Commonly referred to as 'marathoning', the act of reading an entire series of back to back is something that appears to attract a lot of mixed feelings in the book blogging world.
I myself have only just started to really marathon series instead of reading one or two books and then moving onto something else. Mostly because I have a lot of series that I need to finish up and reading them back to back means I'm more likely to get that done. However, I've found - while it can be very helpful in keeping me up to date and my memory fresh - it gets boring.
I consider my reading habits to be varied. Okay, I don't dip into every single genre available, purely because I know what I like and what I don't like, but my shelves are packed with different authors and subject matter. I like to mix things up when I read, and unless I'm in the mood for something specific or coasting on the high of an amazing book I'll switch up the genre or the author or even the number of pages. While I am someone who enjoys being immersed in an author's world, I do need the occasional break.
Throughout my explorations of Booktube and other book blogs, I've seen that marathoning series appears to be quite popular for trilogies. No doubt it's because reading three books in a row isn't too difficult, and three books set in the same world seems to be the right balance between too much and not enough. I've found this to be true, as it was no trouble at all for me to read the entirety of The Hunger Games, the Bill Hodges series, and The Selection in one, but the second it becomes four books it also becomes a challenge.
An achievable challenge, at times, but not always an enjoyable one. After a while, I need to change things up to save my patience and avoid falling into a reading slump. Odd, as I'm a creature of habit in every other aspect of my life.
Do you marathon series?
I can only marathon a series if I'm rereading it. Otherwise I definitely need breaks in between or I'll just get bored. Then again I don't usually run into this problem because most of the series I read have books that still need to be published in them, so I have a break of like a year in between lol!
ReplyDeleteThat's how I started marathoning things, but now I've started doing it with complete series that I own too. I'm in the same boat as you, with lots of unfinished series, but I've combined re-reading and marathoning so that when a new book is released I re-read the previous books in a row.
DeleteYeah... I'm not really a fan of marathoning. But then, I read approx. 23757843850930495 at once anyway ;) Variety is the spice of life ;)
ReplyDeleteI can't read more than one book at once! I'll pick something else up and then whatever I was already reading gets forgotten about.
DeleteI love marathoning series! It's so difficult for me to read books one at a time, just because I ALWAYS FORGET EVERYTHING IN THE PREVIOUS BOOK. Seriously, it's like my biggest bookish problem - forgetting everything in books! Although marathoning takes some serious effort...it can be easy if the books are really good! :D
ReplyDeleteGeraldine @ Corralling Books
It's definitely helped me in terms of remembering things! However, I do still tend to forget things when I move onto the next series, but that's less annoying that not being able to remember what happened in the first book.
DeleteI am not really one to marathon series, I need to read books in between otherwise it gets a bit too much for me. TV shows on the otherhand...
ReplyDeleteMy Blog : http://www.teaandtitles.com/
I always marathon TV shows, because if I start watching more than one at once I always forget about some and then can't remember what happened at the start.
DeleteBefore blogging, I would always marathon a series because that's just the way I liked to do it but now I can't. I get bored and find it's nice to take a break between them.
ReplyDelete