The Camp Site

Like many readers, every year I set a reading goal for myself. Last year my goal was to read 52 books (1 book per week) and I ended up reading 64.

This year, rather than setting a number goal, my reading objective is to finish some series that I have started but have not completed.

Unfortunately this list of uncompleted series is rather long. Why? Well in short, I have commitment issues when it comes to books.

Let me explain.

First, sometimes when I start a series, there tends to be a lot of books. For example, The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey is nine books with nine novellas taking place between the main novels. And each novel averages about 500 hundred pages. So yeah, that’s a lot.

This leads me to my second issue. I am a mood reader. I can be knee deep in a sci-fi series (like The Expanse) and then I will have a hankering to read something in the horror genre. So I’ll take a break from a series and then sometimes I just get distracted and forget to go back.

Third, all good things come to an end. I often find myself enjoying a series and then I don’t want it to end. For example, once I finished reading the Harry Potter books (before all the JK Rowling drama) as a teenager, I felt a little lost. The magic of Hogwarts was gone. I know there are more books in the Harry Potter universe but they are not the same. Would I ever find something I enjoyed so much again? The answer is yes, but still, the low I felt afterwards was upsetting.

Finally, I am also afraid of reading a really good series, only for it to end badly. I think this can best be summed up by the disappointment of the last episode of the 90’s TV show Seinfeld. For its time, it was a great show. My parents watched it religiously. But the series finale was terrible! In trying to wrap everything up nicely, Seinfeld strayed so far from the antics that made the characters sympathetic that the ending fell flat (which is putting it mildly). The episode remains one of the worst series finales in television history.

But I want this year to be different. I’ve come to accept that there will be a let down at the end of a good series. But that is ok! There will be other great reads waiting for me. My TBR list is a mile long. If a book ends badly, that’s ok too. I want to finish the series at least so I can make my own judgements.

Does that mean I am only reading books from series right now? No. I do find myself still taking breaks and reading other books. Currently I am reading a biography on Henry V of England by Dan Jones. But after this I will be reading the fourth book in the Demon Cycle series by Peter V. Brett. Which, side note, is a completely underhyped series. More on this in a later post.

Anyways, that is my goal this year. Below are the series I am currently working on*.

The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett

The Expanse by James S.A. Corey (full novels only)

Dark Olympus by Katee Robert

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Chaotic Orbits by Beth Revis

Old Man’s War by John Scalzi

As you can see, I have a lot of reading ahead of me and hopefully I can finish all of these by then end of this year.

*_{This list does not include any novellas that take place before, during or after the main series, nor does it include books in the series that have not yet been published.}