Anticipation: What’s Your Series Reading Habit?

I have to admit that I read series completely randomly. For example the Aubrey/Maturin books (20 of them) which I read simply in the order of whichever one I could get next.

@Charlie Cochrane: You have inspired a future Morning Coffee (if we haven't done this topic already--gotta check)! I can not STAND to read series out of order, and I know there are others like me. Wow.

I really don't appreciate cliff-hangers very much so I do get annoyed when I encounter them, but I don't find myself waiting for a series to be entirely published to start one either. I can understand why authors utilize cliff-hangers but there are some who do it too often, which I've encountered more in fantasy than urban series. I stopped reading a series entirely when one fantasy author (whose name I can't remember) used a cliff-hanger ending twice.

@MFrampton: I' with you. It drives me crazy if I've started a series (and it has happened on occasion) say with the second or third book. Now if I have an inkling a book I'm starting is a series, I go to the author's website to check before reading.

I'm completely OCD with my series... I have to read them in order. And I don't wait for series to be concluded before I start reading, but I can see reasoning behind that....

I read from the beginning and go ahead. Sometimes I picked up one in the middle but I had to buy the others immediately. I love series but I prefer different characters than one.

Count me as another person who has to read series in order. I'm completely OCD about it and will skip a series altogether if for some reason I can't get the books in order.

As for the main question, I don't wait to start a series until it's finished. I find that if I get too far behind in a series the number of books just seems daunting & I'll never start. It helps that I can and have dropped series that weren't working for me. That wasn't always true, but I've now fully embraced the old saying about life being too short to read bad books. When I was a complitionist I was a lot more wary about trying new authors and series. Of the things that will make me drop a series, too many cliffhangers is pretty high in the list. Cliffhangers don't hook me, they annoy me. I always feel a little manipulated by them.

I can't imagine stockpiling a bunch of books from an author I haven't even tried. What if you don't like the person's style or the story isn't what you thought it was going to be or just doesn’t' work for you? That’s a waste of money, not to mention space if you're not buying ebooks. Since both money & space are limited in my life, that makes no sense to me at all.

I've never let anything stop me from starting a series... at the beginning or right in the middle. I've discovered some outstanding authors this way, i.e., Sherrilyn Kenyon, JR Ward, Nalini Singh, Lora Leigh, Lara Adrian, Lorelei James, Keri Arthur, Josh Lanyon, Amy Lane, Mary Calmes, Abigail Roux, Jordan Castillo Price, Jim Butcher, Lee Child, Robert Crais, Michael Connelly...the list goes on. I have neither the discipline nor the patience to set aside an entire series for conclusion. In fact, I find that silly. I go where my interests take me.

I will start a new series as soon as I hear about it if it sounds like my kind of thing, mainly because I read so fast that I'm always short on new material. That said, I will quit a series if the author makes it a habit to leave important plot points hanging at the end of each book. I don't mind the over-arcing plot being strung along throughout several books. But all the themes central to a particular story must be resolved by the end of that particular book or I'm out of there. I may get the next one from the library to find out the solution to that particular plot, but I won't continue reading the series.

I will wait YEARS for a series to be finished before starting it. I have too many books in my TBR room to have to go back and re-read the first book when the third book comes out. If it's a new author, I will read all the reviews I can find and even a excerpt, if it's available, before I commit. I do have favorite authors with recurring characters, but those I can read as they come out. But a trilogy? Nope, I have to have 'em all before I open the first one.

I not only have to read a series in order, but one of my biggest pet peeves is when someone tries to read a book out of order as a standalone... and complains how it doesn't make sense. I don't want to wait until the series is done to pick it up though... I need to know if I like it first and then I binge all the books that are out already :)

I like to read series in order. I don't mind having to wait for the next book to come out. I tend to search out authors that write series books, because I like following characters from book to book. It is great when I discover a new author that has a series. I devour the whole collection. When a new book comes out from the writer I like, it is such a sweet treat.

I am a serial reader. Partly because I am a late comer to some genres and partly because I have some OCD issues. The problem, I find, is that I tend to lose steam after I am several books in. Although the books may be ok, I am typically not impressed. I often wonder if I am doing the author justice when I rate the book. On the flip side, I don't have to wait forever for the cliffhanger to be resolved because I am reading the books a year after publication.