This week’s Booking Through Thursday prompt asks an interesting question, and not one I’d have thought of writing about on my own—”Series? Or stand-alone books?”
All things being equal—quality of writing and interesting plot and characters, I vote for series. I enjoy making friends with characters and watching them grow over time, as with the Harry Potter series, or emerging victorious after a protracted fight, as with The Hunger Games series. Of course, it’s disappointing when the books diminish in quality, as with Lois Lowry’s Giver trilogy and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. Most of the series I’ve read have been enjoyable. I particularly liked the Outlander series, though I have only read the first four, and Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles (though I have a complicated relationship with that series—I like the first four, though).
I think I like series because it’s fun to get to know characters better over a longer span of time. I know even as a child I read all the Ramona books by Beverly Cleary and the Fudge books by Judy Blume. I think I have always liked series. I was so excited when I learned A Discovery of Witches would be a series. And who among us hasn’t wished for a sequel to a beloved book just so we could find out how things turn out later on? Shoot, I still want more Harry Potter books.
photo credit: Juliana Coutinho
Oo, yes, I love seeing the characters grow and develop. In a series, you have more space for the small character moments that show how the relationships have developed, and they mean so much more because you've spent all the time with the characters. TV shows are the same.
(I still want more Harry Potter books too, but I know it's for the best that JK Rowling stopped when she stopped.)
I agree, but I also wonder if books about James, Lily, Sirius, and Snape wouldn't have been great. Or Albus Severus and his pals. Still, good on her for knowing when to quit.