Top Ten Tuesday: Finished Series I Haven't Finished

That's kind of a confusing title.  This week's theme, courtesy as always of the lovely Broke and the Bookish, is finished series that I have yet to finish.  I'm assuming this means series that I have at least started.  I'll divide them into different groups based on how committed I am to finishing (or not finishing!) the series.  I have to say though, that my usual response to enjoying the first book in a finished series is to binge read the rest of them, so there's not much languishing on on my "going to finish" list.

NO THANKS.

The Wolves of Mercy Falls
Gone
Last Survivors
Maximum Ride
Percy Jackson and the Olympians

The only two books on this list that I tried to read more of are Gone and Life As We Knew It.  They have something in common, in that an unusual event in the present day throws everything out of whack, and the world must learn to survive under totally new circumstances.  Gone was fun, but the sequels started to make me squeamish, and I stopped reading when they started eating worms.  Life As We Knew It was even more compelling of a read, and I remember looking up from the book, worrying about how much canned goods I had in my pantry and how much fuel our camp stoves had.  But when I started the sequel, it felt like too much of the same thing.  I didn't really want to know how the same events played out in NYC; I just wanted to know what was happening with the previous book's family.


The other three just bored me.  HOWEVER, I have an awesome story about one of them.  The other day, one of my brand-new 7th grade students was trying to answer the question, "What is a series you like?"  She told me she had one in mind, but couldn't remember what it was called.  I said, "Tell me a little about it."

"Well, there are sisters?  With wings?  And they have brothers too?  Their dad is a scientist, but he's dead?  Or they think so?" she said/asked with her very best 7th grade girl voice and clarity.

"Maximum Ride?"  I asked.

"YES!"  she exclaimed.

Her friend looked at me, wide-eyed.  "That was SO COOL," she said gravely.  "Like, you are a reading super-hero."

That alone made the time I spent reading Patterson's formulaic, money-grubbing book well worth it.

MAYBE.

Throne of Glass
The Grisha
The Raven Cycle

I keep hearing great things about Sarah Maas on various blogs.  I'd checked out Throne of Glass once from the library, but couldn't get into it.  I am trying again, although apparently I read further than I'd remembered, because I keep having an annoying deja vu sensation.  I'm neither loving nor hating it, which apparently puts me in a weird minority.  I'll decide at the end if I want more or not.

I also heard wildly disparate things about the Grisha series, but was persuaded to read Shadow and Bone because I love the cover, and because I have some background knowledge about Russian culture and history.  I know some others have objected to it because the Russian elements are not well researched, but I could wrap my head around it being a fictional place only loosely inspired by Russia (although kvass being alcoholic is weird every time).   I enjoyed the book, but again, didn't adore it, so I'm unsure if I'll follow through on the others.

Maggie Stiefvater confuses me.  Scorpio Races is one of the best books I've read this year.  Shiver was boring.  The Raven Boys had a slow, dreamy pace that I couldn't really get into, but didn't completely hate either.  My love for Scorpio Races meant that I'd bought all three Raven Boys books when a friend gave me a gift card to Powells for my birthday, so I kind of feel obligated to read the other two.  But I don't feel passionate about it.

I'M WORKING ON IT!

Song of Fire and Ice
Daughter of Smoke and Bone

If I felt like a reading super hero in class, then George R. R. Martin makes me feel like a mere mortal.  That is, I simply cannot sit down and read one of his books over the weekend, much less in one afternoon.  I read the first two books in Song of Fire and Ice this summer, and have been reading the third one for weeks now.  I come back to it between other books.  At this point, the characters and their stories are well established enough that I don't get confused by the slowness of my pace, but it does make it harder to keep caring.  This is the same reason why I don't usually listen to audio books.  Still, I want to see what happens, and it wouldn't be satisfying to just ask someone who's read or watched it already.

Wait, is this series even done?  Or does it extend infinitely?  Either way, I'm far enough behind that I still say it counts.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone...this is another weird one for me.  I liked the first book, and loved the second book.  I was all excited to read the third one, but when I got it at the library, I just couldn't get into it.  Part of the problem was that there were several months between when I read the second book and when I got the third book.  Turns out that momentum is very important for my reading enthusiasm these days.  Still, Laini Taylor is completely amazing, and I think I will go back to this book in awhile and see if I can rekindle the fire.

As you can see, if I didn't finish a series, there's a reason, and the reason is that I just didn't like the first book(s) that much.  Otherwise, I'm a compulsive binge reader.  I had to struggle to come up with ten series for this category, but if the title were "series I've completed" I could come up with hundreds of ideas.

 How about you?  Are there series you gave up on?  Or series you are plugging away at?