Tuesday 25 September 2012

Top Ten Tuesday - Unfinished Series



I’ve been up since 5.50am this morning. I’m not at all happy about it, especially since my house is cold, I refuse to put the heating on when it’s not even winter yet, and my slippers are in with my hubby who is ill and sleeping. Anyway, what better way to make use of time than to make a TopTen Tuesday list, right? Would be a great plan, except my internet is currently not actually working and hasn’t been for a couple of days so when you see this post be happy for me as I will be doing an internet victory dance. Yes, it’s a legitimate thing J

1)      A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R Martin – I really enjoyed A Game of Thrones but kinda got bored somewhere in the middle of the second book. People tell me it’s worth reading and I probably will someday but the major problem I have with fantasy is that I don’t necessarily want to read eleven or twelve books by the same author in a row, and if I don’t read them in a row I tend to have forgotten what happens by the time I read the next one....

2)      The Elder Gods series by David Eddings – By the third book, I felt like I was just reading the same story over and over rehashed from ever so slightly different but not so different you’d really notice angles. And Eddings has two or three seriously infuriating phrases he overuses so much I just couldn’t anymore.

3)      Delirium etc by Lauren Oliver – I read Delirium. It was ok. I’m still not sure if I liked it enough to read more in the series. I think I preferred Before I Fall if I’m honest...

4)      Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome – I was seriously in love with Swallows and Amazons as a child. I wanted to sail away and spend my summer on an island despite the fact that a)there are very few islands where I live and b)neither I nor any of my siblings have any sailing expertise whatsoever. Anyway I read maybe three of these as a child but I’m really quite excited to get the whole series together and have a read!

5)      The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan – By now you’re probably sensing a pattern. I don’t really like fantasy series (unless they’re by David Gemmell. Or Terry Pratchett, but the Discworld doesn’t really count as they can all be read as standalones. Ditto Gemmell, so win for both of them), and especially not the ones which for some inconceivable reason seem to go on for hundreds of books. Also WOT kinda read like a bit of a LOTR rip off and as I’m a huge LOTR fan that wasn’t really a big selling point for me...

6)      Fables by Bill Willingham – OK so I break my not finishing fantasy series rule for graphic novels and I LOVE this series. I’m up to book 8 at the moment and I just haven’t had a spare £14 to spend what with baby madness and other such things...My sister just recently got a library job though and I think she’s magicked it up from her awesome resources so I may just thief it from her as she has thiefed the previous seven from me...

7)      The Cousins War by Philippa Gregory – this is another series that I really like, but I’ve slightly stalled with. The latest, The Kingmaker’s Daughter is out, but I was sent the last one for review and so read it ages ago and as previously mentioned, don’t have a lot of spare new book buying resources at the moment so I’m going to have to wait for the library to get it in I think.

8)      Anne of Green Gables by L.M Montgomery – to be honest I didn’t really realise I’ve never completed this series. It’s another one I was obsessed with as a child (Anne is a loud redhead with an overly active imagination. I thought she was me.) but despite owning the first six books I just never got around to the last three. I recently picked up Rilla of Ingleside in a charity shop so hopefully I’ll get to it sooner rather than later!

9)      The Jackson Brodie books by Kate Atkinson – I read Case Histories and One Good Turn after watching the BBC mini - series with Jason Isaacs being awesome as Jackson.  I own When Will There Be Good News? And Started Early, Took My Dog and they are both on my list of planned reads for this year, I just haven’t got to them yet. Really not sure why as I really enjoy Atkinson’s writing.

10)   The Stephanie Plum books by Janet Evanovich – This is probably my mostly chronically unfinished series. I’ve read the first two, I own the fourth, and the library only ever seems to have about the seventeenth. I really enjoyed the first two but I kind of hate reading them out of order so I just haven’t yet. I will get to it because they’re light hearted and kind of great and I also want to see the film because I have all of the love for Katherine Heigl. So.

And that’s my ten. I’m really surprised that I actually managed to get ten. And some are series that I actually have intention to read! Yay!
P.S - Victory dance!

10 comments:

  1. I might actually do this prompt, if I can thwack this headache on the... er, head... before the end of the day. I'd forgotten about Swallows and Amazons! I'd love to go back and read 'em all again properly instead of just randomly picking up whichever I found at the school library.

    You're right though, long fantasy series are the worst - there's just so many books and I don't like to read them all back to back (the exception being David Eddings' Belgariad and Mallorean series - both times I read all ten books in a row!). I've read the first two Morganville Vampires books (and got another six or so), the first four Sookie Stackhouse books (and got another six or so), a couple of Pern novels, the first Hunger Games book, the first two Lords of the Underworld books... well, you get the idea. Clearly I need to get some series reading done over the next few months! :)

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    1. I think it's headache day today :-/ I have one too, although tbh that could be due to having been awake since ten to six this morning... Anyway! I haven't read any earlier David Eddings which people keep telling me is a mistake. My sister felt the same way I did about the Elder Gods books but she loved the Belgariad. I may have to give it a go sometime.

      You should definitely read the other two Hunger Games books, although they aren't quite as epic as the first. They're definitely worth it!

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  2. I was very faithful to Janet Evanovich...until the last couple of books. My friend, who had always bought the book the day it came out, read it, and then passed it on to me, decided to get herself a Kindle!

    Here's my Top Ten Series I Haven't Finished. I hope you will stop by!

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  3. Most of your series are not ones I've read!

    The Kate Atkinson I didn't even know I was so behind! I read When Will There Be Good News? and have Started Early, Took My Dog on the shelf. I knew about the next book, but didn't know she was up to #4. Boy better get moving on that one!

    I love the Anne of GG books as a kid and I've re-read them once as a youngish adult. I'd like to read them again now that I'm nearing middle age.

    The Fables series I always pre-order every year but 14 pounds is very dear. I usually pay close to that or less in $$!

    I've never read a Swallows & Amazon book but hope to one day.

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  4. I haven't even started any of these series! So this is a fairly useless comment BUT I feel the need to tell you that you are basically my dad in the 'I'm not putting the heating on yet, it's only September' way of thinking. It's bloody COLD, people!

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  5. Sad -- cold day and sick hubby! Boo! Love your list -- most are ones I'm familiar with but have never started -- I can't even bear to think of all the unfinished series in my life!

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  6. I completely agree with you on No. 1. I read the first book and enjoyed it enough to want to take on the second, but as you say, I don't necessarily want to read 6 or 7 books in a row by the same author. I like to mix up my reading, and sometimes when I go back to a series, I forget what has already happened!

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  7. I want to give the Jackson Brodie books a try. I have the mini-series, and I couldn't get that into it, but thought I might like it more if I had read the books. I've heard that Case Histories is good, and I've been reading more mystery/thriller/crime novel type books lately.

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  8. Oh God, the Elder Gods series. I LOVED the Belgariad, the Mallorean, the Elenium, the Tamuli, the Redemption of Althalus... pretty much everything David Eddings has ever written EXCEPT the Elder Gods series. I just couldn't get through it at all. I think I gave mine away in the end. Out of interest, what would you say are those repetitive phrases?

    I keep meaning to finally read Game of Thrones, but... eh. I intensely disliked the TV show and the book just looks so heavy, with its tiny font and many pages. One day, damn it!

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    1. The Redemption of Althalus was great, and I really need to get to the rest!! Off the top of my head the only one I can remember was 'be nice'. He uses it like at least once every couple of pages and by the end of the first book I was so infuriated I nearly threw it out the window.

      I think I'm the only person in the world who hasn't yet seen the series of Game of Thrones, but I get what you mean about the tiny font/many pages. He definitely doesn't make it easy!!

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