As someone who read the Harry Potter series growing up, I had to wait (not-so-patiently) for the next book to come out. After attending a midnight party, I’d spend the next few days reading during any spare moment and late in to the night.
So I’ve always been frustrated (and a bit jealous) of people who started the series after the final book came out. They could binge read the entire series at once! They don’t know what it’s like! Even though the time between books felt painfully long (especially between books 6 and 7!) part of the magic was the anticipation and excitement of waiting for the next book. I’d have in-depth discussions with friends, talking about what happened, coming up with theories, and trying to guess what would happen next.
But I must confess: I often binge read series too. I know, I am a hypocrite. But I can’t read every book in a series as soon as it is available (although I wish I could!) so sometimes I don’t start a series until later when the final book is out. I was able to read all three of The Hunger Games books in a row, so when I turned the last page of Catching Fire and read that cliffhanger, I could immediately pick up Mockingjay and pick up where I left off. And I’ll admit, it was really nice to be able to do that!
As I’m reading various series now, I have an appreciation for the ability to binge read. I was so excited to read Blue Lily, Lily Blue, the third book in Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Boys series. But the wait time between books means that I had forgotten some of the smaller (but still important) details. And as much as I wanted to re-read the series, I just didn’t have time.
When you binge read a series, you can recall the details in a previous book: Little hints at what’s coming, character’s comments that seemed insignificant out of context but become so important later. We may not miss details when we binge read, but are we losing something else by missing out on building excitement between books?
Do you read books in a series as they come out, or are you a series binge reader? Let us know in the comments!
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