Reading cozy mysteries in order

[Ellen]

The Kindle is a big help with print size. Especially since my vision varies throughout the day-if I'm tired I need bigger print or if I start to get a headache, I can just switch up to whatever feels comfortable.

I love my Kindle, even though it doesn't replace paper books for me, which I kinda thought it would :(

What can I say, I'm just omnivorous when it comes to books, lol!

And I so agree about life being too short. I've accepted I'm never going to read all the books I want to, not even the ones I desperately want to: there are just too many of them, I'm 58 & even if I live to 110 & can keep on reading to the end, they'll still be a lot left. Not to mention wonderful new books that keep coming out & books I really, really want or even feel I need to reread (to being to really understand some books, it takes me at least 2 reads).

So I've gotten kind of ruthless-not that it matters to anyone else :} - about just reading what I want. I'm not in school & I'm not getting graded, no job promotion or degree or financial consideration or even acceptance/love depends on my choice of reading material! It took me a long time to get out of my school head-set about reading (even fun reads!) but I'm so there now!

People ask how I read so much, & one answer is I read what I want, when I want, & any way

[Sandra J]

Ellie wrote: "The Kindle is a big help with print size. Especially since my vision varies throughout the day-if I'm tired I need bigger print or if I start to get a headache, I can just switch up to whatever fee..."
Oh yes. I feel the same way. I'm almost 64, retired from teaching for 3 years now, and I'm reading what I want, when I want, and how I want. I often skip around in a book as I'm reading (unless it's an uncommonly gripping story), and I have no problem reading series books out of order. I just accept any character relationships as they are stated in the book. If I loved the book, I'll go read another in the series. It doesn't bother me to play catch up.
Karen, have you tried audio books when your eyes are tired? I listen to one in the car when I'm running errands, and I know a lot of people like to listen to them while they work on something else (Like housework-oh, well. No accounting for taste! LOL). I get most of mine from the library.

[Karen B.]

Thanks. Yes, I have an audio book right now from the library and that is one of the reasons I asked about reading out of order. It's a Charlane Harris book.
and I actually got hooked on Diane Mott Davidson because I picked up an audio book (cassette tape) on sale at Walmart to listen to on a long drive to North Jersey. I love your attitude about being retired from teaching and reading what you want when you want. I wonder if that has anything to do with us being teachers: so used to assigning reading. I do participate in Goodreads Giveaways and take that as a responsibility to read and review within a certain time period. Actually I am glad I did. I started one I didn't like in the beginning, kept going and ending up loving it. Will give a plug here.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

Reading a series in order, or out of order, is a personal preference. Neither is right or wrong. For any reason.

It is helpful, to those who choose to just pick up and read any book, to list those very few series that say, give away the killer in previous books. If you're not going to read any previous books in the series, it wouldn't matter, but if you are at any point, that would really kill the series for you. I think most authors don't do that, but a few inexperienced one's might.

[Ellen]

I'm so bad I often skip to the end anyway & then go back & read the rest. So I guess I can't be used as an example to anyone. :(

[Sherry]

Ellie wrote: "I'm so bad I often skip to the end anyway & then go back & read the rest. So I guess I can't be used as an example to anyone. :("

I don't do that, but if there are parts of the book I find just plain boring, I just skim over them to be sure I'm not missing any important plot points, and go on to the next interesting bit.

[Melodie]

ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "Reading a series in order, or out of order, is a personal preference. Neither is right or wrong. For any reason.

It is helpful, to those who choose to just pick up and read any book, to list th..."

Exactly right. However you choose to read is the right way for you! If I start out a series with the first book that makes me happy, but if I don't I'm happy, too! I just like a good read......wherever it falls!

[Ellen]

Thanks folks: I was beginning to feel a little self-conscious!

[Karendenice]

I think part of the reason that I'm so anal about reading them in order is because I have a mathematical mind set. I was a financial accountant before I retired and I had to account for every penny. I also used to be a terrible perfectionist. Having a child cured me of that. :)
And someone mentioned that it was best to read Anne Perry's series about the war in order. I certainly agree with that. I actually read the second book first and it kinda spoiled the first book a tad. It took me a while but I finally found all of the books in that series and read them in order. I really really enjoyed them. And I can't wait to get my hands on the latest one.

[Melodie]

Karendenice wrote: "I think part of the reason that I'm so anal about reading them in order is because I have a mathematical mind set. I was a financial accountant before I retired and I had to account for every penny..."

Maybe that's one of the reasons I don't care about RIO anymore. I've worked in accounting for over 30 years now, the last 25 or so as a payroll manager, even though I can't think of much I hate more than math & numbers. I have to account for everything all the time, so when it comes to my books I do what I want to do. As I mentioned before, I used to be fairly anal about RIO, but since a friend of mine passed away from an aneurysm at a Walmart who was my age I don't worry about that at all.

[Ellen]

Melodie, I am so sorry about your friend. I had a friend who was 41 when she died in her sleep of an aneurysm. It's such a terrible shock-death is always hard but sudden death of a peer-that, I think, shakes us to our core.

[Karendenice]

I'm also sorry about your friend, Melodie.

I'm also glad that we all have different opinions or we wouldn't be different and that would be boring. :) And even though I don't work any more I still love math and puzzles. I play Kakuro all the time and not as much but sometimes Sudoku. I also love to play chess. I also think that's why I love a good mystery. I love trying to figure out who the villian is.

[Mary X]

I read the Goldie Shulz series by Diane Mott Davidson and the Kinsey Milhone books by Sue Grafton out of order. I also read mystery series like Kay Scarpetta, Lucan Davenport, Eve Dallas, Eve Duncan somewhat out of order. I had no problem following the series at all.

Before I found online reading groups and websites-I used to just pick up a book and read it. If I liked it and found out it was part of a series then I'd get others. But then I joined PBS and Goodreads and decided that I should be reading series in order. Now my at home TBR is nearing 1,000 and then I have hundreds of books on 'want' lists that go with all these series I have in my TBR.

So I'm going back to how I read before.

[Mary X]

Also I have learned over the years:

Most romance and mystery series can be read out of order. Romances tend to be only connected by friends, co workers or by being related. Most mysteries have some personal background stuff but the main thing is the mystery which is usually resolved by the end of the book. I'm learning that most cozies don't really need to be read in order. You might spoil some peronal life stuff by reading them out of order. But usually not anything to ruin the whole series.

But Urban Fantasy and paranormal books I find can be better read in order. They have frequently have a villain or villainous group that goes from book to book. So it pays to read them in order as much as possible.

[Karendenice]

Mary, you do have a point. i believe that you are right. There are some series that I will read out of order and some that I won't . to me it depends a lot on the story.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

Alot of times, to me, the only book you should read in a series first, is the first one. I say that, because the main character which would run throughout the series is usually explained better, background, etc. in the first book. After that, they tend to believe you probably already know them and just give you a short synopsis and continue. Now that's not to say you can't read out of order, but it's nice to know who you're reading about first. Like with the Aunt Dimity series by Nancy Atherton. Personal stuff happens throughout the series in order: she starts single, gets married, has kids, nanny finds love, etc. Someone met in one book is good friend in another, etc. If all that doesn't bother you reading out of order, then the one thing you really should read first, is how our main character is introduced to her Aunt Dimity. She will give you a one or two paragraph description in later books if you missed it, but its so much more enjoyable if you really get to see them meet in the first book first. (Which, btw, is Aunt Dimity's Death.) If you aren't familiar with Aunt Dimity, our heroine Lori gets help from beyond the grave as she has conversations with her dead godmother, Aunt Dimity.

[Karendenice]

Briansgirl, when I found out that the first book was called Aunt Dimity's Death I was floored. I thought it might have been her last or at least somewhere in the middle. And what you say about reading at least the first one to sot of set up the series makes a lot of sense. In my case I read the second book in Charlaine Harries vampire series. I had so many questions I went and read the first and then read the second one again. But there are some books that i have read out of order. One example is Harlen Coben's with Myron in it. I've read three or four of them, not in order and I really enjoyed them. But I do look forward to getting the ones before that I haven't read yet. I like his writing.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

Yes, alot of series don't really matter too much what order you read them in, but with Aunt Dimity I think the first one really should come first so you can understand who and what Aunt Dimity is.

[Mary X]

Yeah that's a good point-reading book 1 first is a good idea and the rest in whatever order.

I have so many books here-I'm just going to start reading whatever I have. I just can't keep trying to read the ones I'm missing first. I'm at the point where I don't buy books if I suspect they're part of a series unless it says on it Book 1.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I have alot of mystery books that I found extremely cheap - used. I may have just one or two in a series of 4, 8, or 10+ books. If that's the case, then I'm obviously gonna read out of order as it's the only book I have of it.

I have all the Murder, She Wrote books. Since we're (almost) all familiar with who Jessica Fletcher is already from the tv series, to me the books don't matter what order you read them in. Her friendships with certain characters develop a bit over time but that's really minor as each mystery is completely a seperate novel. No doubt about that.

I prefer to read series in order, if I can. It makes more of a difference to me if I plan on reading alot or all of the series. If it's just a book here or there, then it wouldn't really matter to me.

I was surprised though that my library has the entire 15+ or whatever length it is Gideon Oliver series.... EXCEPT book one. Jeez. lol So I got on PBS to order just the first novel (so I'd get introduced to the main character) and then I'll read the rest from the library. I can't believe they have the entire series with the exception of the first book. lol

[Hannah]

ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "I was surprised though that my library has the entire 15+ or whatever length it is Gideon Oliver series.... EXCEPT book one. Jeez. lol"

My library's even more interesting - they only have Book 15! I picked it up and was halfway through it before I realized I had one that was so far into the series. And I thought it was strange enough that they only had G'Day to Die (Book 5 out of 6) of Maddy Hunter's Passport to Peril series in the entire council.

I've found that if you tend to borrow from libraries more than buy books, it's virtually impossible to read in order. More often than not, my local libraries wouldn't have the first book in a series. Sometimes (like I mentioned above) they might even have only one random book out of a long series. This is either because the rest of the series is spread over other libraries under the same council (in which case it'd cost me $2 per book to get them to bring it over) or they don't have it at all. There's the Interlibrary Loan option in that case, but that costs me $2.5 per book or even $6 in some cases.

[❂ Murder by Death]

Hannah - I have the same issue over here in Mel. Very few - almost no - complete series, and our interlibrary loan program is $5 per book and at that price I can buy the book from Book Depository and if I hate it or otherwise don't want to keep it, I'll donate it to the library. lol

I'm lucky enough to be able to afford to buy books, and even luckier that I have a DH that puts up with my collection with a smile so I can read a series in order, which is what I prefer to do. I enjoy watching the character develop and watch the friendships and relationships start out and mature as much as I like reading about the mystery. It drives me crazy when I accidentally pick up a book in the middle of the series and have been known to stop reading until I find the first book.

Having said that, those that don't care about reading in order make perfectly good arguments as well - it's all about personal preference. Plus if everyone here had to read series in order, I'd sort of feel like a Stepford Wife. :P

[Mary X]

Oh I hate that, when the library has every book but 1 of them.

Or when pubslishers go back and reissue a series and don't do it order or skip one altogether.

When I first discovered Charlaine Harris, a few years ago, I had a heck of a time finding Shakespeare's Christmas. This was before the Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood craze and her books were harder to find. My library system at the time had only 1 copy, in large print with a long waiting list. Amazon had reissues of every book but that one.

I had a hard time getting a few of the Hamish Macbeth books. Just random ones that were hard to find for unknown reason.

[ஐ Katya (Book Queen)ஐ, Cozy Mysteries Group Owner]

I'm charged for interlibrary loan too, so figure I might as well just buy it used and keep it! Alot of times the library may have had a copy but it wasn't returned and they can't buy a hardback replacement (and they rarely if ever buy paperbacks.)

And yes, sometimes I'm forced to read large print too if that's the only library copy available. Not thrilled about that, lol, but at least I can read the book.

[Sherry]

ஐ Briansgirl "Book Sale Queen"ஐ wrote: "I'm charged for interlibrary loan too, so figure I might as well just buy it used and keep it! Alot of times the library may have had a copy but it wasn't returned and they can't buy a hardback rep..."

Someday you may be thankful for those large print books, kiddo! ;)