For this discussion post, we joining the Tell Me Something Tuesday challenge run by Jen at That’s What I’m Talking About. Here’s the topic for this week. How long do you stick with a series you loved, if you start not enjoying the books?
Julie:
I’m all about not wasting time (the very little free time I do have) reading books I don’t care for. I would say the short answer is, not very long!
I mostly “pause” and never return due to lack of time and all the shiny new books. So much pausing. SOOO many books on my Goodreads TBR to maybe never get to the R stage.
I can’t think of very many examples of where I quit a series due to disinterest though. But I can think of one series in particular that I stopped because one book pissed me off enough. I really liked the Marked (House of Night) series at first. The first book’s main baddie turned into a redeemable character later, and I love that. But I can’t recall which book but at one point the main evil killed off yet another favorite character of mine and I just kinda got sick of it. Like I get that some characters have to die in battles with big bads but at some point it becomes unenjoyable and just cringey you just kinda say nah. So I stopped after that book, though I do think I had previously purchased later books in the series. I can’t remember since it was years ago, several moves ago, and all my books are still currently in storage on the mainland.
Lynn:
Like Julie, I do not have a problem stopping a series that I’m not enjoying, in books or in TV. No one has time for that!
I have a whole Goodreads shelf devoted to the next book in the series to keep track of where I am. For me, it’s more about being distracted by new and shiny books and forgetting about the next ones in the series that I meant to read. I keep meaning to get back to the THRONE OF GLASS series, but the audio narration on the first two was horrible. And I sure as heck do not have time to sit and read long books.
One series that I truly gave up on is the FEVER books by Karen Marie Moning. These books are also the reason I’ve mostly given up on urban fantasy. They completely went off the rails with sticking one of the characters in a time loop to only come back and have an immortal fall in love with her. OFF. THE. RAILS. And I loved the first five. But books 6-9 were horrible.
Are you like us – no qualms in giving up on books you aren’t enjoying?
We are also linking up our discussion posts with the 2023 Book Blog Discussion Challenge hosted by Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction and Shannon @ It Starts at Midnight!
For me, this usually happens accidentally or organically. Like, I put a series down and then just don’t manage to pick it up again. But I almost always intend to finish because the IDEA of not finishing really bothers me (even if the actual not finishing apparently does not. LOL!)
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So in theory, I am a completionist. I want to finish a series unless I HATE the thing. That said… there are series I absolutely LOVE that I still have sequel(s) sitting on my shelf for. So while I say I always finish series, I literally never finish them, whether I like them of not hah. I think I have gotten better about not adding books to my TBR for series I *really* didn’t like the first book of but… it is still hard! I can’t help but think the whole “but what if it gets BETTER?” thoughts. Same reason I am bad at DNFing, actually!
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I agree with your posts. It really depends, but I am inclined to go a couple books on authors / series I’ve invested a lot of time in. But this summarizes most cases “I mostly “pause” and never return due to lack of time and all the shiny new books.” And unlike you both, I don’t use GR to track next books. So if there are a couple years until the next release, I’ll have forgotten completely!
Jen Twimom recently posted…Listen Up! Audiobook Review: Talisman Tails by Danielle Garrett
Hah! Too true on forgetting, Jen!