Young Writers Society

I like book series because you read the first book and it ends with a cliffhanger or something and you're eager to read the next book and all. I just started reading the NERDS series. It really awesome.

Series hands down! I love how I feel after I complete an 8 book long series, and I love always wanted to know more and more and more! I also love how complex the story gets. It's amazing I get so attached to the books!

It depends on the story.

Series tend to drag on, and there are very few I've completed. For example, I'm on the fourth book of the Merlin series by T.A. Baron, gave up on Harry Potter when he became I whiny little putz, still have two books left in the Shadow Children series, and lost interest in the plot after the sequel to Hawksong. However, some of my favorite novels are series, such as Nancy McKenzie's Arthurian Legend novels, Angel and Demons/Da Vinci Code, and Sweep Series.

Most stories I like are stand alone novels, but that's usually because they're literary fiction, such as The Graduate, Catcher in the Rye, and Looking for Alaska. Though, there are some other stand alones, where they work best because you can't do much more with the plot, such as: Battle Royale, Sybil, and Fahrenheit 451.

But, again, it depends on the story. Some times you do need to extend the novel to a series for the sake of the overall plot. Or, they are a series of stand alones that simply share the same character and setting.

It all depends on the story. Some book should be left alone, in my opinion, and not be made into a 100 volume series >.>

I thoroughly enjoy reading series, but only when the books are either all out already or the author produces them quickly so that when I read them the story and all the details are still fresh in my mind. However, I also love stand-alones because I find that those stories are pretty concise and the telling of the story is complete, which I absolutely love in a book.

A standalone story usually has more of an impact. However some books use their sequels to fantastic effect and wouldn't be the same without them. (For example Harry Potter in how the tone grows darker over time, how you get to watch the characters grow up and, if you were a fan from the start, you got to grow up WITH them)

It really depends on what the author has in mind and is capable of.

For me it depends. Sometimes I want to go on a long adventure with a bunch of characters other times I just want a quicky. Lately I've been seeing a growing trend in long running books - which is slowly starting to annoying me a little.

It depends. If the writing is great, series. If the writing is terrible. Nope. Nope. Just Nope.

I mis-voted. It depends on the plot, characters,setting, writing style, etc.
But I am getting tired of wonderful series beginners and horrible sequels with prequels that make absolutely no sense.

However, I have recently been delving into Brian Jaques's Flying Dutchman series. The first and second books are brilliant, and eagerly await the day I find a copy of The Voyage of Slaves.

I like writing standalone books, but there's a lot of great series out there as well. Lord of the Rings is technically a standalone book separated into a trilogy, but then there's stuff like Bionicle, Dragonlance, and Eric Nylund's Halo "trilogy" that are all really fun to read as well.

I voted for "it depends" because, well, it depends. Personally, I think anything going past a trilogy is pushing it. I mean, it comes to a point where either 1) the books are way to long and filled with random things just to keep the story going, or 2) the books keep repeating themselves, and it gets old and boring.

In my opinion, a well written series will not be all one story line. While there may be two or three books that follow the same characters, I tend to like to read what might have happened in the past, or the future, or some entirely different thing which is only related in a few small ways. Those are the series that keep me reading. Yah, the Harry Potter books are pretty fun to read. I mean, who doesn't like magic and fantastical creatures and such? But after the fourth book, I couldn't bring myself to pick up another one. They simply weren't gripping enough. I could pretty much tell you how the books would go before I'd even read them.

But, there are times where a long series keeps me reading. But the books have to be absolutely amazing. Frankly, I shy away from even the idea of writing a long series, because I don't want to disappoint. I don't want my readers to be expecting the twelvity-twoth book to be as amazing as the first, because it's just so hard to do. You have a limited amount of work space.

On the flip-side, though, standalone books can cause similar problems, but in the opposite direction. I hate it when I absolutely love a book, and then it ends. It's a weird relationship to have, but I frequently find myself hating a book that was amazing because there wasn't a sequel or prequel or spin-off.

So yah. There's my spill on the whole thing. Probably said nothing worth listening to, but hey, you asked

In any case, I like good books, and if they're well written, I don't really care how many there are, I just care that there are more!

If it's a series that gets me, I totally dig it. More than anything else. Books are like relationships in a way. I mean, you'd rather have an affair that's short but exciting than a boring long term relationship. XD If it's boring I will give up soon. It's hard to commit to a book series, I must admit.