Series vs. books

[Letti]

I guess most of us are fond of series so I don't really understand how people cannot like them.
Why do people not like series?
That's the besth thing that can happen to a book - to become a series. So you can be with your favourite characters for a longer while and you can know them even more.

Do you prefer books or series?
Don't pick "both" because yeah, I do love books as well but series are closer to my heart.

[ManOfWesternesse]

Series, definitely.
I love the idea of living alongside a good story for many years while it's still unfolding. Have done/am doing this with many good series (DT / Wheel of Time / A Song of Ice and Fire / Thomas Covenant / .......)

A great Book is .... great.
A great Series is.....more.:lol:

[TerribleT]

Series require a lot of commitment. A single book is easy to pick up, read, spend that amount of time that I'm allowed with the characters, and then move on. I spent 20 years reading the DT series, and while I thoroughly enjoyed it, what if I'd never gotten to the end.

[blackrose22]

I don't really mind. If it's a good book and there's more to follow then thats great. Sometimes it can be a pain in the ass when you read a book and its brilliant and then the follow up isn't out for a couple of years (John Twelvehawks third book in The Traveller series isn't out till next year,:( ) that can be so annoying like waiting for years for SK to finish the DT books.
If the series has been out for a while that means that you can get the next book straight away. When a friend gave me the first Discworld book by Terry Pratchett I loved it and then found a shop that stocked the entire collection of Discworld and bought four at a time every time I went in.

[ManOfWesternesse]

Agreed blackrose, but also it has to be said that the waiting is part of the experience too... and the re-reading of the story-to-date in anticipation etc...
*is still waiting for the final 2 books of the Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant + the remainder of Wheel of Time + more of A Song of Ice and Fire ......*

[jayson]

i love a good series, but i chose books bc i can always enjoy a good book whether or not it's part of a larger whole. i'm a big non-fiction reader as well as fiction, and there aren't many series to be read there. ;)

[Jean]

books

[mia/susannah]

I like single books. But I like a series more. Especially the Dark Tower series. I am kind of sad that it ended, but it really did not end, Roland has to repeat his quest for the Tower which is fine by me because I am getting ready to reread the series as well.:rock:

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

The series has ended. Long live the books! There's lots more of them, and a lot more to come.

[Storyslinger]

Series for the reason that was stated by Letti.
I get attached to a character, and want more back story.

[fernandito]

I like both, so I can't really choose. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a quick read, and sometimes I feel like starting a series that I know will take me a while to finish and will require me to put forth a generous amount commitment, both emotional and financial.

[blackrose22]

[QUOTE=ManOfWesternesse;116829]Agreed blackrose, but also it has to be said that the waiting is part of the experience too... and the re-reading of the story-to-date in anticipation etc...

I know what you mean but sometimes I can be an impatient SOB:(.

[cozener]

Depends, some stories only require one book in the telling. Some stories require several books to say everything there is to say. I have no preference for either...I just want the story to be complete. But I don't like to have to wait for continuations either. If I have to wait years to pick up on a story I've been reading there's a very good chance I won't pick it back up. I tend to steer clear of series that aren't already completed. In fact, I think I can say with a fair amount of confidence that if I had started reading DT in the 80s I probably wouldn't have finished it. As it is, I didn't start reading it until well after DT7 came out.

[Erin]

Series! I'm a huge fan of series. I love finishing a good book, knowing there is another there for me to pick up, telling even more stories about characters and places I fell in love with.

[Ka-tet]

I perfer serise, i enjoy seeing charicters develop over time instead of one book. Its not that i dont enjoy single books.

[NeedfulKings]

I picked books, but really like both. I like books because I can move around a lot more freely and get the diverstiy I sometimes desire. If you define a series as a set of books that will have a beginning, middle, and end, I'm okay with them. I've read the DT series, The Beast House Trilogy, and am working on the HP series.

Where would you categorize recurring characters, such as Alex Cross (from James Patterson), Lincoln Rhyme (from Jeffrey Deaver), or Harry Bosch (from Michael Connolly)? Not really a series, but still a series of books involving one character. I haven't read any of the above authors, but know they exist and actually have them on various TBR piles. :)

[blackrose22]

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Where would you categorize recurring characters, such as Alex Cross (from James Patterson), Lincoln Rhyme (from Jeffrey Deaver), or Harry Bosch (from Michael Connolly)? Not really a series, but still a series of books involving one character. I haven't read any of the above authors, but know they exist and actually have them on various TBR piles. :)

What you say is right in one way that they not a true series in an on going story but individual stories about a main character like Harry Bosch by Micheal Connolly. But sometimes certain events that happen in one book can have a knock on effect in another story and if you haven't read them in order so you can be at loss at whats going on. So you should try and read them in order even though the next book might not have anything to do with the last one. Its good so see a characters progression with the release of each new book anyway.
Hope you read the Harry Bosch books by Micheal Connolly you should enjoy them immensely.

[Jean]

If you define a series as a set of books that will have a beginning, middle, and end, I'm okay with them.
so am I, but how then will we differ it from a book? Won't that make it just a very thick book? If another grounds for differing is that a series takes longer to write, then, first, it may just as well be the case with a book; next, after it is written, who cares how long it took?

[LadyHitchhiker]

It definitely depends on the story. i am struggling on whether I want to make my novel into one book or two books.. if I do it as two, then I can go ahead and publish one book and hope people will like it enough to warrant the second part... But mine is definitely at the very least a part one part two book.

How about the Stand? Anyone think that should have been a series of books instead of one big book? I think it would have lost cohesion.

[JQ The Gunslinger]

I voted Series. Theres only 2 series in my life that i was reading and then had to wait for the next book. Harry Potter i picked up when the 5th book came out so i had to wait 2 years in total for it to finish. And then Cirque Du Freak Series i started to read and had to wait for the last 6 books to come out. I loved it, i loved reading the new book that came out, analyzing it, thinking wow i waunder what will come next. And when the next book comes out, jeez theres nothing like that feeling.

[stone, rose, unfound door]

I've always preferred books to series because, even though I can like the characters in both and relate to them, I usually can't find good series as I don't read much fantasy stuff. I guess it's also due to the fact that here, we have very few series and literature is pretty important in French culture, so you get used to reading books on their own and it's only when you start reading American stuff that you discover that some stories can be volumes long. I know we've got Les Misérables, but it's way too boring! And maybe I'm a lazy reader too :P

[Tony_A]

Series. It's fun to see how characters progress or how past events affect other characters later on in the series.