When I first started reading YA fiction, the only books that I read were parts of series – and I was remarkably good at keeping up with their release dates. Part of this can be attributed to Twilight, the gateway book that got me into reading young adult titles at age 14; I had almost exclusively read adult mystery novels to that point and had no idea which books were considered “good” choices, so series seemed like the safest bet.
Recently, though, I’ve been finding it difficult to read anything that isn’t a stand-alone novel. I can’t keep track of all of the sequels that are coming out — and, more than that, I just don’t have the motivation to continue reading many of them because I don’t remember what happened in previous books and can’t be bothered to look it up. A quick look through my to-read list (a scary process, given that there are more than 800 titles on it) highlights this: the majority of the books on my TBR are part of a series, with only ~25% of those being the first book in the series, but more than half of my recent reads were stand-alone titles.
I’m sure I’ll get back into reading series eventually… but, for now, I like the idea of immersing myself in completed stories that don’t have cliffhanger endings.
Does the idea of starting a new series fill you with dread? Do you prefer series or stand-alone titles? Let me know in the comments below.
I can definitely relate, stand-alones are a go to for me. I’m tired of trilogies and series that I don’t have the time to finish
Are there any stand-alones that you loved recently that I should add to my TBR? 🙂
As I’ve gotten older I’ve definitely found it harder to keep up with series. I do miss reading them, but I’ve also found that unless I’m able to binge read them I can’t remember what’s happened clearly in past books, even if I only read them a year ago. Recap sites are great but don’t always cut it, so now I end up going through periods of reading just stand alones or I binge read a series!
I do the same thing when I get around to reading a series. I always have to double-check that it’s a finished series before starting my binge so that I don’t end up with a nasty cliffhanger!
I can relate to this! There was a point in my reading journey that I really enjoyed reading series. However after a while, I found it a little tough to keep track of which book comes out when, especially because majority of books in series come out like a year after the previous one. Right now, the only series I still follow religiously are the ones by Sarah J. Maas.
I’ve managed to follow ACoTaR fairly well, but I’ve since lost track of the Throne of Glass series (I think the last one I read was book #3). Would you say it’s worth catching up on?
I have a bookshelf on Goodreads dedicated solely to the first books in a series that I want to read. It’s huge. What’s scarier is that I might actually like all of them – which means their sequels might one day make their way into my already massive TBR.
I’m so tempted to try that — then maybe I’d actually get around to reading more of them! Though I completely understand the fear of your TBR growing (even more) out of control.