Happy New Year! I hope you all had a chance to par-tay, if that's your thing, or stay in and toast the new year with a snuggly blanket and cup of cocoa. I rang in the new year with one of my most bookish friends, Amanda, and her bookish and nerdtastic friends. It was a nice way to spend and evening and close out a year.
Now that it's been a few days, I've had a chance to reflect more deeply on some of my reading habits, and one of the things I noticed is that I seem to be suffering from Series Fatigue. That is, I've stopped reading a series at the last book. I waited and waited and waited, and then, when the book was finally in my hot little hands, I was all, "meh," and moved on. A cursory glance of my Goodreads profile shows FOUR series that I've seemingly abandoned in the very last book. There are plenty of series and trilogies that I've left behind after the first book, but these books I've left behind are books that I thought I was dying to read. I even emailed Michelle Cooper, author of the Montmaray Journals, to tell her how desperately I was waiting for the final installment of the trilogy, anxious to know the fate of characters left at the brink of WWII. And yet, the book has been out for months, and I haven't read it. It came out in Australia in February, and I almost asked my Australian cousins, who I only met for the first time this year, to bring along a copy.
I devoured the first two books of Holly Black's Curse Workers series. But I only got a few pages into the third book before I let it go back to the library. I read four of the Parasol Protectorate books and have book five on my Nook, waiting to be read. I feel a pang of guilt every time I read one of Gail Carriger's blog posts, along with pangs of anticipation for her new series, but I still haven't finished Timeless. I waited three years for the final book in Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda trilogy. I bought it. I just haven't read it.
This isn't happening to every series. I chowed down on the latest Flavia de Luce and Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place without a second thought. And it's not like I was lukewarm on these series that I've moved away from -- I mean, I sent a fangirly email to an author! I contemplated paying big bucks to get a copy shipped from the Antipodes!
I've gotten much more comfortable letting books that aren't great go by the wayside, and I've also let series go by if the first book didn't particularly make me giddy. But this is the first year I've let hotly desired books go. I am pretty sure I'll read these books at some point, but I find it a little strange to let something I wanted so desperately go, even for a little while. Has this happened to you, Dear Readers? Have you noticed changes in your reading habits and desires over the last year? Do tell.
UPDATE
I realized this morning that I also get this series fatigue thing with television shows. I haven't seen the final seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dollhouse, Gilmore Girls, Murder She Wrote, Torchwood and probably half a dozen other shows. Shows that are more or less readily available and have concluded, although I'm feeling fatigued with Doctor Who. Doctor Who, people! What's wrong with me?! I've sort of given up on Once Upon a Time for now, til this current season comes out on DVD. I'm not including British shows that I can't get a hold of.
I haven't finished Timeless, either!
ReplyDeleteI generally do okay with finishing series... unless it's quite terrible. But, I do have a number of series that I need to catch up on.
I hear what you mean. Why does every [hyperbole] great book have to begin a series? What's wrong with a stand-alone? I admit the reaching the end of a book last year only to find it had a sequel and immediately thinking less of it than I had on the penultimate page. I blame Harry Potter, even if I do love those books.
ReplyDeleteI've started really valuing standalones, for the simple fact that I don't have nearly enough time for everything I want to read, so a series means I've made a future commitment to read the next series book instead of something else. I have four series that I can think of where the next book has been out for months now and I haven't read it or (in two cases) don't even own it yet! I still really want to read them, but other things just keep coming up! Plus, standalones are really satisfying.
ReplyDeleteI get the desire for series. When you love a character or world, you want to spend more time there. But sometimes you just want a story. I love the Discworld series because you can read each title like a stand-alone, though the titles do build on each other, but not in such a way that you can't get into books one at a time. Charles de Lint's Newford books work that way for me, too.
DeleteI prefer it when I completely miss a series of books and then find them when the author finished them. Then I can read them at my pace. Sherwood Smith's Inda series was so grand and sweeping that holding all the pieces in my memory was tough by the time the last two came out. It would have been better to read the books closer together.
ReplyDeleteSame with TV for me -- I keep forgetting to watch the latest episodes.
I get series fatigue, too. I'm trying not to start too many new ones this year until I finish the ones I've started and read sequels that are sitting around. I really appreciate stand alones, especially in paranormal/sci-fi/fantasy where the tendency is to go series. Or, I like series that have books that tie together but can be read independently.
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