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The Importance of Reading Series

  • EmmaLee Darr
  • Aug 21, 2023
  • 4 min read

I remember suggesting a book to a friend in high school once and she responded that she didn’t want to read it because it was the first in a series and she didn’t want to feel obligated to read the rest of the series. Honestly, I get that. I’ve heard this sentiment repeated many times over the years by many adults, but it’s not something I ever hear young kids say. My kids love to devour whatever series they’re currently obsessed with, and I think it’s helped them to grow as readers. While I understand the struggles behind committing to read an entire series, I do think it is a valuable practice. There are two main reasons to read series:

  1. Reading an entire series helps us build greater connections between stories. When you read a series of books, you see a bigger story arc than you can get in any one single story. This is especially important for kids who are beginning to study story elements, but it’s also important for us as adults as it will help us grow as readers. You also notice deeper themes when reading a series; when reading Anne of Green Gables we may notice the themes of figuring out who we are during the growing up years and the importance of family, but when you read the entire Anne series and watch Anne mature and go through many life stages, you see a larger theme of bringing joy to the world and living for others rather than yourself. Consider that reading a series is much like reading the entire Bible. Each individual book of the Bible has its own theme and should be studied in their own rights, yet if we never recognize the overall theme of redemption through Christ, reading the Bible will be useless. Reading a series with our kids helps train them to better understand the Bible as a whole.

  2. Reading an entire series helps us become more disciplined. In a culture where we are all (kids and adults alike) struggling with focus, reading a series helps build our attention muscles. Reading a series helps prepare us to read (and enjoy) harder texts. The majority of “reading” in our culture today is focused on width, not depth. Consider 30 minutes spent “scrolling your phone”: you may read part of a blog article, a few email headlines, the highlights of a news article, and part of an instagram post. You may have gained lots of “information” from this, but you aren’t really reaching a full understanding of anything you read about. Reading a series is reading for depth: by the end of the series you are going to have been so immersed in the lives of the characters that they become like a beloved friend to you. This is why people like me get a little “nerdy” about Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia, and Lord of the Rings. None of these stories would be as wonderful to us if the authors had ended the series after the first book.

So how do you dive into the world of reading series if you’ve never enjoyed it before? I think there’s a few strategies and mindset shifts that can help.

  • You need to know when it’s okay to skip a book and when not to. A few diehard readers might have just gasped at that statement. Yes, it’s okay to sometimes skip a book in a series. Now to be clear, I’m not talking about the series I mentioned earlier. If you skip Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (and let’s be honest and say that most of us were tempted to skip it), you are going to be lost in the rest of the series. But when I’m reading the newest series from Tracie Peterson (who writes Christian historical fiction), I’m probably going to be fine if I skip a book. In fact, I did this earlier this year with her new Pictures of the Heart series, skipping the first book when I couldn’t get into it and picking back up with the second, more interesting one. Learn to recognize the difference between authors who are merely writing books about related characters (like Tracie Peterson) and those who are writing a bigger story through a series of books (like J.K. Rowling).

  • Pick a home run series. If you aren’t into reading series, I don’t want you to start with one of Tracie Peterson’s. Pick one that has been tried and true and that is going to provide the deeper reading we are looking for here. Obviously, Harry Potter is one of my favorites, but I also think the Anne series is well worth the time. If you loved Anne as a child at Green Gables, I guarantee you will love her even more by the time you finish Rilla of Ingleside. Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson is another great one (I personally think good quality children’s books are always a great choice for us as parents).

  • Read other books in between. Repeat after me: you don’t have to sacrifice all other reading until you finish this series! The list checkers among us (and I’m raising my hand here, too) struggle with this, but you’re going to enjoy the experience a lot more if you decide it’s okay to take breaks when needed. This is especially true if you are reading a heavier series; I never would have finished Wheel of Time if I had made myself read it straight through; instead I sprinkled lighter fiction books and an occasional nonfiction read throughout. This gives you time to process what you’re reading and in some ways to “grow with the characters.” I spent an entire year rereading the Anne books, starting in June 2022 and ending around the same time this year.

If you aren’t sure you like reading series, give it a try! Pick one of the series we’ve mentioned here or one a friend recommends and commit to finishing the first one or two books, then take a break with another book you know you will love. Then you can come back to the series when you’re ready and rinse and repeat. I sometimes find it helpful to set a goal of finishing the series within a year or year and a half from when you start.


 
 
 

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