I've had this problem for a long time, but I really think I hate series. My biggest issue with them? I can never finish them. I can only think of a handful of series that I've actually gotten through, which of course includes Harry Potter, The Hunger Games (which I only finished last week so it's not much to boast about,) a few romance series, etc. But there are a ton of other firsts that I've started and still haven't gotten to the second one even though it's been years (Delirium, The Immortal Rules, Hush Hush, etc.) and even though I really want to read the rest of these series, I can't seem to get myself to pick them up.
I think there are a few reasons to my whole hating series thing though. For one thing, I hate when I don't know that a book is part of a series until I am a good portion into it or done with it. That drives me crazy! I don't know how this happens, but I have a good idea that it might be because I buy so many books at once, put them on my bookshelves and then don't touch them until several years later. During this time that these books went untouched, several others in the series came out along the way and somehow missed the memo. Then I'm stuck with yet another series that I might never finish.
I also don't like the idea of a story ending. This is kind of weird because every book has an ending right? But a stand alone just ends. There's no expectation for more and you can just deal with all the feels afterwards and know that the characters lived (sometimes) happily ever after. But with a series, for me it's like "Omg I already read book #1 and #2 and now #3 is the last one and I am not sure if I am ready for this to end." It's just so difficult for me to let these characters go, especially if I've been reading them for years and finally the last book is here and it will finally end. It crushes me.
I think one of the biggest reasons why I don't like series is when I feel like the first book has ended and then all of a sudden it turns into a trilogy or saga or something. I try not to think of it like this because I have heard from so many authors that when they first started thinking of their stories, they always pictured it as a three book thing or something, and then they got a deal for three books and there you go. But I feel that series have become so popular these last few years, especially with so many books being made into movies, that authors now choose that route instead of sticking to stand alones. And sometimes I just feel like a book was good enough to end like that.
The reason behind this post, I think is because I just finished Mockingjay. And you know what? I was disappointed. I read The Hunger Games in 2010. The third book wasn't out then yet, but I originally planned (like I always do) to finish the series, like, immediately. Instead, I didn't pick up Catching Fire until late last year because the movie was about to be released and I had to be at the midnight premiere and all. But it took me three years to get to the second book. During those years I loved Katniss and I loved Peeta and I struggled with the idea that she might choose Gale and what would I do without the boy with the bread? And then finally I picked up the last book and I read it and I cried and I finally found out how it ended and it wasn't enough. That ending wasn't good enough for me. And when I review it I will go into more detail, but my final thoughts were, after all these years...that's it? That's all I get? And it wasn't exactly that I wasn't satisfied with it, but I had put so much love all these years into these characters and now they're gone. Of course, I'll one day re-read these books and I'm exaggerating a bit, but that's what it feels like to me when I finish a series. And that's why I sort of dread both starting new ones and continuing ones I have already started.
How about you out there? Do you love/hate series? Are you just as terrible as I am about finishing them or do you speed read through them?
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