a peek inside a book maniac’s brain: series or stand-alone?

Every reader has his or her preference with what kind of books he or she reads as well as the author. One thing to choose from is whether or not you’d go for a series or stand-alone novel?

A little background first...

What is Stand Alone? Stand-Alone novels are stories/novels which is capable of operating independently. Basically, it starts and ends on one book.

What are Series? There are various types of series:

Serialized Series, the reader needs to read the books in order for them to understand the whole story. A perfect example for this is the HARRY POTTER.

Formula Series, presents a new story that follows a structure the readers grow to recognize and expects. It doesn’t matter if you don’t read it in order.

Linked Series are also my favorites because they are mostly stand-alone novels that have some sort of tenuous connection or link, more by design and format rather than content. Good examples of this are those from the Historical Romance genre.

It all comes down to my choice?

Admittedly, I am a series girl. I love to collect books, especially series.

What is to love about Series?

• Continuity
• Save you time to choose a new title to read (I still have a lot of books to chose from, I always end up with series first because I don’t have to think what book I’d read next)
• Comfortable familiarity with the characters and settings  
• I love the links!!! Yes, that is why I love to read the historical romance. I wanted to know more about the character the author mentioned, if he/she has his/her own happy ending.

What I hate about Series?

• Cliffhangers! (Especially when the next book is set to come out in a million years), I am not that patient. It’s a good thing that I have waited the whole Percy Jackson Series and Hunger Games to end before starting reading it.
• Second-Book Syndrome (Yes, the first book was a blast and the second one sucks)
• If I could not get a copy of the entire series, collecting is hard especially when everyone is dying to have them on their shelves as well.

BUT…

I also like stand alone after reading a series. Just to desensitize myself with the series characters, after, I’m ready to jump back into another series.