Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Thoughtful Thursday: Reading Order for Book Universe


I created Thoughtful Thursday, because bookish thoughts kept popping up in my mind while reading, and I wanted to explore these questions and get your opinions too! Each week, I will post a new bookish thought that I will discuss. 


This Week's Topic/Question:
Assuming that you are late to the party with a book series (and the entire series is completed) and you want to read every piece of text within a series' universe that you can get your hands on, in what order to you read the books, short stories, and novellas within the universe? Do you read the books first and then the short stories and novellas if you want more? Do you read the books, short stories, and novellas in order (either publication or chronological)? Do you read them in some other order?


My Answer:

Great question! As a general rule, I don't like spoilers. I always read the books start to finish uninterrupted and as quickly as possible. I've honestly never strayed from this habit since I was a kid. I remember picking up a book from the middle of a series and being very frustrated with not having the whole story, so I never did it again.
I don't have the patience for marathoning. I instead choose to suffer through the long period of waiting between books. It's better than spoilers. No matter what, you'll always run into that one person who just has to tell you what happened and thinks "If I only tell her this part, she won't care." ... She cares!

When it comes to the addition of short stories, novellas, etc., I read them after I finish the all the books in the series, and read them in chronological order according to where they fit into the overall story (even if it doesn't match the publication order). The only way I'd consider reading them differently is if I found a recommended reading order from the author.






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