Today’s Musing Mondays is… “Do you prefer to read stand-alone books, or books in series? Do you stick with a series the whole way through or stop after the first instalment? Are there any particular series you enjoy?”

Oh, I love series. Love love love. The ones I’ve blogged to completion (or temporary completion, at least) are Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next and Nursery Crime and John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War. I’m also chugging along through Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera at the moment, among many other series.

What I like about series novels is that you can really get to know the characters and that you pretty much know what to expect when you pick up the next book. Good comfort reading! Of course, there are downsides to series, as well, namely that you have to wait a while (or a long while) for a conclusion.

Generally I keep up with series until they disappoint me, at which point I stop reading. (For Twilight, this took only one book.) Then, if I know someone else who has read/is reading the same series, I’ll ask them to tell me what happens next and if I’m interested I’ll try one more book.