Serious About Series

Okay, I’ll admit it. I love reading series books. I love sequels, too. It must be because I read Trixie Belden books when I was young. I could always count on reading about Trixie, her brothers Brian, Mart, and little Bobby, and her best friends Jim, Honey and Diana. I so envied her for being a part of the Bob-Whites of the Glen, the “club” they created. There was always a good mystery in each book, but it was the friendship they shared and the comfortable feeling I had when reading. Many years later, I read Stephen King’s books, and the one thing I especially liked was that characters from previous books often made small appearances. Reading about them always made me smile.

I know I’m not the only series reader. Look at the popularity of the Twilight series and, only twenty or so years back, The Baby-Sitters Club. Little House on the Prairie, Amelia Bedelia, The Boxcar Children, even Mercer Mayer’s Little Monster books. There’s more. Oh, lots more!

Let’s face it. We’re all readers here. We all have likes and dislikes, favorites and not so favorites. Just for grins and giggles—and to appease my curiosity—here’s a list of questions that have been rolling around in my mind.

Are you a series reader?

Do you like reading about characters from past books who slide easily into and out of stories?

If you had a choice between a non-series book and a series book by, say, your favorite author, which would you buy?

Do you read each series book as it comes out, or do you save them to read one after the other?

What’s the one thing you especially like (or dislike) about series?

With the poor economy we’re dealing with, would you forego buying a series book, feeling that once the first is bought, you’re locked into buying the rest?

Have you always, like me, loved series books?

What’s your favorite series, whether from childhood or as an adult?

Have fun!