When reading a series.....

[pagesboundtogether]

When you are reading different series of books....do you go back and reread the previous books in the series every time a new one comes out?? I find that I am reading several different series of books and they sometimes flow together and I am always so tempted to go back and reread the previous books. Does anyone else do this?

[David]

I don't go back very often. I have to say, for the Asimov Foundation series that then was intermixed with the Robot series and came out over a period of more than 20 years, this was a bit of a challenge. But I guess I'm just one of those people who feels like I should read something I've never read, since there are a gazillion books out there.

[pagesboundtogether]

Joyce.....I do too! Everyone tells me its way too time consuming but like you....i get so much more out of it that way!

[Jonathan , A dream within a dream]

I don't do that often but I do do it sometimes for series when the final book is about to come out and it's been ages since I read the first. I'm doing that with The Wheel of Time right now - going back and re-reading the original books.

[Lesli]

When I am reading a series, I usually try and get the next one to read right away. I want to keep the story line going in my head so I won't forget what I have read.

[pagesboundtogether]

Lesli wrote: "When I am reading a series, I usually try and get the next one to read right away. I want to keep the story line going in my head so I won't forget what I have read."

Me too...however I am reading alot of series and the next book wont be due for several months :o(

[Melissa]

I always say I will, and then I never do. Case in point: when the last three or four Harry Potter books came out, I kept telling myself I'd go back and read the earlier books, to remind myself of certain details and see if they held any clues to the one coming out, and then I never did. I got caught up in school, or I'd be reading another book and not want to start a new one. I was like that with Amelia Atwater-Rhodes's Kiesha'ra series, too. I read the series as soon as the books came out, and before every new book was after the first one, I'd tell myself that I'd read the earlier ones in the series, and then real life caught up to me. I'd need to do my homework, have to go to band practice, and whatnot.

[Susan from MD]

It depends upon what kind of series it is. If it is a mystery/thriller series, then generally no - the books are usually written to stand on their own without having read prior books.

If the books fit together to tell a bigger story, then I may at least skim the prior books if it has been a long time since I read them. For example, I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the second one when the second came out in paperback, thinking that the third one would be released fairly soon - but it wasn't! Now I'm trying to decide whether to skim the first two to make sure I remember who everyone is and what happened so that I can get the most out of the third book.

[Maggie the Muskoka Library Mouse]

No. Once I have read a book, I do not reread it. I keep a book journal, so sometimes I go back and look at any notes I made about the book in question.