I’m curious to know the answer to this question because I noticed my own behavior has changed as I got older.
When I was younger, I used to read a series all in one go: after I finished the first book, if there was a second, I would grab that one, and so on and so forth.
Nowadays though, I don’t like doing that anymore. Even when I like book one, I will not pick up the second book of the series until after a long while. I still haven’t finished the Annihilation trilogy (2/3) or the Earthsea pentalogy (3/5) or the hatching trilogy (1/3), just to give some examples. And I like the books, mind you.
I feel that one reason for this change is that I don’t like to keep reading the same flavor of book again and again anymore. I like to shift things around, pick up a new genre, get a fresh perspective… and then, when I feel the longing, I grab the book from a series I was reading to see what’s going on there. It feels like getting in touch with an old friend, and remembering why you were such good friends in the first place.
So, what about you? What’s your style? Binge-reading the series or taking your sweet sweet time?
It depends. I also used to devour series when I was younger, but slowed down a lot as I grew older.
Sometimes I do get into a devour mindset if I’m totally enraptured by the world. Earlier this year I read the 10 book Kate Daniels urban fantasy series in about a month. This past week, I read the 5 book The Others urban fantasy series in a week. I did a Red Rising re-read last month and read the first trilogy in a week.
If I really enjoy the world, I’ll read a series all in one, but I tend to read other books at the same time in different formats and that breaks things up a bit.