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Do you read series? Do you ever get bored of them?

38 replies

JackieTheFart · 29/05/2013 15:07

I like reading thrillers and crime novels, and once I like the author and style I tend to read them all in a frenzy!

I love Lee Child's Reacher books (do NOT ask me about the film!)
I also love Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak series. I felt so sad when I finished the last (so far) in the series.

I liked Camilla Lackberg books but they were very formulaic and I've stopped reading them now.

What series do you like, and can you recommend any that aren't thrillers?! I'm thinking of starting my Kate Shugak's again soon Grin

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RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 29/05/2013 17:11

I read young adult series, eg Harry Potter, the Michael Grant 'Gone' series, various others (my favourite is the one beginning Across The Nightingale Floor by Leann Hearne).

Love The Lord of the Rings

Like CJ Sansom's Shardlake series

Stephen King's The Dark Tower series is brilliant, if you're up to fantasy.

NicholasTeakozy · 29/05/2013 17:15

I love the Charlie Parker novels by John Connolly.

Francagoestohollywood · 29/05/2013 17:25

I really enjoyed the first 3 novels by Patricia Cornwell, then I got bored.

I love Maigret, is that considered a series? Brilliant reading anyway.

CoteDAzur · 29/05/2013 18:24

Dune (sci-fi) I love all 6 books but the first 2 are especially brilliant (I haven't bothered with the "prequels" written by Frank Herbert's son after his death)

Hyperion (sci-fi) First 2 are exceptional, the next 2 are merely good.

Interview With the Vampire series by Anne Rice - I read & loved the first 3-4. 5 & 6 were OK iirfc. The rest wasn't good.

The Witching Hour (supernatural, ghost, witches) again by Anne Rice - First 2 books are great, the next two not so much

Yes, I see a pattern there but not sure what it means Grin

talkingnonsense · 29/05/2013 18:28

I like Michael Connelly s Bosch books. Quite like pere robinsons series can't remember the detectives name. Love a few fantasy series's if you read that genre?

talkingnonsense · 29/05/2013 18:28

Peter not pere sorry!

BillComptonstrousers · 29/05/2013 18:37

Diana Gabaldon voyager series, I re read these all the time, they are my comfort books Smile

Penny Vincenzi's 3 book saga about the Lytton family

The Hunger Games

Harry potter Smile

BillComptonstrousers · 29/05/2013 18:38

And The Witching Hour! Bloody brilliant book

quirrelquarrel · 30/05/2013 10:25

I used to. I loved The No1 Ladies' Detective Agency (which prompted me to find out how apostrophes worked as I could never remember where exactly it was in the title Blush) and read until The Double Comfort Safari Club, then stopped. My friend gave me the first one for my 11th birthday and I thought it looked boring, but gave it a chance and got absolutely hooked and reread it so many times. So did my dad. He'd read them after me and we'd talk about them.

Now if I read series it's stuff like the Babysitters Club, Harry Potter, Drina, Sweet Valley Twins....but even then I get into the individual books much more, not so much the series. I used to reread and reread....now I don't. I sort of miss it but think I've grown out of it a bit.

KurriKurri · 30/05/2013 10:55

CJ Sansom - Shardlake series
Peter Robinson - Alan Banks series
Susan Hill - Simon Serrailler series
John Harvey - Frank Elder series and Grayson and Walker series (also his Resnick novels - although I prefer his others)
Denise Mina - Garnethill trilogy (excellent series, with an interesting female protagonist)
Peter May - Lewis Trilogy - also very good.
Simon Beckett - David Hunter series
Elly Griffiths - Ruth Galloway series

these are all crime/mystery novels I have enjoyed - with the protagonist's (sometimes a policeman, sometimes a forensic scientist, etc) story developing through out the series.

JemimaPuddle · 30/05/2013 10:57

A second vote for John Connolly's Charlie Parker series.

JackieTheFart · 30/05/2013 15:16

Argh! Just lost my post....

Anyway, loved Drina as a child. Am glad Dune is good as I just downloaded it - love SF so will look for Hyperion as well.

Wasn't a fan of Shardlake, and the Gone series I found so brutal. All the violence but from children I found so shocking. I normally love apocalyptic/dystopic fiction so this surprised me. Loved The Hunger Games.

I'm enjoying a serialised story by Margaret Atwood at the moment - called Positron.

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BlingLoving · 30/05/2013 15:20

I am going to take this opoprtunity to rant for just a moment if you all don't mind.

I read lots of series (and will be looking up some from here that I haven't read) but one of my guilty pleasures is I read "wolves and vampire" series on my Kindle - the kind that are not really mainstream, and while they do get published as proper books, erally are aimed at Kindle readers. And increasingly, those series are not a series of individual books, they are CHAPTERS in an overall story. I just finished one where the so-called "book" ends with the heroine heading off to start exacting revenge. Ie, it's just the end of a chapter. In fact, it took me a few minutes to realise it was the end of the book. At first I thought there was something wrong with my kindle.

It infuriates me so much I'm unlikely now to carry on purchasing the series. Is it just me?

JackieTheFart · 30/05/2013 21:42

Haven't had that problem BlingLoving, but I don't blame you if it puts you off.

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marissab · 31/05/2013 08:05

Yeah i loved the sookie stackhouse novels but havn't bought the last two. Just not bothered any more. Everyone everywhere is harping on about game of thrones though so may give that a go. I recimmend the inspector morse novels. Morse's character is brilliantly written. Really enjoyed them.

JackieTheFart · 31/05/2013 16:11

I tried Game of Thrones marissab but couldn't get into it. Might try it again.

Morse....hmm. Loved the TV series, but I tend to prefer American crime novels. Not sure why. Still, might give it a go. I like the fact that I feel like I know the character inside out when it's a long and involved series of books.

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KurriKurri · 31/05/2013 16:30

The one's I recommended are all British crime thillers - so perhaps not your cup of tea. Have you tried the old classic American stuff like Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe books?

PeachActiviaMinge · 31/05/2013 17:16

Have you read the Archie and Gretchen books? Fantastic crime books I started to read the first and ended up reading them all usually reading a book a day they are that good.

TSSDNCOP · 31/05/2013 17:20

Loved Jack Reacher, and contrary to popular opinion I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

The Lytton saga by P Vicenzi.

Patricia Cornwell.

Kay Slaughter A is for...

SisyphusDad · 31/05/2013 19:41

Another vote for Patricia Cornwell. The first half dozen or so were brilliantly dark, the next lot were so-so and the remainder were an incentive to stop reading her.

Also another vote for Harry Potter. Got some way in to Order of the Phoenix and got bored. This may have coincided with the movies being produced. As Michael Flanders put it, "I haven't actually read it - I'm waiting for the play to come out." (Well, that was more than 50 years ago.)

The one I would add is David Eddings' fantasy series the Belgariad and the Malloreon, each five books. The first series was great - I reread them 'til the books fell apart and then carried on reading them. The first two books of the second series were also really good, but after that you could see from the writing that even Eddings was bored with them. I can just imagine him screaming "just let me finish them and be done with them!"

TSSDNCOP · 31/05/2013 19:55

Sisyphus are you talking about the ones where Benton is fake dead? I agree. Cornwell should have quit whilst she was ahead. Including the lamentable Hornets Nest.

bottleofbeer · 02/06/2013 14:29

Yep, Patricia Cornwell. The books just became homages to how wonderful Kay Scarpetta is.

I do love Val McDermid, her mind is so impressively dark but a running theme I couldn't help but notice and then notice again and again was pretty much all male characters have serious flaws (while of course Carol Jordan is seriously wonderful in all she does) Tony Hill gets off lightly but then he's impotent. I just always sense an undercurrent of total lack of respect for men in general. Cornwell does the same to a lesser degree.

bottleofbeer · 02/06/2013 14:34

I've got about four Karin Slaughter books upstairs, never could get into any of them despite trying numerous times.

It's the blurb, they drag me in every time and every time I give her another chance. The plots sound excellent but I just don't find her writing lives up to them. I know a lot of people who love her though.

JackieTheFart · 02/06/2013 19:17

I really enjoyed Kisscut by Karin Slaughter, even though I found it totally implausible that the ME would know a middle-aged woman in a relationship was a lesbian because her hymen was intact. I mean - really? Karin do you suffer from a distinct lack of imagination?! Grin I was prepared to overlook that one point....but on reading again I find her books designed to shock and just not very good writing.

I have enjoyed the Patricia Cornwell that I have read, but not so much that I seek them out.

Has anyone ever read any Karen Rose? I find them entertaining to read, but they all follow the same formula. It's like a cut and paste job on every one. I do like the way she generally does a set of three with intertwining characters though.

I don't tend to re-read those types as I do other books though!

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Louise1956 · 04/06/2013 23:27

i never get tired of Agatha Christie's Poirot and Miss Marple series, I can re read those again and again.

Likewise P.G. wodehouse's Jeeves series.

janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series makes me laugh, though I didn't care much for the last three, I think she is running out of steam.

alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies Detective Agency series is very enjoyable.

terry Pratchett's Discworld series has provided much enjoyment over the years, though some of the recent ones have been short on humour.

The Mrs Pollifax series by Dorothy Gillman is another one I enjoy.