Don't You Just Hate When Books In A Series Are Not Numbered?

[DeadPiccolo]

I hate it when that happens. Usually, you can tell by looking at the first few pages though, because it would say, "also written by _____"

[jcorkman1]

Thanks. After reading the other comments, I thought I was in trouble.

[The Bookaholic]

I just bought a book in a flash sale where i paid for the bag and filled it with as many books that could fit in, but when i got home, found that it was #2 in a trilogy. The first book is really expensive, but the series looks so good, i would like to read it. It is annoying too, when they dont tell you inside the book what number it is. It would really make sales easier:-)

[missydawnx]

I agree it's really annoying. I've started reading books before to find that there not the first one in a series.

[Madcap Syzygii]

It's never been a problem for me. If I don't know which is the first of the series, I visit the Wikipedia. It tells everything about anything. HAHA!

[cheridith]

I dislike this as well. It is really frustrating to realize you just read the last book in the series. That just takes the adventure right out of reading the series. Numbering them is a very awesome idea. Not only with it help readers to expect another book but it will help keep them straight on the bookshelf!

[SeaNymph]

I do agree that there should be something that points out there are more books, that this book belongs to a series and is the first, second, third etc book. I mean...not all of us walk around knowing everything about every series. I usually check a site about such things, however it has happened that I am in a bookstore spotting this gorgeous book and I don't have internet access. It's really frustrating.

[jaguilar]

YES!!!! all characters develop it's nice to understand why and how, major pet peeve of mine

[FNAWrite]

No. It doesn't bother me at all that books are not numbered or that I might read a series book out of chronological order. In fact I would guess that I have read out of order the majority of series books that I have read.

I started reading Robert Parker's Spenser series this century. Really no surprise to me that "The Godwulf Manuscriot", published in 1973 wasn't on the shelf whe I first picked up a Spenser book around 2003. I read "Godwulf", the first in the series after having read maybe 20 other titles, none in any particular order.

The first post in this thread complains that 'I thought it was a stand alone book. Now I find there are preceding books'

What's the problem? You read the book, liked it just fine, didn't feel like you were missing anything. Gosh, I hate when that happens. If only it had a number 4 on it - then you wouldn't have had to enjoy it all!

[kengeeb]

I do hate that! Who want's to read a series out of order? It's natural to want to follow the progression of the characters/story lines.

[aliciawilson]

I hate that! I was just recently at the bookstore when I saw this book I really wanted to read. By chance I happened to notice on the back it stated it was part of a series. Luckily there was a page within the book that listed the titles and order, and of course the bookstore didn't have the first one.

[authormaj]

Yep, hate that. My publisher didn't want to number some books in my series, because each can be read as standalones. But we struck a bargain, and now they're numbered on the back, just not on the front cover.

[samanthaeh76]

Since the advent of Amazon, I rarely buy books in stores or in hard copies. I always read the book description to figure out if I have read it before (I have read hundreds of thousands of books and forget the specific titles) and to see if it's part of a series. I love finding a new series! When I was younger, it would drive me nuts to only have part of the series and have to hunt and beg/borrow/buy the remaining books. For this reason, whenever I lend out a book (which, honestly, they never come back) I just lend out the whole series, if applicable.

[Ashley Hiddles]

I hate it. If I can't find it easily, I either google the series, or look to see which was published first. It gets confusing reading detailed infor about people you don't know, then picking up the 'next' book and being introduced to them for the first time. Major headache.

[whimsy_halfblood]

I find that extremely annoying. I'll buy some books thinking I've just purchased the whole series, then I'll finish one and go onto the next, only to find that years have passed in the story and I've skipped a book!