How well do you know....

trappedslider · Oct 6, 2014

a book series? Like if i asked about an event in a book series could you say it happens in book 5 around the middle?

The only series I know well enough that I could answer questions like that are The Shadow Series, Harry Potter, The Dresden Files and the camp Half-blood books.

What series do you know really well?

Dog Moon · Oct 7, 2014

For me, the only series I've ever known well was Lord of the Rings. I've lost track of how often I've read those books. Although admittedly, I think there were like 2 parts that after a couple of read-throughs I decided to skip every single time afterwards...

But I've pretty much never read a series more than once so if you asked me about pretty much any series, I MAY be able to give you some information about an event depending on how interesting it was, but likely I would only be able to give vague info... if anything at all.

Janx · Oct 7, 2014

I don't bother remembering details in fiction. I wen to a FireFly LARP event once, and forgot that the Earth blew up. Minor detail to the series really. But it came up in conversation with a Companion. Darned annoying.

On the other hand, I can tell you what file to find what chunk of code that does XYZ for a project you're working on for me.

The latter is a bit more important in my line of work.

Deset Gled · Oct 7, 2014

trappedslider said:
Like if i asked about an event in a book series could you say it happens in book 5 around the middle?

I think this tells more about the structure of the book than how much I like it.

Harry Potter, to take your example, has a relatively formulaic timeline. The book starts at the end of summer and ends in spring, and the characters are all one year older each book. So even though I'm not a huge fan of the series and have only read each book once, I can tell you what book and how far along an event occurs simply by knowing minor factors such as time of year and maturity level of the plot point.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hitch Hikers Guide To The Galaxy is fairly random. I love the series, but if you as me about a specific joke or event I can't always remember exactly when it happened, because it could often have happened at any point. And it gets even more confusing when you consider that some events happen at different times in the radio series, BBC mini-series, movie, or comic book than they do in the books.

Different books will be structured differently and make different types of questions easier. The amount that a book series is episodic vs serialized in nature will have a large factor. The extended universe around the books will also play a role.

trappedslider · Oct 7, 2014

Deset Gled said:
I think this tells more about the structure of the book than how much I like it.
.

Well i think a better question for me to have asked would have been do you know it like the back of your hand? I mean to grab an example from a different media tv, I can can most likely ask someone here about a previous adventure the doctor had and get told that it take took place during the classic era or nuwho and which doctor and which companion if any was there.

Going back to books, I can do that with the series i mentioned, I can tell you that X happened in Y book with characters ABC being present and that those actions have an effect on book J character H. But that's mainly due to me reading the series over and voer again because of how much i love it.

No one wants to play Harry Potter Trivia in my house against me for the same reason

Jhaelen · Oct 8, 2014

I don't know any book series well. I tend to forget everything very shortly after reading it. All that I can usually remember is a) that I've read it, b) how much I liked it and c) what it was about in a very general way (similar to the book's summary on the back).

It's happened that I started reading a book I'd already read years ago, but after one or two chapters I realize it and stop reading.

The only book I intentionally read multiple times is 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' by Philip K. Dick. Oh, and I read 'The Lord of the Rings' twice, but only because I first read the German translation and then wanted to know if I liked the original better (which I did).