I'll keep reading the series but sometimes I take a break.

 

[corasaur]

Im more likely to go straight through if the series is done already. If I'm starting an ongoing series I'll deliberately spread things out. Started asoiaf around when feast came out and still haven't read dance, for example.

I might genre-hop bt books in completed series, tho. Ive interspersed horror books throughout fantasy series, for example

 

[Stranger Things]

I'm always cycling through 3-4 books, a little sci-fi, some horror, an enlightening/educational non-fiction, etc, etc. Keeps things fresh, which is important for entertaining yourself. Even when I was reading LOTR, I also was alternating between a couple other novels as well. Reading is a time-sink, so I don't find myself having a high-commitment to just one series at a time. I like to flip-flop and skim, pick up a light-read, try different/new authors in between. It's kind of like "marathoning" Harry Potter 1-8, but watching a few documentaries in between to breakup the pace lol.

 

[Nida]

Just finished "A Darker Shade of Magic" by Victoria Schwab which I really enjoyed but didn't go immediately on to the next book. It was relatively short, but I switched to "Fairy Tale" by Raymond E Fiest. I'll probably go back to the series once I've finished.

 

[Ushojax]

I try to alternate. I just started reading Wheel of Time and I think I would get burned out on it reading them one after another, I will read something else in between each entry.

 

[Gernau Morat Gurgeh]

It depends. Certainly, if something really grabs me I'll binge the whole series - I did this with the Aubrey Maturin novels for eg (the series Master and Commander is based on). Otherwise I may go back to the series later to see if it improves, or more likely drop it entirely

 

[Ortix]

Depends on how much I'm enjoying the series.

 

[hiredhand]

I tend to alternate between 2-3 audiobooks of different genres at one time. For example, now I'm listening to an epic historical novel, a more experimental novel set in the present and a sci-fi short story collection.

I almost never continue a series straight after finishing one novel.

 

[Excuse me]

It depends. Mainly it's how much I enjoy the current book. If it's great then I move to next one, if it's bad then I tend to procrastinate. I'll eventually read the series if I have already paid for it.

 

[TestMonkey]

Nowadays I try to wait until a series is complete and then read it all the way through. The death of Robert Jordan made me rethink investing in long unfinished series. But there are several authors that I read whatever they publish whenever I can get my hands on it.

 

[Dervius]

Depends on the length of the series, trilogies I'll often read straight through but long running series tend to make me jump back and forth. Otherwise I just burn out on an otherwise beloved series.

 

[GenericGhost]

I tend to do a Book in series < a comic or short story < a book < Comic or short story < book in series.
I dont want to get burned out in the same plot line.

 

[iksenpets]

Depends how much I like it and how big the series is. If it's just three relatively short books it's a lot less of an ask to power through all three. If it's like a dozen books, I'm not going to dedicate an unbroken year of my reading time to this thing.

 

[Z-Beat]

There were issues like A Series of Unfortunate Events where I caught up to the end before the next book was out so I didn't have much of a choice. But generally I like to jump around to avoid burnout, unless the series in question is so gripping I HAVE to know

 

[JustAnotherMike]

Most of the series I've gotten into over the past few years are already 3+ books deep, so I stick with them to the end. It's nice binge through them while remembering all the small details that get referenced in later books.

 

[Nida]

There were issues like A Series of Unfortunate Events where I caught up to the end before the next book was out so I didn't have much of a choice. But generally I like to jump around to avoid burnout, unless the series in question is so gripping I HAVE to know

Click to shrink...

Yeah this is common to do for fantasy series unfortunately. Song of Ice and Fire and Kingkiller Chronicles have been so much waiting.

 

[djinn]

I generally take breaks between books. But with manga/comics I read straight through.

 

[mhayes86]

Depends, I guess. If all the books are out and it's only a few books in the series, I'll read through them all. If it's an unfinished series, like ASoIaF and Kingkiller Chronicles as you just mentioned, you don't have much choice unless you don't read for 8+ years.

Now a long series like Wheel if Time? I don't know. I tried reading something in between and feel like I didn't give it the attention it deserved. The entire time I was thinking about how much I wanted to go back to Wheel of Time.

 

[Catvoca]

I might run through a whole trilogy but I usually read some other stuff in between. Series can get a bit repetitive if you read too many back to back. You start to notice all the little quirks in the author's prose and get tired of them.