The Next Best Book Club discussion

Do you prefer series or stand alone books?

I like both but I do like series to if I like the characters because I like to follow them. The one thing I don't like about series is when the author is done writing them. I feel like I am losing my friends.

Personally, I like trilogies. Enough to time to get emotionally invested in the characters, but not long enough for the books to feel dragged out. (Although with some authors, that's not even possible!)

I like both. I like getting wrapped up in a series, especially once you become hooked on the characters.

I am a bad judge. I've read the first in (probably about) a dozen series this year. I like them all, and want to continue, but that darn TBR list!

I have read the first in the Odd Thomas Series, the Aunt Dimity series, the Nursery Crimes series (Jasper Fforde), and the Spellman Files. I really want to keep reading these, but I jump to something else. So, in that sense I kinda wish they were stand alones, cause then I wouldn't have to worry that I haven't kept up!

I like both...series just tend to be very time consuming for me because by the time i start reading them a bunch of the books are already out. Then I find myself stuck reading them all in a row and do not have time for other books that I want to read. I guess that is my only down side to series...other than that I enjoy them.

I never used to read series but lately I've read the Twilight series, The Gemma Doyle Trilogy, The House of Night series and am just finishing the Uglies/Pretties/Specials series and have read the first of the Sookie Stackhouse series. They're really addicting. I am definitely liking them more than stand alone books at the moment.

i like both, but it was just within the last year that i started to really enjoy series as an adult. i like having the opportunity to follow the character or characters through more than one book, but i am usually pretty sad when the series ends.

I enjoy reading both types of books. I like following a character through a series of books, but it gets depressing if the author starts messing up the books and the characters suffer from it. But I still read both types.

I love series. In the middle of a million of them.
I like getting to know the characters and their life expriences in each book.
Stand alones are good too.
I'll read just about anything.

Oops! I forgot about Twilight (one book in), plus the TBR I have that are series books (Gemma Doyle, etc)!

Hahah Julianne! Sarah, your a fellow TGDT lover! Awesome!

I like both, but I have a problem with reading too much of the same author for more than 2 books in a row. I usually get tired of their style and need to take a break. For that reason it took me 3 years to get through H2G2 and about 5 years to get through Lord of the Rings (and that was such a letdown!). This is part of the reason I have so many books going at once. So that if I am in a series I have plenty of books to take a break with.

I like series of books if I like the characters. The Harry Potter books are good examples in this case. Also, I like David Baldacci's The Camel Club and its sequels and the Bourne books (Bourne Identity, etc.). However, sometimes I get tired of the series if I read the books in a row. If this happens, I'll switch to another book and then go back to the series.

I think I like both but most of the time I don't realize that I started reading a book of a serie. Like whe I read my first Scarpetta book, it was just to try it out as I didn't know the writer. Much later I found out they were a serie but by then I had read them in the order I had found them.

I did follow the Jean Auel serie but for now only both two of them and read one.
I think what I find a little bit a pity is that you need to buy several books almost to read the whole story. At least that was the feeling after the first Auel book. Patricia Cornwell her books don't have it.

So maybe I do prefer a stand alone book.

By the way, did anybody read already hr last Scarpetta book, called Scarpetta? In Italy it came ou beginning of this month.

It really depends. I wont buy books JUST BECAUSE they are in series, but I have found quite a few that I love... Odd Thomas, Dexter.... those are my two absolute favs. I read all of the orginal Left Behind Series too( 12 books in all, i think)... and imagine that, never got tired of them!

I enjoy series, especially when its a good one, because I'm often disappointed when finishing a good book. A series provides another to look forward to.

However, I tend to put series' off for a while, since they are a bigger commitment.

Both. Because I like HP and LoTR, but I didn't read them just because they were series'. Although if I had to choose, it would be a stand a lone. Getting invested in a series takes serious commitment.

Both. I tend to switch between series and stand alones if I get bored or whatnot.....But if I am in love, I will read all of the series right in a row....

I like both. But the series better be good. If not I won't read past the second book.

I prefer stand alone simply because it seems to me that in any series, there is a point where you have to trudge through a book that's only so-so to get to the next one. I usually just fizzle out when things start to lose quality. That said, I'm in the middle of the Gormenghast trilogy and it's knocking my socks off. Also, I tip my hat to Lord of the Rings, which was, among other things, consistent, and I really enjoyed Pat Parker's Regeneration Trilogy.

I just realized that as a YA (well, tween really) I preferred series. I was a BIG Babysitters' Club, Nancy Drew, Bobsey Twins fan. And there was some series about girls in a boarding school I liked. And another girl series I read, too.

Christopher Pike made some series books, but I preferred his stand alones.

I enjoy both, but I do admit to being a series junkie. Much of the time I come to a series late, and I end up reading every book in that series exclusive to any other reading until I've finished the series. I took the month of September and read all of Tess Gerritsen's Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles series.

Julianne- I loved The Babysitters Club. I owned every single one. That would be my treat every weekend if I did good in school and did my chores.

Oh and Sweet Valley High!

I don't care whether it is a series, trilogy or stand alone......if it tells a good story and keeps me hooked......I don't care how long it takes to do it!

Definitely a series for me. 3/4 of the books I own are series books, then again I'm a fantasy nut so it kind of comes with the territory. Although, as was mentioned before there are downsides to liking series books such as: wait time for new releases or, like the unfortunate case of The Wheel of Time series, the original author isn't able to complete their work.

I read whatever comes along. I don't care about series or stand alones. Only important thing for me is that the story has to be good and well written. I hate boring books and hardly give those authors a second chance.

Ashley-

I forgot Sweet Valley High!! And Sweet Valley Twins just before.

I like both, but don't like to read them one after the other. I get a bit bogged down when the themes are too reminiscent of each other. Like to stick one from out in left field in between.

Julianne, Ashley..I forgot about the babysitter's club!!!!! I only got a couple but once I stayed about suring the night because i just had to had to finish the story!!! Oh what a times....

I love reading both, but if it's a series, I won't necessarily read several of the books in a row. I really like the Gossip Girl books, but I only read one about every 6 months because I feel like they aren't really intellectual books.
Oh my gosh, the Babysitters Club, I used to read those! Right now I can only think of two series I've got going, but I know there are a couple of others.

I like both, but also books that aren't really a series, but revisit tangential characters. The best example I can think of are Richard North Patterson's books. He introduces a judge, but doesn't really give any backstory. Then another book focuses on the judge and makes a passing reference to the initial character in another book. Not quite a series, but not a stand alone either...

I always prefer a series because If I find something I love I want to learn more!

I like series, but I do NOT like the books to end on a cliffhanger. I don't like waiting up to a year or two to find out what happened next.

My favorite series are the collection of trilogies that are interconnected so that you can experience different aspects of the same story/world.

But, I also like stand-alone books. I just get more excited about good series because it lasts longer.

Jensownzoo-I'm Soooooo with you on that. You should not "have" to read the next in the series - just want to. I'm married to an author who did a 6-book series. He completed the whole thing before publishing the first one so he could weave plot points between them. But...it was and is - very important that they each stand independently of each other .... it is very difficult but VERY important

I just started to read series unless Thomas Harris counts??

Sp far I am going on Eclipse and I am started Charlaine Harris and Kerreyln Sparks

I don't know what this new obsession is about Vampires but it's catchy!!!

I'll always go for a series over a stand alone. But I never buy more in the series until I've finished the one before. Right now I'm reading Twilight - and not so sure I want to move onto the next.

I'm a series fan, especially mysteries.

Some of my favorites:
Harry Potter
Lord of the Rings
Twilight
Dead After Dark (Sookie Stackhouse)
The Princess Diaries
Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow
the Aurora Teagarden series
Wine Lover's Mystery series
Cleo Coyle's Coffeehouse Mysteries
John J Lamb's Teddy Bear series

I love both. I have no preference lol.

I love series, especially trilogies or quartets. But series that go on forever and ever (unless they have a reason like Harry Potter, seven books, seven years of school) annoy me because they seem to go on for no reason.

And I love stand-alone's, although I'm a little heartbroken everytime I come to the end of a stand-alone book with a character I love.

I also think it's more common for fantasy and sci-fi books to have series because the author has to create new worlds and/or weave magic and the supernatural in to their books so that it's believable.

I love series. I hate it when you just get to know a character and that's it. I like them I want to know what they do next!

I like both types of books. In addition to growing with the characters, a good series provides the wonderful excitement--and anticipation---of a new book release.

A non-series novel gives you everything upfront in your hands. It says this is the beginning and end of the story, so you better pay close attention.

-Vince
Author of the new series Constellation Chronicles: The Lost Civilization of Aries

I only like series when they are no more than four otherwise I am all about the stand alone.

I like both series and stand-alones, however I agree with others regarding series...too much of a good thing can be overkill if there are more books than necessary.

I think it makes a big difference if it is a series or a sequel. I.E. series where they are planned from the beginning and a certain number picked and no more. The story arc is crafted over that "series". Sequels to me are -- hey one was sucessful so lets write another one with the same characters etc. I don't like that kind of thing.

-- Wife of GR Author Michael J. Sullivan | The Crown Conspiracy | Avempartha