09 - A book from a series with more than 20 books

[Pepper]

Sarah wrote: "I have a random copy of Eric sat on my shelves. Do you know if I can read it without ever reading any of the other Discworld books?"

Lots of Pratchett books work as standalones, but IMO that isn't one of them. It's largely about a character who was left at the end of a previous story in a dire situation (like, he's literally in Hell), which if I remember right isn't directly explained - or explainable! - in this book.

It's also - and I love Pratchett - not all that good. It's one of the few of his that I've never bothered to re-read.

[Tania]

Alicia wrote: "Sarah wrote: "Time to re-read a childhood favourite? Goosebumps, Sweet Valley High or Babysitters Club all work :D"

The Boxcar Children"

A few more are:
The Hardy Boys series by Franklin W. Dixon (56 or 58 books in the original series)
The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West (33 books)
The Black Stallion series by Walter Farley (20 books on the dot in the original series, although the prompt says more than)

[Tania]

The Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy is apparently at 28 books.

[Sara]

Tania wrote: "The Jack Ryan series by Tom Clancy is apparently at 28 books."

Oh that's interesting. I'm currently reading Patriot Games (for another challenge I'm trying to finish...prompt is a book my dad loves). I could read another one in the series or (more likely at this point) finish Patriot Games after New Years.

[Tania]

Another good series that has more books than I realized is the Prey series by John Sandford (starting with Rules of Prey), it's at 29

[Brandon]

Of the Jack Ryan books that Clancy wrote, the ones I would recommend are The Hunt for Red October and The Cardinal of the Kremlin. After that, the series takes a pretty steep nosedive.

[Melody]

If you include the companion books like Who Could That Be at This Hour? and The Beatrice Letters, A Series of Unfortunate Events has over 20 books.

[writer...]

Sara wrote: "Well, this should be challenging.What are some really long series?
Listopia link: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1......"


Donna Leon's Comissario Brunetti 28
Charles Todd Inspector Ian Rutledge 22

[Hannah]

Sarah wrote: "Ah! I forgot Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series! Starts with Sharpe's Tiger. This is what I'll be reading - 21 works total."

I’ve been reading my way through this series this year, and I’ve got one book left to read. I’m going to try to keep it for next year, though Sharpe's Devil will probably be the first book I read next year!

[Ashlee]

Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series is up to book 26 :)

[Pauline]

One of my favorite series is the Brother Cadfael books by Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter). There are 21 of them, and it's been years since I reread any of them.

[Monica]

J. A. Jance's series featuring J P Beaumont has more than 20 books. So does her series featuring Joanna Brady.

[Deena]

Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler has over 20 books.

[Rachel]

I am going to go with Stephen King or Anne Rice more than likely, but there are quite a few on my list I could use.

The prompt is actually not 20 books in a series, it is "a book by an author who has written more than 20 books."

[Rachel]

Shannen wrote: "Rachel wrote: "I am going to go with Stephen King or Anne Rice more than likely, but there are quite a few on my list I could use.

The prompt is actually not 20 books in a series, it is "a book by..."

Oh ha ha!! I totally missed that when I was reading it! My bad!

[Rachel]

This is actually harder to Narrow down than I thought. Here are my options:
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
The Color of Magic
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
Alanna: The First Adventure
Naked in Death

[Sarah]

Pepper wrote: "Sarah wrote: "I have a random copy of Eric sat on my shelves. Do you know if I can read it without ever reading any of the other Discworld books?"

Lots of Pratchett books work as standalones, but ..."

Thanks for the info! It's a bit ironic that I got it in a set of "the best SFF books ever" and it's not one of the good ones lol

[Laura]

Anyone including children's series for this category - we loved the Hank the Cowdog series as kids, and I remember the audiobooks being especially funny.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/4151...

[Tanu]

The Phryne Fisher series, Discworld and, yes, Agatha Christie, would qualify for this. Not sure about the Peter Lord Wimsey books by Dorothy L. Sayers.

The early Animorphs books actually hold up beautifully. The later ones, not so much.

[Ann]

Tim Dorsey's Serge Storms series has 23 books

[Kendra]

Did we decide if novellas bring a series over 20? If so, there are 28 books in J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood series, if you’re into paranormal romance. If novellas don’t count, it’s just shy of 20, though.

[Rachel]

How would you count something like Saga or The Wicked and the Divine, where there are collected editions but also single issues?

[Jackie]

Rachel wrote: "How would you count something like Saga or The Wicked and the Divine, where there are collected editions but also single issues?"

For comics, for me personally, there need to be more than 20 volumes, since issues are rarely meant to be completely standalone.

[The Chapter Conundrum (Stacey)]

For anyone reading with a middle grade daughter or niece etc. there's always the Heartland Series by Lauren Brooke too which nobody has mentioned yet! There are at least 25 books in the series that I know of and own. They can be read as standalone books for sure, in my experience with the first 10..the author always recaps or re-explains anything from the previous books that's of importance. The series numbering is sort of odd though, it's numbered 1-20 on some books and then there are 5 extra books that aren't numbered at all but are definitely part of the series towards the end.

Also the Canadian TV show bases certain episodes on certain novels for sure, so you could always check out an episode of that if you're not sure about choosing one of these. :)

It starts off with Coming Home

[Juniper]

darn! i was thinking she had 21 books, but elizabeth george has exactly 20 books in her 'inspector lynley' series. A Great Deliverance is the first one. i am hoping there might be a new one published in 2020? maybe? her most recent was released in 2018.

M.C. Beaton would work. The Quiche of Death is first in a 30-book series. and her hamish macbeth series has 33 titles; Death of a Gossip is first.

Georges Simenon's 'inspector maigret' series works. Pietr the Latvian is the first of 75 in the series (!!!)

[Rachel]

I'm not sure if this has been asked already (possibly even by me, lol), but how would you count something like Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunters books? They are technically divided into several series, but all in the same world.

[Drakeryn]

I'd also count books from the same world as long as there's a major connection (minor cameos/crossovers don't count IMO). So I would count the Shadowhunter Chronicles all together.

I was actually wondering about this myself, because I was counting and I don't think there's quite 20 "regular" Shadowhunter books:

6 books in the Mortal Instruments trilogies
3 books in the Infernal Devices trilogy
3 books in the Dark Artifices trilogy
3 short story collections (Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy, The Bane Chronicles, Ghosts of the Shadow Market)
2 books in the Endless Curses trilogy (counting book #2 scheduled for 2020 release)
1 book in the Last Hours trilogy (Chain of Gold, scheduled for 2020 release)

Which is 18. But then you have the coloring book and the graphic novel adaptations and such, so it depends on how lenient you want to be. (Alternately I might just be missing something, there's a lot, lol)

[Darci]

I keep meaning to start the Discworld series, so I'm going to go with The Color of Magic here.

[Rachel]

Drakeryn wrote: "I'd also count books from the same world as long as there's a major connection (minor cameos/crossovers don't count IMO). So I would count the Shadowhunter Chronicles all together.

I was actually ..."

I don't think you missed anything, I think I just can't count lol.

I was counting the Bane Chronicles, Tales from the Shadowhunters Academy, etc. as the 11 or 12 books that they are listed as on Goodreads, not really thinking about the collected versions instead. I don't know that I'd count several 50 page novellas as separate books strongly enough to count toward this prompt.

[Shanna]

Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell (just over 20)...they are some of my favorites. I think I will read Sue Grafton or a Poirot book though as I have read all of Cornwell’s.

[Tara]

Would the Outlander series count? There are so many companion pieces

[Sarah]

Ooooo, that makes me think that surely there must be enough books set in Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere to count.

[Ellyn]

Rita Mae Brown has 30ish Mrs. Murphy mysteries.

[Alicia]

Tara wrote: "Would the Outlander series count? There are so many companion pieces"

Even with the 1/2 counts, there are only 13. The Lord John Grey's are not the same series.

[Tishara]

I, Alex Cross There are 30 in the Alex Cross series

[SadieReadsAgain]

Thank god I have a Agatha Christie on my shelves, because I am not a series reader at all! So I'm going with Taken at the Flood.

[Lorraine]

Anabell wrote: "There is also the 'In death' series by J.D. Robb

Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene"

I was thinking about "....in Death" also. I started this series a few months ago but got kind of bored because it seemed they were mostly all the same. But I want to find the book where they get married so I'm going to use that one for this category.

[Lynette]

The Elm Creek Quilt series is also good for this.

[Christy]

I'm very sad that there are only 16 books in the Jeeves and Wooster series, according to goodreads. I was looking forward to that! Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to settle ;-) for Men at Arms.

[Stephen]

Christy wrote: "I'm very sad that there are only 16 books in the Jeeves and Wooster series, according to goodreads. I was looking forward to that! Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to settle ;-) for [book:Men at Ar..."

The Jeeves books are all part of the same world as most of his other books (for instance Sir Roderick Glossop appears both in those and in Blandings Castle). So there are more than 20 books that fit as well together as a series as the Discworld books (which also has sub-series).

Or, you could just read one for an author who has written more than 20 books.

[Jesse]

James Rollins’s Sigma Force series has 23 books according to Goodreads

[Michelle]

If anyone is interested in going classic Jules Verne wrote fifty-four novels in his Extraordinary Voyages collection. These include "Around the World in 80 Days", "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" and "Journey to the Center of the Earth" among many other lesser known titles. He would actually fall under three different categories in the Bonus Section.

[Milena]

Jesse wrote: "James Rollins’s Sigma Force series has 23 books according to Goodreads"

Does it? I thought it was only like 16. I would love to squeeze one of the books into this category.

[Karin]

Michelle wrote: "If anyone is interested in going classic Jules Verne wrote fifty-four novels in his Extraordinary Voyages collection. These include "Around the World in 80 Days", "20,000 Leagues Under the Seas" an..."

Of course, that is using series loosely. He did NOT put them out as a series; they were turned into one by a publisher :). But, if we go by what has been classified series on GR by publishers, then this absolutely works!

[Jenna ✨DNF Queen✨Here, Sometimes...]

Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" series has more than 20 books for sure :) I'll probably go with one of those

[Christy]

Stephen wrote: "Christy wrote: "I'm very sad that there are only 16 books in the Jeeves and Wooster series, according to goodreads. I was looking forward to that! Oh, well, I guess I'll just have to settle ;-) for..."

That's great advice, thank you! If I go on a Wodehouse kick I can fit multiple books in there.

[Mel]

Like a few of you, I'm probably going to read one of the Poirot mysteries...just need to decide which one! I have quite a few of them on my tbr list.

[Kaley]

If you count the separately published short stories between books, the Chronicles of St. Mary's series by Jodi Taylor is a fun read!

[Daisy]

I am working on the famous five series and the three investigators series for the last year now and they are both way over 20 books so I am very happy about this one :D.

[Merlot58]

Deborah Knott series by Margaret Maron.