i love the jd robb series on the future cop...(nora roberts) and of course stef plum series...catherine coulter's fbi series...fern michael's ladies...

I don't prefer one over the other. I enjoy both equally. Sometimes I think that a series goes on too long, but I feel obligated to see it to it's end. I rarely read a series exclusively, though. I usually break it up with a standalone here and there. I have only read the first book in the "In Death" series and really enjoyed it, but it's got like 42 books in the series!

I recently finished Charlaine Harris' "Harper Connelly" series. Loved it.

Nora Roberts writes good trilogies and series.
The Chesapeake Bay/ and Sea series were good.

Years ago, I loved Jackie Collins' Lucky Santengelo series. They were awesome. (Lady Boss, Lucky, etc)

My small library usually doesn't have all of the books in a series. As an avid reader with a special interest in the mystery/thriller genre, I just take what I can get. Just yesterday I finished a book by Ridley Pearson titled "Beyond Recognition". It was such a wonderful read that I googled the author and found that he has several series. What a joy to find! I will be looking for all of his others.

I like bull come now mmm mmm mmmbut when I find a good series can be a lot of fun to stock up on man I'm in george mason.

Well, so much for my attempt to use my tablet's speech-to-text function. LOL

I don't know that I prefer series, but I did just read a great series by Peggy L. Henderson. She just released the 5th and final book of the Series. The books are titled as follows:

Yellowstone Heart Song
Yellowstone Redemption
Yellowstone Awakening
Yellowstone Dawn
Yellowstone Deception

I love series. Some of my favorites are:

Jackie Collins - Lucky Santangelo
Barbara Taylor Bradford - Emma Harte
Stuart Woods - Stone Barrington/Will Lee/Holly Barker/Ed Eagle
James Patterson - Alex Cross/Women's Murder Club/Michael Bennett/Maximum Ride
David Baldacci - Camel Club
Kathy Reichs - Temperance Brennan
Patricia Cornwell - Kay Scarpetta
Lee Child - Jack Reacher
Robin Cook - Jack Stapleton and Laurie Montgomery
Robert B. Parker - Spenser/Jesse Stone/Sunny Randall
J.A. Jance - Joanna Brady/Ali Reynolds/JP Beaumont
Tess Gerritson - Rizzoli & Isles

I prefer a series of books. A lot of my faves have been mentioned, but here's a few more.

Vince Flynn has a great series- main character is Mitch Rapp, terrorism/patriotic type
C.J.Box- the Joe Pickett series, he's a game warden in WY
Lisa Gardner- The D.D. Warren series, she's a detective
Victoria Laurie- The Psychic Eye series, fun, light, mysteries
Charlaine Harris- Dead Until Dark vampire, fun, interesting supernatural
Diana Gabaldon- The Outlander series, historical Scottish/US romance/mystery/history

I'm not a fan of series, however an awful lot of people seem to be enjoying the Hunger Games series (Hunger Games, Catching Fire and Mockingjay). Another wildly popular series is the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. I read the first one but found it too violent.

I read mysteries almost 100% of the time. And I MUCH prefer a series. Some of my favorites are:

Susan Wittig Albert - the China Bayles series
Marcia Muller - the Sharon McCone series
Julia Spencer-Fleming - the Clare Fergusson & Russ Van Alstyne series
John Sanford - the Lucas Davenport series
John Sanford - the Virgil Flowers series
Sue Grafton - the Kinsey Millhone series

Ellen

Series! Authors: Louise Penny, Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George. They all write mysteries, but they are not light weight. Interesting plots and settings, complex characterizations.

I rarely read series......I've read a couple and usually by the third I am disappointed because it's never as good as the first.

I prefer stand alone books.

Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer series.

Yes, Sushi, I agree about Michael Connelly's books! Also anything by Harlan Coben, I think he's my absolute favorite! James Patterson too.

I've recently read some oldies again - James Heinlein's The Door Into Summer and Friday. Love his work. Also reread To Kill A Mockingbird and Peter Pan :)

Sushi - have you read Dean Koontz Watchers? You should! Its about a wonderful Golden named Einstein.

I've enjoyed many of the authors/series already mentioned but have really liked a series by Clive Cussler. I've also read series written by Robert Tanenbaum, Jonathan Kellerman, and Faye Kellerman.

Either or, makes me no difference. The best series I have read are the Fern Michael's Sisterhood Series. Light, easy read, about righting wrongs for people who fell through the legal cracks, vigilantly style.

I like both and have read many of the ones mentioned but I must jump in and mention my fave author
Janet Evanovich and the Steph Plum series, the funniest books around.

Ann George and the Southern Sisters series.

Jeffery Deaver all of his both the series and stand alone.
Agree Harlan Coben is one of my top choices too.

Dean Koontz the Odd series, I like all his books but really enjoyed those.

James lee Burke great characters and stories most take place in Louisiana.

Of course Diana Gabaldon Outlander series

In sci fi one of my faves from years ago the RAMA series by Arthur C Clarke

And the first series I collected The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

I love a good series because of the familiarity gained with the main characters and the personal story of the protagonist(s) you can follow.

Is anyone old enough to remember the Dell Shannon (Elizabeth Linington) police procedural series about Lieutenant Luis Mendoza? I wrote her a fan letter decades ago, and she responded, saying her fans enjoyed reading about Mendoza and his wife, Alison, and their children (and cats!) even more than they enjoyed the mysteries.

I like the Clive Custler and Brad Pitt series. Its a long term adventure and each book is a 'stand alone' in its own right. The story line in each book is highly fictional and outrageous, but based on historical facts, facts that are mangled and mixed to create a story that might have been. He stretches the imagination a bit and makes use of technology not yet here, for example, the superdrive for his ocean going vessel disguised to appear as an old cargo steamer.

Clive Custler in real life is a collector of old classic autos much like Jay Leno. Often, one his automobiles gets involved in the story and beat up when his youthful relative (story character) takes one out for a drive.

Jem - (sorry for correcting you) Dirk Pitt is the character not Brad Pitt. But one of Clive Cussler's books, Sahara, was made into a movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz.

I like series because it's sort of like hearing a friend tell about an adventure they've had. All of my favorite mystery and thriller authors have already been listed except for the Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell series by Laurie R. King, the Vineyard Mystery series by Philip R. Craig and the Brady Coyne series by William G. Tapply.

There is a great antique mystery series by Barbara Allan and a scrapbook series I believe by Joanne Campbell Slan that I have really enjoyed and of course Gemma Halliday's High Heels series. Oh and the Geriatric Detectives series with Rita Lakin is also a hoot and a half. All of these series mix mystery with humour and are light reading.

I do like a series, but I also like an author who writes stand alone books that bring in the same characters from a different viewpoint. One of my favorite authors is Tabitha King (wife of Stephen). Five of her seven novels are set in fictional Nodd's Ridge, Maine. While each is a stand alone book, there is a sense of continuity as new characters are introduced that expand or complete the histories of previous characters and allusions are made to events in previous Nodd's Ridge novels. Events and characters are seen from different viewpoints. The first book I read was "One on One" which was written in 1993. The main character is Samuel Styles. "Pearl" was written in 1988 and is about Samuel's step-mother. "The Book of Reuben" was written in 1994 and the main character is Samuel's father. "Caretakers" was written in 1983 from the viewpoint of a caretaker in Nodd's Ridge. The order in which read makes no difference. There are amusing references in Tabitha's novels to the works of her husband. For instance, she includes a note in the afterword of "One on One" that the state basketball finals against Castle Rock depicted in her novel took place before the destruction of the fictional Castle Rock portrayed in her husband's "Needful Things."

Another favorite author is Maeve Binchy whose books include references to characters and events in previous books.

It has a "coming home" feel to recognize characters and places and events.

I've read a few series books like Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta series and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency but I prefer stand alone books. The only book series that I really, really loved and would read again is Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. It follows the life over several decades of a group of tenants and their friends who live on Barbary Lane in San Francisco in the 1970s.

Jodi-

I love the series books. I have read most of the ones mentioned and made notes for the ones I have not read. I just finished a series by Robyn Carr called The Virgin River Series. They are very good.

We recently discovered a new author Alex Kava, a woman, she has some series books.

Here is a link that might be useful: Alex

I really like Peter Robinson, a British author.

Oh, yes, Raven! We've been reading Kava's books, too. Very good books.

I enjoy series and several of my favorites have been mentioned..Michael Connelly, Nora Roberts, Suaan Wittig Albert,Sue Grafton, Maeve Binchy, Elizabeth George and several I don't recognize that I'll be checking out. One series I have enjoyed is by Joan Medlicott. She writes about "the Ladies of Covington", which is a fictional town in western NC that the ladies moved to from a retirement home in PA, when one of them inherited property in NC. It illustrates the joys and problems of 3 ladies with 3 different personalities, living together, and how they coped.

jude