I have a confession to make...

...if it's part of the series, I'll probably read it! I can't help myself.

I don't remember there being nearly as many book series when I was a kid. Let's see...there were The Little House books, The Chronicles of Narnia, Ramona Quimby, The Boxcar Children. I know there were more, but those are the few I was most familiar with. But now...now it seems every author is writing a series with trilogies being the most popular. Don't get me wrong, I love it and can't help myself. I mean I might need a 12 step program to stop sending all my money to publishers. I don't even know how many books I've pre-ordered in the past three years. It's a genius plot to ensure job security by authors because I'm convinced that the world is populated by people like me who are compelled to read until the bitter end. Honestly, I'm disappointed when a book is a stand alone. I think the reason I'm so drawn to the idea of a series is because I get so totally and completely wrapped up in the creation of the author that I crave more of it.

I've started to learn my lesson when it comes to reading a novel series. It's pure agony waiting for the next book to be published. Rule: Don't read anything that doesn't already have at least three books written in the series. Being a teacher and librarian makes following that rule particularly difficult as I try to stay abreast of what's new for my students to read. This means, unfortunately, that I'm constantly waiting for the next installment of a gripping tale. Luckily, most of what I read these days is YA and the turn around on the next novel can be fairly quick. I have had to adopt a new rule: Don't tell other people (especially impatient ones) about a series that is still being written!

Why not? Because, I will inevitably get an angry phone call from a frustrated reader! That's what happened when I introduced my brother to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. He couldn't believe that upon finishing Catching Fire he would have to wait a meager two months before reading Mockingjay! I mean I had been waiting five months longer than him! I believe his actual words might have been, "How dare you tell me to read a series that I have to wait to be finished!" I'm more careful now and he's been very gracious and not gotten mad about waiting a few short weeks for the sequel to Veronica Roth's Divergent (Insurgent which hits stores on Tuesday, but more about that in a later post.)

I on the other hand feel that I'm in a constant state of wanting. I've recently joined a site that allows it's members to download pre-pubs to their mobile device for free. Of course, I was drawn to a science fiction novel set it Los Angeles in a future where some of the population is suffering from a mutated rabies virus that turns them into cannibals. I almost fell off the elliptical machine at the gym when I finished the book because the ending was so unsatisfying! The author clearly left it open for a sequel. Great! Awesome! Fantastic! Looking forward to it! Except The Weepers: The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker won't be available for purchase until May 15th which means I'll be waiting a long time for rest of the story!

The bottom line: don't turn your nose up to a series! Don't assume that if the book is part of a series it is less than stellar. Instead, pick a series and commit. In my experience, many of them get better as they go on. As you invest in the series, you are usually rewarded with greater depth of character which always draws you in even more.