Saturday, February 14, 2015

Discussion Post: How my reading habits have changed...

http://paranormalbookreviews-kelly.blogspot.com/search/label/Misc%3A%20Discussion%20Post
Confession: I used to be a reader with some very set rules about how books can be read. Not how others should read them, mind you, but how *I* should read them. As in: Series should always be read in order and under NO CIRCUMSTANCES do you ever start with anything other than book 1.

HA. Oh, younger self. You were so sweetly innocent, weren't you?

Guuuuys. My reading habits are so loose now we should probably refer to them as gaping. Or, if that's too graphic a picture, just imagine them as a set of guidelines (yep, I'm channeling my inner Pirates of the Caribbean here!) which can be tossed aside all willy-nilly whenever the urge strikes.

Series? Pfft. I laugh in the face of series! Just kidding. I don't do that. But I do allow myself to read whatever I happen to have on hand. If that means skipping a book because I got book 3 on sale and wasn't willing to pay full price for book 2, SO BE IT.

Sure, sometimes this backfires on me. I picked up Shelly Laurenston's Pride series out of order and REGRETTED not being able to see the progression of crazy from book to book. I mean, I LOVED that series. Still do. I don't regret reading it for a moment, but I think I would have gotten more out of the original read if I'd read them in order.

Sometimes, though, you have to throw caution to the wind. Sometimes you have to grab the minotaur by the horns and do what you gotta do.

Sometimes it's okay to read a series out of order.

Shh. Shh. It's okay.

6 comments:

  1. I've had some changes too. I'm listening to WAY more books than I read. I do sometimes start with a book in the middle of a series, but I generally start at the beginning. I'm finding myself reading more outside my core genre of paranormal. I'm reading more erotica and romantic suspense.

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    1. I think it's interesting how we change as circumstances around us change. I have a horrific morning commute and I'm thinking about trying audiobooks again. So... yeah.

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  2. You almost gave me a heart attack, lol ! So far, I always read series in order, especially paranormal/urban fantasy, except when it's those contemporary romances where all the siblings/friends fall in love one after the other. On the other hand, I used to read prequels before books #1, now I've changed my mind and prefer reading them afterward. But I'm no model, I'm a big maniac :)

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    1. I used to read them ALL in order. Then I didn't. I don't even know how it happened, just that it did.

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  3. I'm shuddering at the thought of a series book out of order! There is a series I'm reading that pulls in characters from her previous series and I'm so out of sorts I'm thinking of stopping this one and going back to read the other series! I can't seem to get out of this habit!

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    1. LOL! Yeah, sometimes it doesn't work. If I can't follow along with who the characters are OR there are a lot of references to events in previous books, I'll shelve the book until I can read in order. BUT so many PNR books are self contained within a series that a lot of the time I can carry on.

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