Do you read books of a series in chronological order?

[erasmus]

It's been a while since I revisited this topic... I see that the general consensus is that reading experiences are better when they're read in chronological order. Or, if accidentally not read in chronological order, one has to go back to the first book and try again. I'm wholeheartedly agree.

Thing is, I didn't used to be this way. When I was a kid, I read books any old how. When I was in secondary school, I almost stopped reading novels and ended up reading a lot of manga instead. The thing with manga is that their books are labelled and almost all the titles for each manga are the same, so it's waaay easier to go about reading them in order. And when my fascination in manga leveled off (I still read them, just not as fanatically), I went back to reading novels, say, two years ago.

By then, I was so rusty I didn't even know what genres I liked anymore, so I had to give everything a try. Problem is, I didn't realise that the order of books in series couldn't be easily discerned by their titles. In the end, I was guilty of not reading anything in order - I just grabbed whatever interest me and read it. I didn't even realise some of them were part of a series, until I came across the wonders of Goodreads, and also realised that I could really Google for anything. After that, I never looked back. It's really difficult for me to read books out of order now. I could wait weeks for a book in the library to be available instead of simply going to other books in the same series that were available. You can imagine my frustration when, after I finished the book I waited weeks for to find that the next book, which used to be available, was already borrowed by someone else. Again.

Anyone else got any experiences they've got because they simply must read in a chronological (or at least some sort of) order?

[VinuW]

Of course! Like you and Stacy I have to read them in order. I also must have all the books in the series before starting it.

I agree wholeheartedly!

[Fielddaisies]

Absolutely! It irks me when my dad doesn't. I don't know how he keeps the story lines straight!

[braa4_1adus]

Sure! I am very observant and usually want to see the logical conclusion of what comes my way. I normaly will not go for second-hand information.

[tinmmm]

I try to, as much as I can. It would depend on the series though - like, if I won't miss on anything by skipping a book or so, I'd settle. Although, I would only do this if I can't find the next book in the series.

[Sarah G]

Definitely! You could lose out on so much intrigue and twisting and turning of the plot if you read them out of order. You could entirely ruin a long built up plot twist.

Could not do that at all

[slothsarereal]

I always have to! Otherwise it won't make sense One time i accidentally skipped a book because i didn't know what the order was and there was s much that i had missed and didnt understand!

[doyle5]

I can't read them any other way. I hate spoilers. I would rather be surprised by the out come and try to figure out how it will end along the way:) It's just more fun that way.

[Mntgrl1969]

I do read them in order, I get pretty frustrated when I find that I have skipped one. I have to stop reading the one I am and go find the one that comes before. Weird I know, but the Author wrote them in order for a reason so why not respect that and read them in order.

[rssllue]

I usually read them in the order written even if that is not specifically the story's chronological order. I guess I want to experience it as the author did when writing it.

[cogarae]

I could never read out of order! I mean how the heck would I know what I was reading or what was going on in the book? I would feel lost!

[Jolyon Trevelyan]

I read them in order of course.

[Bigirimana Celestin]

I DON'T LIKE SERIES

[Kaitlyn12]

I absolutely have to read the books in order if they are in a series. I don't know how anybody can read them out of order! It just seems like there is information in later books that you miss because you didn't read them in the right order. I won't get a series of books from the library unless all the books are there and I can check them all out at once. I hate getting the first few and then bringing them back and they don't have the next ones.

[Dyslexic-Superhero]

It really hurts to have book 1 and book 13 in the same room. At times I've had to read up on series to see if I could read them out of order because my to read pile was so high. If I can help it read them in order religiously.