Anyone else wait for a series to end.

[death tribble]

It all depends on the series. Somethings you just can't dip into and out again.
Lost is one where you need to follow from the start as people will die and you then won't know what happened.
The Wheel of Time is worth following from the first book as you start at a small level and then build and build into a world. I would say as someone who has read all the book only one could be sidestepped but the rest are crucial to the plot and to how things are.
The Malazan books on the other hand you could read stand-alone although you get that little bit more is you read them in sequence.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

No, I read them as they come out.

It reallly sucks when a book that was supposed to come out gets delayed by a year, as is the case with Amber & Blood by Margaret Weis. The 2nd book Amber & Iron had a heck of an ending too! It was supposed to come out this February, but it is probably not coming out till next February. And the reason she stopped working on Amber & Blood is to work on the Lost Chronicles with Tracy Hickman, which while a good series, is not as nearly as good as the Dark Disciple series.

 

[Michael Tree]

I'm the same way, for some series. It really depends on whether it's a series of self-contained novels, like Brust's Vlad Taltos books or the Dresden Files, or a big sprawling story that the author spread across multiple books, like A Song of Ice and Fire. The Harry Potter books are somewhere in between. I don't wait to read self-contained novels, since I'll get closure and satisfaction from each book, and won't need to remember as much between books.

I do generally wait for extended series' to end, although recently I've had limited reading time so I've avoided them on general principle. I've hear that a Song of Ice and Fire is an series of excellent quality, but it's already 4 huge books and it's not even finished yet, so I'm unlikely to read it any time soon.

 

[RaceBannon42]

To each their own, but I feel such an arbitrary limitation deprives you of some great reading. Can it get frustrating waiting for the next installment? Sure. But the anticipation and speculation can be a lot of fun too.

 

[Tolen Mar]

That may be. But on the other hand, I'm hip deep in at least four series, and sometimes it can get difficult to remember which is which.

As an example, I was enjoying David Weber's Honor Harrington books until I decided to go on hiatus for a while. Now I don't remember which book I left off on.

I still need to get on to book two of David Farland's Runelords trilogy...wait, now that has four as well...

Dresden I can forgive as they are more or less stand alone, and what parts arent tend to be explained as you go.

What it really comes down to I guess is I only have so much time to read, and I need to finish what I've started before I go getting into another drawn out series of books.

Still, its not as bad as my wife. She's still waiting on the next book from the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Jane Auel (sp?) still claims she's working on it, despite the years long gap its been so far.

(And now it looks like I may have a new Tolkien book to look into....)