Getting burned out on a series

[AdmiralSteven]

Hey everyone,

Anyone ever get burned out of reading a series? If so, how did you get burned out? Was it from growing dislike for the main character, or just reading too many books too fast? Also, what do you do to insure that you don't burned out on a particular series?

I got burned out of reading one series, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. I like history, and I like the idea of someone coming up from the bottom of society and doing good, but I just read too many books too fast. At one point I read 6 books in a month and a half. When I got done with one book I'd instantly pick up another one; I just didn't stop. Well, when I got to book 15 I started to read slower and slower and I'd even put a book down for 2 weeks at a time and not read anything. Finally, I'm in the next to the last book and I just couldn't stomach it anymore and had to stop reading it, and I haven't gone back to finish it. What I do now is alternate books/series, and in some cases, stand alone books.

 

[JoeZhang]

The Doctor Who books when they went all masturbatory and for fanboys only.

 

[seigezunt]

The Doctor Who books when they went all masturbatory and for fanboys only.

at what point was that?

 

[JoeZhang]

The Doctor Who books when they went all masturbatory and for fanboys only.

at what point was that?

All that factor paradox bollocks, endless crap about the Time lords.

 

[Warp Coil]

I specifically try to avoid getting burned-out on a specific series by jumping around a bit. I'm currently reading two series at the moment - Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Both about wizards, ironically, but about as different as you can get. I'll read a couple of Dresden books, then switch over and read about Harry for a book or two. And then maybe throw in something completely, entirely different to read. Then go back and read the next Dresden book. This helps make the series last longer, and allows me to enjoy them more.

 

[Thrawn]

This usually happens to me all the time, but I swear I've been reading almost nothing but Star Trek since April of LAST YEAR and I'm still going strong. TrekLit these days is so good it's stupid.

And even with all that, and reading about 10-12 books a month, I'm still only through about half of what looks interesting to me. I still want to re-read the DS9 relaunch, Section 31, Gateways, and the second half of the New Frontier books, and for the first time read Mirror Universe, Myriad Universes, The Lost Era, Errand Of..., SCE, Rihannsu, String Theory, and a bunch of standalones from TOS, TNG, and VOY. (I spent a couple months this year hitting all the standalone DS9 books that looked interesting.)

It's insane. And thank God for the Kindle, lemme tell you.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

All the time, and usually with Star Trek. After 3 or 4 in a row I just need a break. I'll pick up something from another series for a while then go back to Trek. And if it's science fiction in general I've had too much of, I switch over to Nora Roberts for at least one book, or several if I happen to be reading part of a series.

 

[AdmiralSteven]

All the time, and usually with Star Trek. After 3 or 4 in a row I just need a break. I'll pick up something from another series for a while then go back to Trek. And if it's science fiction in general I've had too much of, I switch over to Nora Roberts for at least one book, or several if I happen to be reading part of a series.

I don't want to get burned out, so this is why I switch between Star Trek, Star Wars and other books I find. I read Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series one after after another, and I got to book 21, 2nd from the end, and just couldn't do it, so I put it down and never went back. As a result I switch between series. After I finish the Star Wars book I'm on, I'm going to read the new Voyager book "Unworthy" by Kirsten Beyer and then I think it's off to some historical novels I've got collecting dust.

 

[Marie1]

If CoE was less good, I've be burned out by it... but it is, so I'm not.

I get burned out by comic series if the art sucks, even if the story is good. If I just was after stories, I'd go for a novel.

 

[JD]

I usually jump between three or four series, and then Trek on the side. Right now I'm reading Southern Vampire Mysteries (the books True Blood is based on), Dresden Files, and Steig Larsson's Millennium (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest) trilogy. But I'm actually thinking about switching out the Swedish Millennium trilogy for the Russian Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko, since TGWKTHN hasn't come out in the US yet, and all four Watch books (Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch (aka Dusk Watch), and Final Watch aka Last Watch) are out here already.

 

[Kopernikus]

Well, variety is the key here. For example, my reading lit from the last couple of weeks:

TOS Troublesome Minds
John Birmingham: Without Warning
New Frontier: Treason
Robert Heinlein: Double Star
Arthur C. Clarke: The Last Theorem
Voyager: Unworthy
Adam Troy Castro: Emissaries from the Dead
Klingon Empire: A Burning House
Titan: Synthesis

Planned for the next couple of weeks:

John Scalzi: The Androids Dream
TOS Vulcan's Soul III
Iain Banks: Consider Phlebas
DS9 The Soul Key
Arthur C. Clarke: Songs of A Distant Earth

The Last time I burned out on something, was when I read three of the big CoE-Omnibuses in three month, that was a bit too much.
On the other hand, two years ago I read Peter F. Hamiltons Nights Dawn-Series almost in a row, and still felt no exhaustion afterwards.

 

[Caliburn24]

After reading hundreds of Star Trek books and probably slightly more than a hundred Star Wars books I've largely given up reading anything in either series. The newer books might be as good or better than anything that came before, but how many times can Luke defeat some monstrous villain or Picard conduct diplomatic somethings or others before it seems stale and unoriginal? Unfortunately I reached that point a couple of years ago.

 

[Baerbel Haddrell]

After reading hundreds of Star Trek books and probably slightly more than a hundred Star Wars books I've largely given up reading anything in either series. The newer books might be as good or better than anything that came before, but how many times can Luke defeat some monstrous villain or Picard conduct diplomatic somethings or others before it seems stale and unoriginal? Unfortunately I reached that point a couple of years ago.

I stopped reading Star Wars years ago and I discovered a few months ago that I just don`t have the passion for Star Trek books I used to have any more.

I am still very much a New Frontier fan but all the other series lost a lot of their appeal to me. I probably just need a break and this is what I am doing.

Instead I got more and more active in the Bleach fandom, a manga/anime series my daughter and me both love and something also my husband enjoys.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Yeah, I like Bleach a lot too, but I limit myself only to the anime broadcasts on Adult Swim (although I did buy a three-foot "Zangetsu" sword a year ago).

I think I did come close to burning out on Star Trek after DS9 because I had followed every episode of both that series and TNG as well as many tie-in novels and comics. Due to UPN not really having a stable home in my area, I got a break from Trek with VOY if I wanted it or not. Even when UPN was finally available in time for ENT's premiere, I didn't really "come back" into the Trek fold until the DS9/VOY/TNG relaunch books. After the better part of a decade, I'm currently getting back into Star Wars books with the standalone "Millennium Falcon" novel, after skipping both the "New Jedi Order" and "Legacy of the Force" arcs.

These days, it's hard for me to get burned out on a series because either I don't immerse myself too deeply into it or that the installments aren't that frequent to begin with. I also hop around with comics, manga, anime, and other sci-fi & fantasy books more than I used to as well...

 

[langdonboom]

-

 

[Icemizer]

I have found it impossible to get burned out on a series of books if I stay current with them. As well as novels I find that reading the 35-40 comics per month keeps enough diversity in my reading to always keep things fresh.

 

[lstyer]

Anyone ever get burned out of reading a series? If so, how did you get burned out? Was it from growing dislike for the main character, or just reading too many books too fast?

It's happened to me. Usually it's either a question of reading too much of the series too close together or something "changing" about the series that renders it less interesting to me.

Also, what do you do to insure that you don't burned out on a particular series?

Try to break it up by reading something reasonably different. Go from science fiction to crime, or horror to nonfiction, something like that. That works even better than taking a break does for me, because even if I haven't read anything at all in a while, if the last book I read was of the same series and I was burning out on it, the burn out tends to come back pretty quickly if I don't read something different between.

My best weapon for fighting burnout is a willingness to just put a book down if I start feeling burned out. I am a big believer in putting a book down and picking it up again or even starting it over much later. There have been a number fo books over the years that I couldn't get into the first time I tried to read them, but later gave another chance and loved.

I got burned out of reading one series, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. I like history, and I like the idea of someone coming up from the bottom of society and doing good, but I just read too many books too fast. At one point I read 6 books in a month and a half. When I got done with one book I'd instantly pick up another one; I just didn't stop. Well, when I got to book 15 I started to read slower and slower and I'd even put a book down for 2 weeks at a time and not read anything. Finally, I'm in the next to the last book and I just couldn't stomach it anymore and had to stop reading it, and I haven't gone back to finish it. What I do now is alternate books/series, and in some cases, stand alone books.[/QUOTE]

 

[indianatrekker26]

This happens to me a few times a year, where i can't decide between reading trek or wars. However, this last week I picked up 50 of the older, out of print TOS books. I'm already on my third book this week, "The Abode of Life." I'll probably fly through all 50. To me, this is new trek I've never read before. I have about every TNG book, which ive read 3 or 4 times. It's nice to have fresh trek to read, even if it is 20 years old.

 

[seigezunt]

The Doctor Who books when they went all masturbatory and for fanboys only.

at what point was that?

All that factor paradox bollocks, endless crap about the Time lords.

Yeah, that might do it.

I'm a little burned out on Doctor Who right now in general, though mostly the comics. Good art, but the stories aren't doing it for me. It hasn't helped that the most recent dvd releases of the classic series have been a little meh IMO.

 

[JoeZhang]

at what point was that?

All that factor paradox bollocks, endless crap about the Time lords.

Yeah, that might do it.

I'm a little burned out on Doctor Who right now in general, though mostly the comics. Good art, but the stories aren't doing it for me. It hasn't helped that the most recent dvd releases of the classic series have been a little meh IMO.

I can understand why they went down that road but the problem is - if you are a causal who reader like me, as you work your way through the books, and it's just more convoluted continuity stuff strung out from book to book, you just start to roll your eyes. I also don't think the Doctor is a better character for all knows everything about him but his inside leg measurement.

I moved onto the missing adventures instead.