Hi dear friends!
First thing first: I am sorry as I know I am so behind on replying and commenting but my husbqnd had a surgery this week and it’s been reaaaaally busy! He is well don’t worry but I am home in periods of 15 to 30 minutes max, not the easiest way to blog!
Now, now, this Thursday I wanted to discuss tips and tricks to read series when you are a forgetful reader as in: you don’t remember what happened in the last book and you don’t know who’s who anymore!
What happens when you want to read the next book in the series and you are one of these readers (like me) who forgets many details from one book to another?
Because let’s face it: some authors are really slow writing books and you might wait more than one year or two before reading the next installment!
By the time you’ll hold that newborn in your greedy hands you’ll have forgotten many important details and at best, you’ll feel confused the first 10 to 20% of the book (What? She is a fairy now? But last I heard she was human!!!! And why is she with that dark lord and not the Spring Prince???).
What can you do to avoid such annoying situation?
Of course, the best tip is to binge read the series!
As in: wait for the whole series to be published before reading it in one go!
I can’t tell you how many times I promised not to begin a series while she was not finished yet….
But I am weak willed and so tempted by all these hyped books.
All my friends seem to love them and the covers are so gorgeous and the blurb seems to fit the mood I am right in this moment and I want to be part of the “in” crowd and …. I CAN’T RESIST!
If you are impatient like me, what can you do?
Option one: re-read the prequel.
Yes but when the books are over 1000 pages and you have a schedule filled with ARCs or see new shiny books you probably don’t want to do that! Plus you already know how it ends even if you don’t recall the specifics and it could be boring or you could like it less than the first time.
Second option: go look after some fan-fic site.
Wiki fandom is one of the most populars. They often describe who is who and outline the main plot and latest developments.
If you want to know all about ACOTAR for example, you can go there: https://acourtofthornsandroses.fandom.com/wiki/A_Court_of_Thorns_and_Roses
Third option: you go to Goodreads and try to find detailed and spoilery reviews of the previous book.
Fourth option, the one that I choose: when writing your review, add a last part that you won’t publish where you describe the main events that happened in the book, who’s who, the characters development and the ending! Kind of like my personal fanfic. That way all you’ll have to do is reread these personal notes before beginning the sequel!
Now do tell me do you have other techniques to read series?
Thanks for reading!
Sophie
I never thought of writing my own little fan fiction to remember what happened in the series last book. That is a good idea cause I don’t do re-reading. It’s one of my things. I have only ever read Pride and Prejudice on a re-read. That’s it. No other book has made a re-read. Life is tooo darn short for re-reads. I want new stories. I know that I could most likely re-read Sadie again. That was one I loved that much. =)
Mary
I can’t believe I missed this post before!
I have this problem too and since blogging it has only gotten worse haha (so many new books to re-read old ones!)
I still try to re-read the prequels but if that fails I find the wiki sites with detailed sites (or cliffnotes and those types of sites) work really well! (Especially for GOT because there was NO WAY I was re-reading those!)
Yup yup!! I’m right there with you Sophie! I write notes about the books I read. just a page worth but its nice to refresh my memory. ❤️
Great post! I’m getting that way, especially if it’s a long time between one book and the next. Sometimes rereading my own reviews is enough to semi-jog my memory. I find myself searching wikis more often now.
Lol! I love this post. I am feeling less of a wally now that I know I’m not the only person who forgets stuff.
There are only 2 or 3 authors out there where I’ll binge read the whole series before they release the next book every other one I do a combination; firstly I jump straight in and hope for the best but if it’s really causing problems I’ll hunt out my Kindle notes and some spoiler filled reviews like everyone else if I get to bits that just flummox me. 😉
These are great tips, Sophie! I usually read short summaries before jumping into the next book. Binge reading is also a good option if the series is a duology or a trilogy. I wish authors provide short summaries in their books!
Oh that would be great Raven! Kind of like some TV series when they begin with an “Off voice” telling “in the previous episode …”!!! It would be genius!!!
That is a good idea to write some notes for yourself about what happened or look up another review of site that covers. In most cases I usually just start the later book and hope the details come back to me, but I’ve read some sequel where it was difficult to remember all that had happened.
This is why I began taking notes Lola as I felt so lost!
Well that’s actually quite a good idea !
There’s this 8tomes serie from when I was a teen that just got a 9th! book last year (last one was in 2013?) so erm. a good while had passed since I had reread that xD Sadly well.. I wasn’t blogging nor had goodreads at that point, so I couldn’t use that option- I ended up rereading the first 4 and kind of took a random break there and haven’t continued ahahah …
Kristina what did we do before Goodreads???? Indeed the same happened to me an Jean M Auel’s series as she published her last book nearly ten years later!!!
I was so excited !! Didn’t see that one coming, so that’s always a nice surprise
Excellent tips, Sophie. Depending on how long it is since I read the previous book, I will either just jump straight in and get to grips with what’s happing, or, if it’s been too long, I might read a previous installment. But rarely. These days I can skip back to a review (if I did one) and get the gist of what happened. But mostly, I’m a pantster. 😉
Hahahah Alexandra why am I not astonished that you jump right in? I think you love to take some risks LOL
I hope your husband gets better quickly. I always try to reread the previous books in a series, but if I can’t, I definitely read a few Goodreads reviews to remind myself what happened in the series.
Thank you AJ! And long live the detailed and spoilery reviews!
Great topiic. I usually go for the 3rd option and look for lengthy reviews that tend to have more details in them to jog my memory.
It seems the choice of many of us Suzanne!!! Maybe I should write even lengthier reviews LOL
Great tips! I’m totes guilty of not remembering anything from previous books 😀
Even if all the books are out, i just simply can’t binge read. I need a break between books, and it usually stretches months… or years 😀
What i started doing lately is take extensive notes while reading.
It also helps that usually i have these books on kindle, so when i feel like i don’t know who someone is, i go back to the previous book and just do a search 😀 I also do a lot of highlighting of things that happened and seem important in the book 🙂
I also highlight when reading on Kindle Norrie! And download the personal notes to help me write the review!
Lately, I have been trying to wait to binge series, but when I am too impatient to wait I do a combo of reading spoilery reviews and referencing my notes. Sometimes my notes aren’t as detailed as needed, hence the need for spoilery reviews.
:]
Hahaha yes praise de spoilery reviews!!!
I am terrible remembering the prior books, and never want to reread, but I know there are recap sites out there. Nicole (Feed Your Fiction Addiction) talked about them
Oooh I will have to look for her post then Sam!
Yes, unfortunately, my memory can be a little spotty so thanks, this is fabulous advice!
You are most welcome Trisy!!
I’m old! I write everything down!
Bwahahahah that’s good to know what is awaiting me Susan!
Luckily my memory for books is better than for life. I read a lot of series and sometimes in tandem. So, I have gotten used to having to refresh myself to previous books,
You are a lucky reader indeed Jen!!!
I have the worst memory when it comes to series. I can remember really random things except the important plot points haha. Great tips!
You are welcome Rose!!
Love this! My memory sucks at the bedt of times so I normally just do a reread!!
Hahaha we both suck at remembering Caro!
This is a great post, and one that I definitely need to read as there are so many books series that I haven’t finished but I can’t remover what happened in the previous books. Whoops
Hahaha I am always pleased to be helpful LOL
That’s a great post and option 3 defo
Hahaha thank you Priyasha!
Great tips! I normally do option three!
Hahaha blessed are these reviewers who leave spoilers Kayla (if they told us about it of course!)
Yes! As long as they tag them!