Series, pure delight or a lot of effort?

Series... & My opinions:

Hello everyone! 

It is Monday which means that it is now time for another work week to begin for some and in the case of my life final exam week; I hope you have lots of fun reads planned for this week. I am going to be speaking about the reasons I have a love hate relationship with series today, in hopes that some of you will understand. 

Series, what are they? 

Well in short it is a group of books that must be read in chronological publishing order following the same characters through time. 

There are a few reasons why I like the idea of reading series and getting lost in an expansive world, though there definitely are drawbacks to being in a world for so long. I love series for the depth and expansive worlds that the author is able to explore throughout the series. In standalones it is often hard for an author to attain such great world building and character growth which is a must have for books that I read. I am amazed each and everytime that I open a new book in a series that the author is able to unfold yet another darkened corner of the map in their expansive world! Another aspect of series that I do not always stop and absorb completely is the comfort in knowing the characters and having them feel like old friends to you, creating a comfortable and safe place for you to escape into again. I am finding the Lord of the Rings series to provide that for me, as I have previously read the Hobbit I am eagerly welcomed back with open arms by the characters of Middle Earth. 

There are a few downsides to series. The biggest issue I have with series is not finishing them. I know this can easily be solved by me just completing the series that I have begun, however being so immersed in the book community I always have a stack of books a figurative mile high to tackle next. This dilemma is truly an issue when the books are incredibly long in the series, for example Game of Thrones; I read book one last year and have yet to continue on because of the time commitment that such a dense and long book takes. I know this is a personal problem for myself, but it is a driving force in how slowly I am able to tackle my TBR of many long series. In knowing that I own series is something that slows my reading tremendously, because knowing that these books will never go anywhere I tend to push them back and not get to them quite as quickly as I would hope to. To combat this, many times when I am reading series I will marathon the series to ensure that I complete the series and not get distracted, though as a squirrel trying to gather nuts I become scatter brained and distracted by the new and shiny books to which I will read first and put off the series for another day. This is something that I am trying to get better at, however I do not think much will work unless I just marathon the series as I move through them. 

These are just two of my countless opinions on series that I have found over the years both drive me to pick up new series and to shy away from finishing them. 

Let me know in the comments why you like or dislike reading series, I would love to know!

Happy Reading! 

I will be back on Wednesday hopefully with an awesome gift guide for the holiday season!