Wednesday 6 October 2010

How many series are you currently reading?

I was browsing my over-loaded Google Reader earlier, and saw this intriguing post on Bibliopunkk. Krys is currently reading 89 series!



It got me wondering just how many series I am reading. So, for your pleasure (or disinterest) I decided to find out. Here are some in all their glory - the full series and the number of books I have read from them. Towards the end you will just see the series, the number of books in it and the number I need to read (because no doubt you'll get bored of seeing an eternal list of books!)

1) Commonwealth Saga by Peter F Hamilton

1) Misspent Youth
2) Pandora's Star (read)
3) Judas Unchained (read)
4) The Dreaming Void
5) The Temporal Void
6) The Evolutionary Void

I have read two from this series, which leaves me four to read. I had been waiting for the whole of the Void series to be completed before I embarked on this full epic - now that this has happened, I will be gearing up for it!

2) Takeshi Kovacs by Richard Morgan

1) Altered Carbon (read)
2) Broken Angels
3) Woken Furies

I have read only the first of these books, which leaves me two to read. After having enjoyed Altered Carbon so very much, I am unsure as to why I haven't moved straight onto the other two... Possibly because I don't currently own them?

3) A Land Fit For Heroes by Richard Morgan

1) The Steel Remains (read)
2) The Cold Commands (forthcoming)

I am up to date with Richard Morgan's fantasy series! Well, up until he releases The Cold Commands...

4) Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde

1) The Eyre Affair (read)
2) Lost in a Good Book (read)
3) The Well of Lost Plots (read)
4) Something Rotten (read)
5) First Among Sequels
6) One of our Thursdays is Missing (forthcoming)

I have one book to read to catch myself up with Thursday Next before the latest book is released. Again, I adored the Thursday Next series and I'm a little surprised at myself for not continuing to read these books.

5) Horus Heresy - various authors

1) Horus Rising - Dan Abnett (read)
2) False Gods - Graham McNeill (read)
3) Galaxy in Flames - Ben Counter (read)
4) The Flight of the Eisenstein - James Swallow
5) Fulgrim - Graham McNeill
6) Descent of Angels - Mitchel Scanlon
7) Legion - Dan Abnett
8) Battle for the Abyss - Ben Counter
9) Mechanicum - Graham McNeill
10) Tales of Heresy - Various
11) Fallen Angels - Mike Lee
12) A Thousand Sons - Graham McNeill
13) Nemesis - James Swallow
14) The First Heretic - Aaron Dembski-Bowden
15) Prospero Burns - Dan Abnett (forthcoming)

Huh, this series is really starting to stretch out now... What I like about it is that various authors have completed novels in the series; it gives different flavours to the grim future of war. What I don't like is that I now have twelve books to read to get myself up to date!

6) Kyralia by Trudi Canavan1) The Magician's Apprentice
2) The Magician's Guild (read)
3) The Novice (read)
4) The High Lord (read)
5) The Ambassador's Mission
6) The Rogue (forthcoming)

I read the original trilogy some time ago and found it inoffensively fun to read. I've since received a couple of books for review and so intend to do a full re-read of the series to review on my blog. Leaving that aside, I have two books here to catch myself up.

7) Outlander Series

1) Cross Stitch (read)
2) Dragonfly in Amber (read)
3) Voyager (read)
4) Drums of Autumn (read)
5) The Fiery Cross (read)
6) A Breath of Snow and Ashes
7) An Echo in the Bone

My mum was also reading this series and I lent A Breath of Snow and Ashes to her, since I was reading something else when it came out. She still has it, some five years later! I need to read the full series again, since a lot of the details from the early books are hazy - but I did love this series. Two to read to catch up.

Other series I am reading include the following:

8) Avery Cates by Jeff Somers

Four books currently released; one forthcoming; I have three to read to catch up.

9) Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Six books released; one to read to catch up.

10)Lodes Chronicles by Fiona Walker

Four released; one to read to catch up.

Overall I discovered that I am currently reading 61 series. I have to read a whopping 246 books just to catch myself up with all of these series... Wow, I don't know whether to see that as depressing or a challenge *grin* How about you? Fancy counting up all the series you're currently reading?

18 comments:

  1. Last time I checked this it was at 21. That goes up to 25 or so with some recent books I read, and doesn't include series I've abandoned and am unlikely to return to (such as Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar books).

    My general policy only to read completed series (with a few exceptions) seems to be working out.

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  2. Just wanted to note that there are only three novels in Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series. Black Man and Market Forces are unrelated.

    So you can strike one off your list!

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  3. Nevermind, I can't read. I thought you'd already read Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

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  4. I'm afraid to see how long my list would be if I did this. I seem to collect series and float from one to the next to the next without finishing the one I'm on. I have a bad habit of letting series books percolate for a while before I continue on. Thus, my list of series I'm in the middle of just grows and grows and grows....

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  5. Trying to post again, probably failing:

    Exclduing ones I just gave up on:
    The Rain Wild series by Robin Hobb, and A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.

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  6. I'm not even going to try, it would just freak me (and my wishlist) out *grin* But of the top of my head at least sixteen.

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  7. Like Adam, I try to only read finished series. Hasn't been working out so well so far for me, dumb bloggers keep getting me excited about new books. I can think of seven that I am in the middle of off the top of my head. Bad news.

    Black Company
    Song of Fire and Ice
    Farseer Trilogy
    Wheel of Time
    Shadows of the Apt
    Dreisen Files
    Gentleman Bastard

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  8. "Just wanted to note that there are only three novels in Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series. Black Man and Market Forces are unrelated."

    Correct. BLACK MAN will apparently have sequels or prequels at some point so technically is the first in a series, but these have been delayed by a change in Morgan's writing schedule (he's doing the fantasy novels first).

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  9. I'm with Joe. Bah on all you dumb bloggers who keep getting me excited about new series so I have to wait for the next book to come out!!! Without really digging into my collection, here are the series that I'm working on

    Song of Ice and Fire (duh) - have read every published book
    Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards - have read every published book
    Lawhead's King Raven Series - have only read Hood
    Abercrombie's First Law - read The Blade Itself and recently finished Before They Are Hanged
    Hobb - finished Farseer but want to get started on LiveShip and Fool's books

    and then there is the comics/graphic novels that I don't have full collections of, or I have every printed book and the series isn't finished: Girl Genius (9 volumes, I've read 6)by Phil & Kaja Foglio, Fullmetal Alchemist (22 volumes, read all) by Hiromu Arakawa, and Nana (20 some volumes, I've read 8) by Ai Yazawa.

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  10. Ones I'm currently on that I can think of:

    Acts of Caine
    Rain Wild Chronicles
    A Song of Ice and Fire
    Thomas covenant
    The Nightrunner series
    Black Company
    Gentleman Bastard

    The ones I'm looking forward to starting soon:

    The Night Angel Trilogy
    The Demon Trilogy
    Takeshi Kovacs
    Legends of the Red Sun

    Many on the wish list thanks to all the bloggers. I should wait for series to be finished as re-reading takes up a lot of time the exception being the Malazan books which have turned more into their own hobby.

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  11. I counted 16 and I'm sure I left one or two out, and that's just fantasy or sci-fi series. I'm following 3 more from other genres.
    At least 2 of those 16 I started well over a decade ago and both of those are only at book 4. There's a few more that were about 5 years ago, and only at book 1 or 2..
    What's up with authors taking so ridiculosly long between books?!?! And whatever happened to an honest-to-God, trilogy or even stand-alone?!? How many authors are gonna die before they finish a series? Or for that matter, how many readers will never get to see the end of a series the love? I would think that would weigh on an authors mind or maybe I'm just getting to overly involved.. hmmm

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  12. I thought my number would be reeaaaaallly high, but I seem to be more or less caught up, at least as far as published books go. (If future books are forthcoming, I consider myself caught up for the time being). I'm currently reading:

    Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci series (5 to go)
    Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy (2 to go)
    Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series (1 to go)
    P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster series (12 to go)
    Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series (2 to go)
    Terry Moore's Strangers In Paradise series (5 to go)
    Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series (3 to go)
    Diana Gabaldon's Lord John series (2 to go)

    When I find a series I enjoy, I tend to blow through the whole thing in short order. I also try not to read longer series (ie, those that contain more than 4 strongly connected books) until every book has been published.

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  13. @Adam - I'm quite impressed that yours is *only* 25 or so, considering the amount that you read!

    @Aidan - *snickers* I'm usually quite careful about what I post ;-)

    @Sarah - that's *exactly* the situation I find myself in! I keep starting new series, though, believing them to finish soon and the author keeps writing more - must admit, urban fantasy is the most at fault here.

    @serenitywomble - which series have you given up on?

    @Mieneke - see, I started with just adding up those off the top of my head... I got some way and then felt I had to find out all of them! Just out of curiosity - and possibly a degree of masochism ;-)

    @Joe - ah, you love us really! Otherwise you'd be missing out on some glorious books :-)

    @redhead - that is one reason why I'm quite happy to not get caught up in graphic novels as well :-) - too many series already!

    @John - if I included the series that I want to get started on, then the list would be stupendously longer - probably over 100 *shock*

    @Greg - *agree* I shudder at not knowing the ending to some of my favourite series - or having substandard sequels brought out after an author's death. So far Gemmell and Jordan have been treated with respect.

    @Memory - lucky you for being "almost" caught up - although there are 32 books right there that you want to read *grin*

    Thanks for the comments everyone!

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  14. Isn't Black Man supposedly a prequel set much earlier in the same world? Not sure it is the same series, but that would make it the same setting...

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  15. Oh dear - I'm not even sure I want to list mine...

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  16. While long, this isn't nearly as grotesquely huge as I thought it'd be. I didn't list novels that had just recurring characters (Kate Griffin's Mathew Swift books) or the same settings (Banks's Culture), it needed to have a continuing plot:

    R. Scott Bakker’s The Second Apocalypse (4/(9?))
    Glen Cook’s Black Company: Books of the North (2/3)
    Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Gap* (1/5)
    Steven Erikson’s Malazan (9/10)
    Lynn Flewelling’s Tamir Triad* (1/3)
    Terry Goodkind’s Sword of Truth* (1/?)
    Peter F. Hamilton’s Commonwealth Saga (1/5)
    Frank Herbert’s Dune* (2/5)
    JV Jones’s The Book of Words* (1/3)
    Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time (12/14)
    Scott Lynch’s Gentlemen’s Bastards (2/7)
    George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (4/7)
    Elizabeth Moon’s Deeds of Paksenarrion** (1/(4?))
    Mark Charan Newton’s Legends of the Red Sun (1/4)
    Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast (1/3)
    Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives (1/10)
    John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War (1/3)
    Dan Simmon’s Hyperion (2/4)
    Steph Swainston’s The Year of Our War (1/(4?)
    Sam Sykes’s Tome of the Undergates (1/(3?))
    Jack Vance’s Tales of the Dying Earth* (2/4)
    Brian K. Vaughn’s Y (1/10)
    Dan Well’s John Cleaver (1/3)
    Gene Wolfe’s Latro Series (1/(3?))

    * May finish
    **Will not finish

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  17. Not counting NEW series books I have on hand that I haven't started yet:

    ONGOING FANTASY SERIES:
    The Demon Cycle ~ Peter V Brett (1/3)
    Abarat ~ Clive Barker (2/5)
    The Codex Alera ~ Jim Butcher (3/6)
    The Parasol Protectorate ~ Gail Carriger (1/5)
    The Pirates! adventures ~ Gideon Defoe (3/4)
    The Acacia trilogy ~ David Anthony Durham (1/3)
    The Malazan Book of the Fallen ~ Steven Erikson (3/10)
    Johannes Cabal ~ Jonathan L Howard (1/2?)
    Master Li & Number Ten Ox stories ~ Barry Hughart (1/3)
    Earthsea ~ Ursula K Leguin (3/4)
    The Wicked Years ~ Gregory Maguire (1/3?)
    A Song of Ice and Fire ~ George R R Martin (4/7?)
    The Chathrand Voyages ~ Robert V S Redick (.5/4) (in process)
    The Kingkiller Chronicles ~ Patrick Rothfuss (1/3)

    ONGOING MYSTERY/CRIME SERIES:
    The Parker series ~ Richard Stark (12/24)
    The Thorn novels ~ James W. Hall (8/11)
    Reacher novels ~ Lee Child (2/15)

    FINISHED FANTASY SERIES:
    > The First Law trilogy ~ Joe Abercrombie
    > The Deepgate Codex trilogy ~ Alan Campbell
    > The Dune sage (6 books) ~ Frank Herbert
    > collected Conan stories (8 books) ~ Robert E Howard
    > The Bas-Lag novels (3 books) ~ China MiƩville
    > The Sabriel trilogy ~ Garth Nix
    > The Roumanian quartet ~ Paul Park
    > His Dark Materials trilogy ~ Philip Pullman
    > The Winter of the World trilogy ~ Michael Scott Rohan
    > The Lord of the Rings ~ J R R Tolkien
    > The Lyonesse trilogy ~ Jack Vance
    > The Night Angel trilogy ~ Brent Weeks
    > The Book of the New Sun (4 books) ~ Gene Wolfe

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  18. I'm currently reading books in the following series:

    The Prince of Nothing - R. Scott Bakker
    Malazan Book of the Fallen - Steven Erikson & Ian C. Esslemont
    The Gentleman Bastards - Scott Lynch
    Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever - Stephen Donaldson
    Culture - Iain M. Banks
    Songs of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
    Thursday Next - Jasper Fforde
    Discworld - Terry Pratchett
    The First Law Trilogy - Joe Abercrombie
    The Kingkiller Chronicle - Patrick Rothfuss
    Deverry Cycle - Katherine Kerr
    The Wars of Light and Shadow - Janny Wurts
    A Land Fit for Heroes by Richard Morgan

    and that's just fantasy books! I'm also reading lots of mystery series as well but I tell myself that it's a life-long project:)

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