Saturday, October 6, 2012

The Never Ending Series

Image found here.
A few years ago a friend of mine gave me a book for my birthday, the first in a series that she had been loving recently. When I read it a little while later, I was hooked. I immediately requested the next three books in the series, and read them all within a week, forcing me to request the next few books. Even at that point, six books in, I was still loving the series and wanting more. When the next book in the series came out, I pre-ordered it, thinking it was the last book in the series. Read it. It still wasn't over. That was two years ago. The series is still not completely written.

Now I'm not pointing fingers or even going to mention that particular series. I still remember a lot of what happened in the eight books I did read in that particular series, and I still remember loving those books all these years later. Since then one books has been released, I haven't read it and I don't think I will ever finish the story. This is what I like to call the never ending series. Perfectly gripping, interesting, amazing stories being held out too long just for the sake of having another book to put on a bookstore shelf.

Image found here.
This is one of my biggest pet peeves in books today. You can barely even read a book from the Young Adult category without a series tagged on, and stand alone books are hard to come by. This bugs me because it's very obvious that it's just a way to get more books out and to get more money. It would make me really happy if writers would write until they think the book is perfect, not pull it out five books more than it needs to be. I wish publishers would realize how wanting books in series makes a reader less likely to continue, and it wastes a lot of people's time with worthless extra stuff.

Edit: In the comments a good point has come to my attention. Long series like this can also be good for some readers, especially readers who have trouble finding books that they enjoy. If a readers, specifically a young reader, finds a book that they really enjoy, it would  be beneficial for that book to be part of a series because they would then be encouraged to read more, and hopefully encourage them to be lifelong readers.

I would like to clarify that this is not an attack on stories being more than one book long. If there is enough to say for the entire series to be one thousand pages long, please, by all means do what you need to do to put that story into bit sized pieces. A good example is Harry Potter. Those books were meant to book the way they are, seven of them. But that is not always the case.What do you think? Have you had this issue before?

8 comments:

  1. I too once received a book 1 for my birthday. I read the first six, 500+page books in six weeks. Waited for book seven, then eight gave up reading hoping to come back when the series was complete.

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  2. I try to avoid series that have no definite ending. If I know there are only going to be however many books, I'm happy to read them, but if it's a bottomless pit of books, I don't want to fall in. I've seen this especially in Middle Grade series, which I why I try to avoid them now. Series are great, but bottomless pits aren't!

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    1. You're right, that does seem to happen with Middle Grade!

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    2. I think the reason they do that with Middle Grade, create stories that can go on for basically ever, is because they're counting on the fact that you start reading them when you're younger, and then keep reading them even once you aren't a kid. Even if you don't, younger kids can just pick up the series and start all over again.

      -Megan

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  3. oh I know how you feel!! I tend to avoid long series UNLESS all the books are out. A recent series is like that, 4 books were scheduled only and when the 4th came out i find out that there is TWO more, so I just don't read the 4th book. It gets frustrating because you just WANT that ending, even though you love the series you are willing to end it just to find out what happens in the end

    great post Erika!

    - Juhina @ Maji Bookshelf

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  4. This is pretty common and I totally see your point, however I also see a different side. I'm a middle school librarian at a school with mosky struggling and or reluctant readers. If I can get a kid to enjoy the first book in a series chances are they'll want to continue it. And then I have a kid who would barely read one book dying for the next books in the series and gobbling them all up. It's pretty awesome to see and I am sooo glad there are so many series available. . But I do agree that having a series needs to be necessary...if the story doesn't warrant it then it can be a waste.

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  5. This is also one of my biggest book pet peeves, so thank you for posting about it! There is one series in particular that was meant to be 3 books, but then after those 3 had been out for awhile, the author announced it was going to be 6 books. In my opinion, there is no reason other than money for a series to double in length, and no GOOD reason at all.

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  6. I am over series!! Sorry but it has to be something really special for me to want to start another series. I love how some series gets kids into reading, I think that's awesome! But in YA right now there are too too too many and most of them are sub-par. This was a really cool idea for a post though... gets ppl thinking :)

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