Tuesday 25 September 2012

Top Ten Tuesday: Unfinished Series


Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Bookish.



Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished

I am terrible at finishing series. Just terrible. If I don't have access to the next book right away, I get distracted by something shiny and new and before I know it, months, even years have passed and still I haven't read the whole series. There are one or two series I've given up on by choice, but most of my list are just a victim of my poor attention span and I have the best of intentions to finish them. Soon.



10. The Hush, Hush series.
OK, I did say there were one or two I've given up by choice. This is one of them. I enjoyed Hush, Hush in an I-know-I-shouldn't-but-this-is-really-entertaining way. But I thought Crescendo was a confusing mess and the cliffhanger annoyed me. When I heard that Silence was more of the same, with another cliffhanger, I was done.

9. The Gossip Girl series.
Another deliberate drop. I started reading the books because I loved the TV series, but the TV series gave the characters a lot more depth - I couldn't stand them in the books and four books in, I gave them up.

8. The Divergent series.
This will probably shock a lot of lovers of this series, but while I liked Divergent, I wasn't "Oh my god, 5 stars!" about it. I just liked it. And when Insurgent was heavily promoted at the beginning of the year, I wasn't really feeling the hype. I do intend to read it, because I do really like Tris as a heroine, but I'm not in any particular hurry.

7. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 8.
Buffy is my favourite TV show of all time. I read the comic book continuation because I will take the characters and the universe in any way I can get them. But it's been really trying to keep up with the comics and read about much-loved characters acting completely differently or even dying. I'm undecided about continuing; I'm wondering if I'd rather just keep the memories of the TV show.

6. The Sookie Stackhouse series.
Ah, Sookie Stackhouse. To be honest, not finishing the series has nothing to do with the books themselves - I've read 5 and enjoyed them all. It's my waning love for True Blood that's done it. And knowing there's something like 21 books in this series is a bit daunting, because at my speed, it'll take years more to finish. But I'm open to visiting Bon Temps again.

5. The Stephanie Plum series.
I actually love the Stephanie Plum books, but it doesn't take long to see that they're more than a little repetitive. Read too many in a row and they become a blur of Stephanie screwing up, eating junk food, flirting with Morelli and making jokes about Joyce and dogs, Vinnie and goats and how Lula used to be a ho. So you need to take a nice long break between books and only go back when you miss all that stuff. I don't know if I'll ever finish the entire series (will it matter? The characters will still be in the same place, no matter what) but I read one about yearly and I'm happy with that.

4. The Millennium trilogy.
I liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but it wasn't an easy read, in size or in subject matter. I read it because of the hype, but I'm squeamish and Adult Crime is not my genre. I've heard good things about the next two books and I want to read them despite expecting more gruesome killings, but it's hard for me to pick up a book that's 500+ pages, when I know I could read 2 or 3 shorter books in the same time.

3. The Princess Diaries.
When I picked up the first Princess Diaries book, it was honestly one of the best reading experiences I've ever had. I devoured the next few and have read up to Book 5. Of course I want to read everything that happens to Mia but The Princess Diaries fell victim to the distracted-by-the-shiny-and-new thing. It's hard to keep the excitement going over 10 books and 8 years and The Princess Diaries fell down my list of book priorities. But I do want to finish it and I will.

2. The Gemma Doyle trilogy.
I only have the last book left to read, but have put it off because a)it's a massive 700 page-er and b) I've heard about the tree and I'm dreading that story development. I will read it, though; I want to finish this series before I start The Diviners and I want to start The Diviners, like, yesterday.

1. Vampire Academy.
Look, I love VA. I do! And I'm dying to find out what happens after Shadow Kiss. VA has just...gotten away from me somehow. Let's face it, with everybody moving onto Bloodlines, VA has become old news and there have been so many new books since then. But finishing it is my top series priority. Don't worry, Rose and Dimitri, I'm coming back to you!

13 comments:

  1. I think I have trouble with a series when it's left on a cliffhanger while the AUTHOR goes after something shiny and new. Like the Legendsong trilogy which STILL has only two books in it after fifteen years with a third that the author is finally writing, but when it will come out is anyone's guess. The author is so very prolific that her publishers demand a new series before the old one is done.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, that is crazy-making! I can see how that would make you lose interest in a series.

      Delete
  2. I agree with you about the Stephanie Plum books--they're fun, but you have to space them out. Princess Diaries, I read the first 6 or 7 then skipped to the last one. The series was getting lame, but I needed to know what happened! And I cant believe you haven't finished VA yet! They're all so good!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know! I need to finish VA! I think the first 3 three Princess Diaries books are perfect, but 4 and 5 weren't as good - not as much was happening and I wonder if 10 books is too much and the story was getting stretched too far? I wish I could skip to the end, but I'm kind of OCD about that - I don't think I can skip books out!

      Delete
  3. Right there with you on Hush, Hush and Gossip Girl, but I have kept up with Divergent. It's so hard to keep up with some series. I have a handful that I adore and will keep up on, but others will fall by the wayside if I'm not that into them. :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know. It really doesn't help that *everything* is a series. You've got to let some fall away.

      Delete
  4. I also didn't finish Divergent or Stephanie Plum. I couldn't get into the first book of VAMPIRE ACADEMY so didn't finish that one either... Too many series not enough time-I say :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup. Much better to stick to the series you like.

      Delete
  5. I am choosing not to read The Sookie Stackhouse series for the sole reason of the 21 books. That is insanity! I can't believe there are so many books. I also enjoyed Divergent but not as much as others, and I haven't read Insurgent nor do I think I will. But that's just me.

    My Top Ten Tuesday

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, the more I think about 21 books, the more doubtful I am I will ever finish.

      Delete
  6. I read the first Sookie Stackhoise book long before I knew it was a series. It was in the crime section of the library. I thought it fun as a mystery novel, but 21 books? No, thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Princess Diaries made my list this week too! And I FORGOT all about Gossip Girl... that should be on mine too!! I liked the Millenium Series, but the first book was the best so it's no biggie if you don't go further than that :)

    My TTT

    ReplyDelete
  8. I read one or two of the Gossip Girl books. I think the TV show is so much better!

    ReplyDelete

If you visit this blog, please comment! I really do appreciate and read every one and try to answer back as much as possible.