Do You Save All Books of a Series?

As someone who has too many books and trip over the piles occasionally, I am questioning my motives for keeping all the books in a long series. Some popular series include Kim Harrison's "Hollows", Laurel K. Hamiliton's Anita Blake series, The Dresden Files, McCaffrey's Pern series, Piers Anthony has several series, and I'm sure you can add more.

Do I really need to keep every one? Do I honestly reference the older books?

Trilogies I automatically keep; Cherie Priest's Eden Moore trilogy, The Hunger Games trilogy, the Inkheart trilogy, and Philip Pullman's Golden Compass set to name a few.

It goes with out saying that I have all and will keep all of the Harry Potter series and I am obsessed with Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century series that started with Boneshaker.

I am loving Seanan McGuire's series about changeling October Daye. There are now 6 in the series. I will continue to read them, but do I keep all of them?

Is it silly to question this since I have all of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's Count St. Germaine series which is now over 20 books?!

What do you keep? Do you have a way of qualifying certain series as to whether to keep them or not?

I used to have all of McCaffrey's Pern books, but then I had to move, so I gave Dragonriders of Pern to a good friend of mine, distributed most of the others, while keeping The Harper Hall trilogy, The Masterharper of Pern, and Nerilka's Story.  I've almost collected all of them again, though.  I started missing them too much.

There are others with which I've parted, though.&nbsp I've only got the most recent three of The Wheel of Time (as I struggle to finish them), and I'll probably always keep the one Groxx gave me (twas his first gift to me, back when I still liked the series).  As a child, I collected Sweet Valley Twins and every Star Wars book I could get my hands on, most namely Jedi Apprentice and Young Jedi Knights.  Continuing that trend, I collected all of the New Jedi Order books, but gave all of them to an accident-prone friend (gotta have something to do when you're all bandaged up!) when I got sick of them.  Why have I gotten sick of NJO?  Because, as another friend pointed out, it seems as though the authors are having a contest over who can deal the most damage to the Star Wars universe in one, foul swoop.  I also cannot fathom what the first author who penned "Leia Organa Solo" was thinking if, in the Star Wars universe, they have an aristocratic society.

I wonder if I still have any of my Star Wars books left...

For a while I kept the first three of Melanie Rawn's Sunrunner books, but then . . . you can read my review of the book if you want to know why I got rid of all of them.  Out thar be spoilers, though.

That's all I think of, for now.

I keep all books, period. So, yes.

I'm not really sure why it matters if a book is in a series or not. If you don't normally keep all your books, and it's not something that is/will be a collectors item, then what would it matter if it's part of a series?

Yes.
I tend to re-read most of the series when there's a new installlment. For the longer series I'll only re-read the last few - until a significant milestone is reached when I might do a full re-read. The only one I've struggled with is Sue Grafton's A is for Alibi which is now at V I think, and isn't strong enough to be my sole reading matter for the couple of months necessary to get through them all!

These days I'm mostly on ebooks anyway so 'keeping' isn't really a concern. Re-reading a series that is part in paper and part ebook isn't so appealing, but I do so for favourites.

Well - I thought I kept all my books but since joining LT and finally getting around to organising my books properly I have discovered that at least one if not two large boxes have gone walkabout during house moves (everything I had by Patricia Cornwell for one) which is mildly distressing.

As I have now moved to the dark side (Kindle) its a lot easier to keep a series and I like going to my archive and seeing them all in a nice tidy list. It also makes it really easy when a new one in a series comes along to read the last half or so of the last book in the series as an aide memoire!

ps. I do still buy 'real' books - so perhaps all is not lost!

For the most part, I only keep books that I'm going to reread, so I see no reason to keep a full series if I'm not going to read it. For example, I have the Harper Hall trilogy but no other Anne McCaffrey books.

Generally if I'm going to keep any part of a series, I will keep all of it, and will go out of my way to collect the full set. I'm trying (so far not very successfully LOL) to keep only things I will re-read. I just dumped the Belgariad and a few others that I know I won't go back to, but I do find it hard.

I keep a series that I'd want to reread. If I liked the first book, but not the rest, than I'll trade the rest of the series in and keep the first. That way I can loan it out to anyone who might like it.

Like others who have posted here, I keep a series if I think I will reread it. If it's a series that still has new volumes being published, I will usually keep all of it because I like to reread before new books come out. If the series is complete, it makes it a little easier to say goodbye -- if, for instance, the first book in the series was the only one I really enjoyed, or if I don't think I will read any part of the series again. I recently did a reread of a mystery series that I liked (for the characters and setting as well as the mystery, so it was worth rereading) and got rid of most of the later volumes because they were not as well-written as the earlier books.

And I also read books from the library a lot, and only purchase books that I think I might someday reread. That cuts down on the amount of weeding I have to do, though of course my tastes have changed over the years.

It depends on the series. If I'm likely to want to look back for previous references to characters or events, I'll keep every book, whether I like it or not. It also makes a difference how much time, effort, and money I have invested in acquiring the series.

I have most of the Pern books, and I bought many of them new in hardcover as soon as they came out. I haven't even read the last few because I've kind of lost interest, but it would be hard for me to get rid of any of them.

I have 60 Chalet School books, and I just need two more to complete the series. After the amount of time and effort I've put into finding, reading and organising them, they'd better be buried with me. This is a series with a very linear layout, so I often go back to previous books to find out more about a character.

If a series is very loosely connected, like Miss Marple, it is easy to let go of the ones I don't like.

Almost all my series books are from when I was younger. Now I avoid getting started on a new series. Either my attention span is getting shorter or I'm avoiding commitment.

The only complete series I have on my shelf are The Mistress of the Art of Death and The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. I've reread the Franklin series and I know I will enjoy them again some day when I am in the rare position of having nothing to read. (I think it might be a very cold day, that day!)

Regarding my last post:   Nope, no Star Wars books left in my shelves.

To me it depends.

First, I am a person who doesn't regard books as consumables, ie I don't buy-read-discard, as a rule. I know lots of people who read more than I do but who don't have a book in their home except a few - they carry every single book they buy to some charity shop. A few even puts books in the trash.
That's not me.

Second, contrary to what I just said, some books just doesn't deserve shelfspace. So, first Ender book is shelved but I feel no need to keep the rest of them. But I will be hard pressed to name more like that.

So I guess I'm for saving.

But then I doesn't own that many extensive series. Discworld stands out, as do the Foreigner series. The Culture novels aren't a proper series, imho - it's more like same-universe stories ;)

Only of the authors I love. So, the series which live on my shelves are:
Discworld by Terry Pratchett
Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
Tolkien books (mainly several sets of the trilogy and hobbit, but some of the various others as well, I feel no need to collect all the lost works, etc) J.R.R. Tolkien
Narnia by C.S. Lewis
Nero Wolfe mysteries by Rex Stout
Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers
Sherlock Holmes (including those by Laurie R. King and Arthur Conan Doyle)
Brother Cadfael (and I've begun keeping Inspector Felse as well) by Ellis Peters
Sister Frevise (also Joliff) by Margaret Frazer
Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I will and do reread all of these. Several of them I have in hardcover, paperback, audio and on my Kindle. I do not collect all of an author's works, although I might read them. One of the things I love is introducing them to my friends and relatives, have them fall in love too, then share them.

I keep absolutely everything. That's why my house is bursting at the seams with books. The longest series that I have are Wheel of Time and the Malazan series. Steven Erikson is still releasing books in this series, so it will get even longer. Oh, and Terry Pratchett too of course. How could I forget about the Discworld?

Mostly, yes.

Once every few years I go through the shelves and pack a box of books that were sub par, we outright didn't like or just never plan to read again. These go over to the used book shop for a credit to buy more books. It's rare that I will keep the first book in a series and donate the others. Usually it's the entire series that will go.

Other years we just buy another bookcase.

I have been forced to "cull" my library several times since I started collecting books as a child. Long distance moves and one episode of mold invasion kept my library down to modest proportions.

Since discovering LT, my library has swollen to a size never achieved before. One change in my book collecting habit is that I am not keeping books that were only "so-so" in my estimation: I have weeded out almost all my Anne McCaffrey books (including most of her Pern books) and books that I only kept for their inclusion in a series. I ditched my Katherine Kurtz books as they didn't age well from the first time I read them, when they were published. I like many of the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, but have or will donate the ones that I don't expect to read again any time soon.

So, in a nutshell, a qualified 'no' to the topic question.

Good suggestion about keeping favorite authors. Books that I reread I keep without question. The Unpacking My Library series has some great commentary on this topic as well.

I'm a packrat by nature, so I tend to keep everything. As of now it isn't much of an issue, as I don't have an overabundance of books. One of my goals in my library is to pass it on someday. So something that I may not have liked that much, may be loved by whoever gets it next.

Yup--they all get saved; I'm one of those who is incapable of letting go of a book--even if I didn't really enjoy it, or am never likely to read it (but it made it's way in anyways).
However, treasured, or almost complete series get to have better shelf space.

Like fuzzi and some others here, I try only to keep those books I think I will reread. So I too only have a few Anne McCaffrey books, the ones I like best. Likewise the Darkover series. And once I've finished reading the Wheel of Time I suspect I will get rid of the later volumes, just keeping the first one or two for when I need a "fix" of that world. And like Rozax, I too have ended up re-acquiring books that I discarded, having realised that I wanted to reread them after all.

SylviaC, it's nice to hear from a fellow Chalet School collector! I have about 6 more to acquire, then I hope to replace my paperbacks with hardbacks or the GGBP reprint editions.

Sakerfalcon, at this point, I figure I'd best just stick with my Armada paperbacks. I got a lot of them new in the eighties and nineties, and they are still in good shape. I'm trying to gradually replace the older ones. And I'd really like to find those last two.

I am a sucker for series, although with my Nook, I now a few series split between printed page and electronic format. Kim Harrison's is now split. I started the Anita Blake series in electronic, so I will probably stay with that. I also love Susan Howatch's series on Anglican priests in Salisbury (she calls it Starbridge). Although I love having all the books in a series in the same format, I end up with some in hardback, some paper, and then different versions of the paperbacks. Oh well.

If I get stuck into a series, you can bet I want to collect and keep the entire series. I love to re-read my favorites. Since my eyes need bigger print now I read on my Kindle but I'll still hang on to my beloved, dog eared paper copies even as I gradually, slowly, replace them with ebooks.

I'm trying to think of book I have only one or two in the series.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

That's all I can think of at this time.

>26 by MrsLee, Did you read the others and not like them? Not like them enough to continue? Why is it those are the odd ones out?

I keep everything, so keeping all of a series isn't really an issue.

A related question though, if you pick up a series as an ebook, do you like to have at least one book in the series in physical form?

I find that even if I'm mostly reading a series on an ereader, I like to have one book on the shelf to touch and remind me about the series.

I not only keep everything, but will go out of my way to try & make sure series are all same format on my shelf too :)

I recently had to winnow down my collection on space saving issues. Used to keep everything, and have kept total of a few beloved series. But the majority of series collections got whittled down the the first in series for keeping.

I keep everything; I dread the day I might have to start winnowing.

What concerns me most is completed series that spent considerable time collecting, but not yet read, and in the meantime my tastes have since moved on.

I have moved many times, and each time I do a bit more winnowing. All the series I still have listed in my library are books that I have read more than once, especially Nero Wolfe and Louis Lamour. For some reason I've read LL at least 4 times each and maybe NW too. I love those old books and so many others. They are secret doors to healing worlds and it makes me feel better just to see them on the shelves.

(32) I had almost every book by Louis L'Amour at one time, but gave them away when we moved 900 miles.

I'm rebuilding my collection again, 20 years later. I know how you feel about his stories, and I like how you describe them. I refer to them as 'comfort' reads...good friends that I like to visit repeatedly. :)

#33 :)

#27 - I read the whole series, although with Wrinkle in Time I only read the first three (are there any more?) I just didn't love the rest of the books and would only reread the first ones which I mentioned.

I've read lots of series which I enjoyed, but didn't love enough to give shelf space to in my home. In that case, I got rid of them all.

>29 Seanie:: Agreed about liking to have a series all in the same format. It really annoys me when publishers change the cover style, or even the size, of titles part way through a series. (Maybe I need to get out more!)

>35 by MrsLee, Indeed there are. There's 5 total (the last one of which I believe I also somehow missed in my youth, but there's a new special edition with all 5 that was just released that I got so that will be remedied in the future! :)), A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time. I agree the first was surely best, but I enjoyed the others also. Wrinkle was my favorite book as a child and is still up there on my list. I actually also just bought the newer special 50th anniversary edition also, since it had some extras that the collected one won't have. :)

I do keep all the books in a series, with the exception of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books. They would've taken over the house. Now I have the first couple and the last couple, and I figure I can get the others out of the library if I want to do more re-reading. The 14th and final one, completed by Brandon Sanderson, comes out next year.

I'm sad to say, I've had to pare down my physical book collections recently to be a good example to my family. I only keep my most favorites now, but if a series has space, I keep the whole set if I have them.

Fortunately, my Kindle allows me to keep books indefinitely, so I have all the Dresden Files on there, and they don't take up any more than space in my heart. :D

My comics on the other hand... Well, that's another story.

I'm another one who keeps every book she would like to reread. The problem with that, of course, is that I now have close to 3000 books in the house, no room for any more and in order to reread them all (by current yearly totals) I would have to live to be 76 (that, at least seems reasonably likely) provided I never buy, borrow or aqcuire another new book (definitely less likely). The trouble is that as soon as I give in and discard a loved book I get the terrible urge to read it again and often end up re-buying it.

Normally, I would not only keep all the books in a series (as long as I liked most of the series), I would also keep all books by a given author (again, as long as that included more than one I couldn't bear to part with). In the end, though, necessity and practicality must win and the last time I had a clear-out I got rid of several books I'd been keeping for those reasons.

I'm waiting for someone to come up with a Kindle or similar where the deal is that it comes with all your hard copy books downloaded free. That way I could clear the shelves and start all over again but I don't really see myself ever being able to pass a bookshop and come away empty-handed.

I keep all my books. I like to have full series and I really prefer the series to be in the same format, it makes shelving them easier. Right now I'm at the point I need to make another book shelf because I've run out of room again. Now that I've finished my schooling, I should have some more time to build the shelf and read the TBR pile that has been growing that whole time.

I have all the 'Falco' novels of Lindsay Davis and reread them every few years or so.