On Books

I have found myself getting very disillusioned with book series, the longer that they go on.



I used to look forward to the release of each new book in a series with glee and excitement, even queuing up early to be the first to read beloved series like Harry Potter the moment that the bookstore opened. However, I realized that my enthusiasm seemed to flee, the longer that some series dragged on. I mean, I didn't even buy The Deathly Hallows(nope, not even paperback), and just borrowed a copy from the library, about a month after it was out. Recently, the craze was back with the vastly underwhelming(to me) Cursed Child.
Couldn't get excited either, despite bookstores trying their all to drive up the hype.
Why? Somebody tell me if you figure it out. Please.


Actually, Harry Potter wasn't the only book series where I got sick and tired of new books, but at least I read those later books in the series. Other YA book series where I got disillusioned and dropped off were stuff like Anthony Horowitz's Alex Rider series(I did move on to his Power Of Five series, which was a fairly satisfying read.)

Magic, witches and the end of the world. Fun, right? At 5 books, the story never got draggy enough for me to give up and move on.

Speaking of magic, I enjoyed early Artemis Fowl a lot, but things really started going downhill with the time paradox. You know how Jack Sparrow was the best thing about Pirates of the Caribbean, right? Remember when they gave us multiple Jack Sparrows in one of the movies? Everything was a disaster after that. Same thing with Artemis Fowl and the time travels/split personalities. (Also, I hated when Eoin Colfer introduced a girl genius as a foil to Arty. He was much better at writing boy geniuses.)


At this point, I would think it's the number of books that get me turned off, perhaps? But no, that wasn't the hard and fast rule either. I once read and bought every single one of Lemony Snicket's A Series Of Unfortunate Events, all 13 of them! (I say I once bought, because I've since given them away to make space for new books.) Damn, those were good books. (I haven't picked up All The Wrong Questions yet. Anyone have any opinions on them?)

 

As for book series I once loved, and still loved AND occasionally read and re-read, The Lost Years Of Merlin is always a favourite. Recently, I realized that the author had continued the story of Avalon in more books and I greedily devoured those too. Again, a decidedly lengthy series of books, so it wasn't just the number of books that was a turn off.

So, what's your take on a series of books? Do you get bored of them as a series drags on?

Before you ask, no, I neither read nor watch A Game Of Thrones. Why? I dunno, it just doesn't really hold any appeal for me. Nor A Wheel Of Time.
I did finish reading a very long series called The Sword Of Truth, but it was such pulp fiction as the series wore on, it was really REALLY hard to read that as “serious” literature anymore. Maybe that’s why I would probably finish the ebook in a maximum of 3 days. It was total pulp fiction, and not even good pulp fiction at that. Sigh… Don’t ask why I stuck with it. I don’t know either. Possibly slightly sadomasochist. 
But not sadistic enough to read 50 Shades Of Grey. I did read the first Twilight book, but to be fair, I was what? 17 then. Youthful bad taste, maybe?