Booking Through Thursday

This week's BTT question comes from Vampira2468:
Series or Stand-alone?


This is a pretty difficult question, as all of the questions seem to be. I really like series such as 'Harry Potter' if they are well executed. You are able to identify with them, grow with them and discover so much. This possibility for development is probably what I love most about series. Take a character like Severus Snape from 'Harry Potter'. For years, J.K. Rowling toyed with our feelings towards him. First we disliked him and were suspicious of every word he said. Then we thought he was actually a good guy who simply had a bad attitude. Then he commits the biggest crime possible and we hate him. And then we all cried when he died. It is almost impossible to do this in a stand-alone because it simply requires a lot of words. I always try to remember, when it comes to stand-alones, that Tolkien meant for 'The Lord of the Rings' to be one book. Imagine how massive that book would have been!! Probably heavier than the Bible! 


But I do love stand-alones. I love being able to pick up a book and find everything in there. I sometimes really dislike cliffhangers, it's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. I want to read a story, that's why I pick up the book. I don't want to feel as if I have to buy the next book in order to be able to finish a story. That's what I liked about Harry Potter, each book has its own story that finishes at the end of the book, next to the bigger story arch. Sometimes authors know they are writing a series and the storyline seriously starts to slacken half way and the end is just a big swamp. Stand-alones, I think, are sometimes harder to write, because the author does not have an unlimited amount of pages. The storyline has to be concise enough to fit into 1 book, which means the author has to put more thought into how it is planned out.


To be honest, I can't choose. I love to many books in either category to be able to discredit one. How about you?



I quickly want to thank everyone who commented on my "rant-post" yesterday about the sexual rewrites of classics. It was great to see I wasn't the only one who felt that way! :)