Solving for Tsundoku: Why Do We Have So Many In Progress Series?!

February 7, 2020

 

 

 

 

 

is a series of posts focused on making peace with the piles.


 

Lately, the topic of how many book series we have in progress has come up a lot with my bookish community. I set a goal for 2020 that I will complete more book series than I start. This set a lot of conversation going! I learned that Dani @ Perspective of a Writer has 20 manga series in progress with dozens more novel series to complete. The Captain @ The Captain’s Quarter has over 79 active series to finish (36 completed series she needs to just read, 34 where she is waiting on the author, and 9 where she is behind and the author is still writing — and I’m SURE more by the time I’ve posted this)! Knowing where these wonderful bloggers stand, it’s nice to know I’m not alone. And, obviously, you aren’t alone either.

On Goodreads, I have a shelf for series books. There are 361 series books listed here. All of these books are books I’ve read… This makes me pause thinking about how many in-progress series I currently have. I cannot imagine how many books are missing from this shelf I need to read still to complete the series. Taking a quick look through my shelf, here are a few key series I have in progress:

Murderbot Diaries – Martha Wells

Binti – Nnedi Okorafor

Skyward – Brandon Sanderson

Truly Devious – Maureen Johnson

Wayfarers – Becky Chambers

Winternight Trilogy – Katherine Arden

Tao – Wesley Chu

 

And there are soooo many more. Of the 21 books above, I’ve read 8. Merely 8! Skimming down my Goodreads shelf, I have over 20 in-progress series. I cannot even imagine how many unread series books that add up to. It’s been a long road to acquire so many in-progress series. If you know me, you know I try to avoid reading books where the entire series isn’t published. I like to binge an entire series, otherwise, I forget far too many important details. But these are all series I somehow didn’t binge. And I know that I’m not alone in having so many series I’m in the middle of reading, either. So how did we get here?

For me, the biggest reason is that I’ve read a lot of first-book-in-the-series novels for my book clubs. We don’t think it’s fair to ask people to read more than one book a month and with rotating people who select books, we rarely progress through an entire series. It’s also very popular to be a series author in the publishing world. My go-to genres love series: science fiction and fantasy. Also, series books are popular in the two reading levels I’ve been gravitating to over the last few years: middle grade and young adult.

From a sales perspective, this makes sense. Publishers want to hook readers and keep them buying books. Great series draws readers deeply into the book. Good characters, world-building, and plot will keep us coming back for more over and over again. It’s the same reason we love binging television shows – we are compelled by these situations and want to be there with these characters we love. Well-crafted series have plots that wrap up in each book, but just enough loose ends to keep us wanting more.  Plus, who can resist continuing when such a larger cliffhanger is at the end of a book?!

As I mentioned, one of my goals for 2020 is to wrap-up reading more book series than I start. I’m off to a rough start. In the first 5 weeks of 2020, I’ve started 4 new series. FOUR. It’s like I blinked and this stat existed. I’ve only completed two series so far this year, meaning I’m behind by 3 series completed. Yikes. That’s not a good sign for this goal. I need to take charge of my To Be Read list or I’ll quickly be drowning in the middle of more series. I don’t even want to think about how many series I started in 2019 alone.

I know I’m not the only one struggling with this, so I am sharing my strategy for accomplishing this goal. Hopefully, this can inspire some of you to make a dent in your incomplete series:

 

  • Review all the books on my series Goodreads shelf and determine what series I am interested in finishing.
  • For the books I don’t own, reserve them through the library. Set suspension dates for them all, with one releasing each month.
  • With physical copies of books, stack them prominently on my nightstand so I have to look at them each day.
  • When determining what books to read next, if there is a gap between book club books, attempt to prioritize series books first — have them readily available to start.
  • Do NOT start a new series unless…
    • The book is for a buddy read.
    • The book is for book club.
  • Each month, identify at least one series book to read in my monthly TBR. Publish this on my blog to help hold me accountable.
  • Tell my husband. Encourage him to pester me if he sees me reading a series book which is not for a buddy read/book club. Be transparent if this is moving the needle on my goal.
  • Keep track of how many series I start and finish in my 2020 reading statistics spreadsheet.

 

When I write it all down, this seems like a lot. But, honestly, these are all little things. I hope by adding each little thing together I can move the needle in a positive direction on my 2020 series reading goal. The two biggest roadblocks I foresee are buddy reads/book clubs and books not being accessible. I listen to a lot of audiobooks due to my commute, so without access to them, I will resort to finding whatever is available at the library.

I have hope that this strategy will set me on a path for success towards my 2020 goal. It will be gratifying to have more completed series under my belt, too. If you’re on a similar quest, I wish you luck! Share your own strategies below!


What do you think?

  • How many book series are you currently “reading”?
  • What strategies do you use to wrap up your in-progress series? What hasn’t worked for you in the past?
  • Why do you think we have so many in-progress series on our TBRs? How did you end up with in-progress series waiting to be finished?
  • What ways do you avoid building on the in-progress series? Do you even care how many series are in-progress?

29 Comments

  • Kim @ Traveling in Books February 7, 2020 at 10:09 am

    I’m making it a point to get through series this year, too. So far, I’m doing okay. I have made progress through the Temeraire series, I am starting the nest book in the Their Bright Ascendancy trilogy tonight, and I am plowing right through the Grihaverse books. So yay for that. But there are still so many series left…. I think it will always be like that, and I’m just going to have to make peace with it.

    • Jackie B February 18, 2020 at 8:11 am

      You’re right– we will always have multiple series we’re reading at the same time, always. That’s the nature of enjoying science fiction and fantasy while craving diversity in reading. But that doesn’t mean we cannot be more intentional about our reading.

      I tend to read for book clubs blindly. I wonder if I should start prioritizing whether or not I will read book club books to ensure that I don’t give myself more work than I want. You know, suddenly having a new series I’m reading, or whatnot. But I love book clubs so much, that’s a hard thing to reckon with. Who knows. I’m just hoping I can make some dents this year.

  • Susy's Cozy World February 7, 2020 at 12:42 pm

    To finish more series than the ones you begin for me is an unreachable goal because I have no self control (or shelves control) at all, but I wish you good luck!! Series are the bane of my existence too, and every year I try to at least finish some of them, but… It’s not enough! I think I may copy some of your strategies to help me here!

    • Jackie B February 12, 2020 at 8:16 am

      Oh, I believe in you, Suzy! You could totally finish more series than you start if you REALLY focused. It helps me that I don’t start a new series unless it’s for a book club or the entire series is already published. I just can’t keep it all in my head! How do you manage to remember everything from book to book in a series?

      • Susy's Cozy World February 12, 2020 at 8:59 am

        I usually read my notes on the previous ones and maybe some reviews, because I do not have a good memory. But I can’t read more of one book per series because if I read two or three one after another I don’t keep my interest and so I have to let some time pass between the different volumes

        • Jackie B February 21, 2020 at 4:48 pm

          So, if you binge read a series you enjoy it less than if you take your time, spreading the books out over time? How fascinating. I love how many different sorts of readers there are in the world!

          • Susy's Cozy World February 22, 2020 at 11:02 am

            Yep! Once upon a time I binge read the series and loved that (it wasn’t really true for all the series, because I never managed to read more than one Terry Brooks books in sequence, or Robert Jordan either, for example, but it was true more often than not) then with time my habits as a reader have changed!

    • Jackie B February 18, 2020 at 8:12 am

      Hahaha! I love the idea of shelf control. So good. It can be hard to not pick up the shiny new series book, honestly. But it’s nice to give myself some criteria to ensure I’m less impulsive. It feels… good.

  • Grab the Lapels February 7, 2020 at 3:35 pm

    I’m reading two series this year: Valdemar and The DescentVerse. You know about my plans for both. I think the way I keep on track is I really take my planning seriously, but not only that, I find it exciting. I have a spreadsheet with one tab for the year. This includes all the months and then five books for each month that I’m planning on. That’s not to say I won’t shuffle things around, but there are some columns that don’t change, like Valdemar and The DescentVerse. Another tab in that spreadsheet is for the order of The DescentVerse books. There’s just a lot of them, so this is to see where to head. A third tab is labeled stats. I put in the title of a book, the author’s gender, the decade in which it was published, and the genre. This makes the year-end wrap-up much easier. Lastly, I have 4th tab that has my daily reading schedule. I aim for 75 pages per day, and I have a column of the dates all the way through the end of the year. It’s only filled out for #ReadingValdemar and through the end of March so I can see where I’m going. Because this is all one spreadsheet with four tabs, it’s easy to NOT forget what I’m doing. I wouldn’t recommend separate spreadsheets.

    • Jackie B February 12, 2020 at 1:12 pm

      I’ve seen your monthly reading planning spreadsheets before and I use a variation of them for my own reading now. Thanks for sharing that with me! I am also borrowing your idea of collecting book stats. So far it’s been easy to keep track of everything, but… well, we’re still early in the year and I know my own personality.

      I didn’t know you also had a daily reading schedule! That’s a little intense for me, but I love the idea behind it. How do you adapt it for audiobooks and eBooks?

      • Grab the Lapels February 12, 2020 at 4:06 pm

        Audiobooks never figure into my reading plans. When they’re done, I review them. E-books often have to be assessed based on the number of pages in it, figure out how many days it would take to read if I were reading 75 pages per day, and then turn that into percentages. So, 300 pages would take me four days, meaning I need to read 25% of the e-book each day. I keep the reading schedule so I don’t lose track of my own time. It’s so easy for me to think I’ve read a bunch and realize it’s only been 10 minutes. I used to say, “I will read for one hour” and be amazed at how much I could get in. Because I don’t always have one uninterrupted hour, I switched to page numbers. Some days I’m behind, some days I’m ahead, but it puts reading at top-of-mind awareness and helps me choose books over Netflix or Reddit.

        • Jackie B February 24, 2020 at 1:00 pm

          I’m proud of you for finding a system which encourages books over Reddit and Netflix. That can be really hard for people. I’m impressed with your attention to detail, too. I don’t think I could manage my time that closely. But, that isn’t a bad thing! We each have to develop our own system for staying on top of our reading.

  • Captain's Quarters February 7, 2020 at 3:56 pm

    This post made me laugh (in a good way). I finished two series and then immediately started a new one. Sigh. I am now at 78. I am desperately trying to finish more than I start this year too. The biggest issue is that I have some eArcs I am trying to catch up on. The flu kicked my butt. The two short story collections are both long and taking a lot longer to read. After I am caught back up, I plan on alternating between series books, arcs, and standalones. Me mood will determine reading order but I am going make a concerted effort to change it up. The series on yer list be awesome. I have not read the tao books yet. I have to wait until I finish some series before I start. Arrr!
    x The Captain

    • Jackie B February 12, 2020 at 8:22 am

      Congrats on finishing two series, even if you started a new one right away. Being down to 78 is awesome! Baby steps are better than nothing. It’s not like you can just blaze through a ton of series in a weekend, you know.

      I’m sorry the flu kicked your butt. 🙁 It took my husband out for 2 weeks! I love your plan for reading. Do you have a ton of ARCs to read? Will any be adding to your in-progress series list? I imagine a few do, but here’s hoping they help you wrap up some series. XD

      I LOVED the first Tao novel. I look forward to finishing the series. Perhaps that will even happen this year! One can hope.

  • Dani @ Perspective of a Writer February 7, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    I think it’s natural to read a ton of first books and lose over half as you await sequels and find the series isn’t as compelling as you thought. A big problem I have with book series as compared to a manga or light novel series is they are more challenging to read. I easily read 5 volumes of a light novel one week.
    It was compelling.
    Things aren’t wrapped up in a neat bow.
    And a set number of pages for each volume isn’t expected. Whatever fits the plot is the length.

    Even a manga I only feel is a low 4 star is worth reading because I read each volume in about an hour give or take and that’s at enjoyment speed. There is nothing but dialogue and maybe thoughts. I’m not bogged down with a set number of pages.

    Sometimes I enjoy indie books and series more because they don’t have these restrictions. The thing is I get it. For publishers they need a set number of pages to make a book worth printing. Period. There’s no if ands or buts. If authors want to keep publishing they fit their story to the requirements. So where a first book isn’t compelling enough or a second period is wildly different in quality I’ll bow out of reading more of the series.

    • Jackie B February 11, 2020 at 9:12 pm

      Good point about learning which series to continue and which to drop. Since I often wait for the entire series to be published before I start it, I typically know if I want to keep reading. But that isn’t always the case! I need to ponder through my in-progress series and determine if any are not worth following.

      I enjoy reading novel series, but it’s nice to escape to a manga or graphic novel series sometimes. Two summers ago I binged all of Ouran High School Host Club. But I can’t binge them the same way I can binge a novel. I get exhausted more quickly. It’s so different– taking in the images AND the words is for some reason challenging after a while. But I appreciate how easy it is to read a single volume.

      Thanks for sharing all your thoughts, Dani! You have given me a lot to think about. Now I’m even *more* curious about light novels!

      • Dani @ Perspective of a Writer February 12, 2020 at 12:46 am

        I agree about manga being more exhausting if I try to binge read them. I think it’s smart the release them every 3 months and no faster.

        • Jackie B February 19, 2020 at 2:23 pm

          Ha. I’ve never paid attention to the release schedule for manga. Are they often released more often than this?

          • Dani @ Perspective of a Writer February 24, 2020 at 11:25 pm

            Since they tend to pick up licenses for popular series they could release one a month if they wanted. But then more would probably wait and buy the series all together.

  • Sam@WLABB February 7, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    I love that you are enlisting your husband on this one. That’s fabulous! I am also guilty of starting series. I know I started many, and then sort of lost interest due to long gaps between the books. Most YA series have a year or more between books. I have made some attempts with a few of the series, reserving the books at the library, but by the time my holds came though, I lost my drive to read the book. I have also fallen out of love with fantasy books, and almost all of the unfinished series are fantasy.

    • Jackie B February 18, 2020 at 8:22 am

      Heck yes I am. Leverage the husband! I like how we push each other to constantly improve. I lean on him for a lot of things like this.

      Oh dear! You have fallen out of love with fantasy? Any idea how that happened? I fell out of love with dystopian literature, so I can relate. But I found a book which really spoke to me (I’m looking at you, Station Eleven!) and I’m back into reading it. I just need to be more selective.

      You just gave me an idea for another post, Sam! XD How do we decide when to give up on a series? When are we going to walk away? That’s quite a difficult question for most, and one I haven’t thought about too much.

      How do you decide to walk away?

      • Sam@WLABB February 18, 2020 at 5:44 pm

        I am looking forward to reading your post.

  • Laila@BigReadingLife February 8, 2020 at 2:27 pm

    Interesting post! I love reading your take on this topic. I have no idea who many series I’ve started. I bet a check on Goodreads could tell me though. You know I love mysteries, so that’s where my series are. But I CAN NOT read a whole series back to back. Because I’m such a mood reader my wandering eye starts looking at all the other books out there! So I tend to read a mystery, then wait another month or two or three – sometimes even longer, then get the next one. I’ve been reading Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford series for years now! Now that I think about it, though, you can get away with waiting a long time in between books because the characters stay pretty constant in mysteries. I’m not a big YA or fantasy reader, and I can see how that would be different.

    • Jackie B February 18, 2020 at 8:25 am

      Thanks, Laila! I appreciate the kudos. 🙂

      Mystery series are a bit different than most YA and fantasy series, true. Yes, the characters stay pretty constant. But also, you don’t always HAVE to read the books in order to appreciate them. They are often more episodic than connecting a larger story or character arc. Which isn’t to say that they don’t have larger arcs — that’s just often not the draw.

      Inspector Wexford is a long series! No wonder you’ve been reading it off and on for years. I know someone who is trying to read all of Agatha Christie. She’s 20 years in and still has a long way to go. Wow– these mystery writers are prolific!

      Do you read many series books outside of mystery? I honestly don’t recall seeing many reviews for series books posted on your blog!

      • Laila@BigReadingLife February 19, 2020 at 2:48 pm

        I am trying to read all of Christie too – but VERY VERY slowly and I may never finish!

        I don’t think that I do read many series books outside of mystery – I can think of the Jeff Vandermeer Area X trilogy… which I loved. Hmmm… of course, Harry Potter… but it’s not something I regularly do outside of mystery.

        • Jackie B February 25, 2020 at 2:53 pm

          You are?! Good luck with all that reading! Oy. Christie is so prolific! How many do you have left? 😉

          I’m glad someone I know like Area X. It didn’t work for me at all, sadly.

          I never noticed that you don’t often read series. Huh. I’ll be seeing that all the time now. Good on you! Series and I have a love/hate relationship.

          • Laila@BigReadingLife February 25, 2020 at 3:05 pm

            Rough calculations (looking at Fantasticfiction.com for Christie’s catalog) I’ve read 10 of 76 books! HA HA! I my never read them all, and they’re not formally on my TBR list, but I know that I’d like to try, because I always enjoy them.

            • Jackie B February 28, 2020 at 9:30 am

              76 novels! This doesn’t count her plays or short stories, I assume? Good luck, my dear. You’ll be reading for years and years. And remember, it isn’t reaching the end which matters most, but the journey. Even if you only ever make it halfway, I think you’ll love every moment reading Christie’s works. I’ve only read three so far, loving them all. I know I’ll read more before I die, but perhaps not all of them. XD

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