well, right now in Lancaster County it's pretty hot and muggy-but we're hoping for rain tonight-haven't had ANY in August-but not until after the big graduation-college send-off pig roast we are bidden to this afternoon, and the vineyard concert we hope to attend tonight....other than that it's pretty much same-old same-old. ;-)

I am the same way about series-and when it is an old series and the library doesn't have all the parts anymore I do get a bit twitchy. I am loathe to start a series until I have it in hand. I like to gather all the volumes in and gloat over them, stack them in copyright date order, clear the decks and them just read.

And if it is a series that is still being written, I have to have the newest one as soon as it is published, and the rest of the reading pile, and pretty much the rest of life!, is set aside.

I certainly have issues with fiction series: I feel like a sucker when I get rooked into reading them. As a personal rule of thumb, I've found that the first two or three are interesting but they diminish in interest and quality of writing after that. Trilogies are all right, usually; quartets are okay, sometimes; and I've read a couple of sextets that were satisfying. However, interminable series (some stretch to twenty- and thirty-something books) get so very predictable and stale, and just seem like laziness on the part of publishers and writers, as well as readers (IMO). I don't think I've enjoyed a series much since I outgrew the Nancy Drew mysteries. My problem is I'm always hopeful that a series will sustain itself and me, and that's why I'm susceptible to the sucker factor.

I usually get bored with fiction series. One exception was Laurence Durrell's "The Alexandrian Quartet". Each of the four was different from the others, yet interconnected enough to be intriguing.

I think series have their place and use, although they almost all eventually pitter out-there are still times that familiar characters are restful. I admit, it can be a symptom of lazy brain-but the older I get, the less I apologize for that. I just finished two grad courses, as teachers in PA must take grad-level courses throughout our careers (I've been teaching since 1976) to keep our certifications current-and they were not for lazy brains. It was very restful to pick up the latest Jane Haddam,Jasper Fforde, Anne Perry, or even Hazel Holt, as an antidote to the reading I needed to do for my courses.

I have no trouble with sci fi and fantasy series, but I am cautious about general fiction ones. Exceptions - the most excellent Sinai Tapestry set (four books), Olivia Manning's Balkan and Levant Trilogy (the basis for the Fortunes of War with Kenneth Branaugh and Emma Thompson), Mapp and Lucia, and others of their ilk.

My problem is usually with sequels. I get roped into one because the first was so wonderful, and then way too often the next turns into a dud. Examples of disappointments, the sequels of The Sparrow and How Green Was My Vally. But when they are done well, they add so much to the original.

So I see we pretty much have similar reading issues.
cece, thanks for the update on Lancaster County...should hold me over until I start book 3. (smiley face) (how do you do things like that on this site? Can't figure it out..sigh..brain at full capacity)
Yes I like to have all the books lined up and waiting and if it is still in progress I have to read the new one as soon as it comes out.
I don't believe I have tried any series that is 25-30 books long, unless it is a mystery series where each book is a stand alone, although now I have to read those in order but not necessarily as a set. The series I am talking about are those where the story leaves you hanging from book to book. Like the show Lost.

To me a "good" series should never leave you hanging. But it makes you wonder what the character(s) are doing now. Can the author sustain my iterest as well as his/her own.

If I'm left hanging then I wonder why they published the book befroe it was finished.

gbg (you don't mind if I nickname you, do you? Too much wine at the vineyard last night-and...we got 1/3 of 1/10 of an inch or rain-we caved and put the AC back on.)

smiley faces are easy-just the keystrokes semicolon ; dash- and parenthesis ) ;-) or :-(, or :-p or ....you get the idea.

It is the italic, bold and underline that are the tricky ones. You use the symbols around the first letter of what you want to do-i for italic, b for bold, and u for underline. This goes at the beginning of the text you want in the enhanced typing. But at the other end of the selected text, you MUST remember to turn them off again by using the symbol. And if you do them in multiples, like I did, you turn them off in the reverse order you used to turn them on-so since I did italic, then bold, then underline, I had to turn off underline, then bold, then italic or it would continue through every post on this thread until someone else turned it off.

cece, I am embarrassed to say I used to know how to do smiley faces as you mentioned...one of the characters from my book must have pushed it out of my brain to take up residence.
gbg is fine. My name is Cindy but there is already one here. My cousin and I grew up on Gooseberrry Beach and she has dubbed us the Gooseberry Girls.

Hey, another Cindy! Funny how many I run in to, and funny how you seldom see a Cindy of the younger set. So we have the name all to our generation!

Do you really run ino a lot of Cindys?
Growing up I never knew one. There is one other nurse at the Hospital where I work named Cindy and I think I have had only one patient named Cindy in my 30+ years there. And now you, Cindy. Are you Cynthia? I am.
I guess I don't live in a Cindy Zone.
gbg

Cindys, Barbaras and Karens. my yearbook is full of them.
But my classroom has seen almost none in a ll the years I have taught. Lots of Kellys, Katelyns, Brittanys and Courtneys, though..

Lets see - I'm in another forum, where two other Cindys post (under assumed names :) At school, two teachers are named Cindy (tho one goes by Cynthia and the other goes by Cece). And I can think of at least 3 Cindys that I went through elem and HS with. So...I do think its a generational thing. And yeah, lots of Barbaras, Lindas, Nancys and Susans in that time period. Now with the little guys I'm seeing lots of Michaelas, Brittanys (spelt a myraid of ways), and Tiffanys, which have replaced Jessica, Jasmine, Lori and Melissa.

Oh btw, I finally got a student named Cindy - first in 20 years! So maybe the name is coming back?

And no I am not Cynthia. I was named after my grandmother, Celia, and suspect I was named Cindy because the Grinch came out a month before I was born!

Oh, books - tried to read Smugglers Bible by James McElroy. Picked it up for a buck somewhere, seemed familiar. Not sure I'm going to get through it.

Come to thinkof it, I did have a Cynthia a few years back, sometime in the early '90s, I am guessing, named after a grandmother-but she went by Thia...Cindy was her grandmother's nickname and thus WWAAYY too old fashioned.

Now that I'm older, more settled, and have found the time to start reading again (went through a long period in the 90s where I just didn't read very much), I think back on some really bad reading habits I had when I was younger. For example:

*Had a bad habit of only reading one or two books by an author and then moving on to someone else. I always have good intentions of going back and reading more, but somehow time and distractions conspire against me (this still happens to me). Consequently, I feel like I don't know some authors as well as I should.

*Was never much of a series reader outside of perhaps some of the historicals. Have always preferred stand-alones or there better be a good reason for the length of the series. I can see now, though, that I missed out on some good fantasies, for example, because I wasn't much of a series person.

*If I read a series, I prefer for all of the books to be out before I start reading them (with some exceptions). I also like to read in order, and was more prone to read out of order when I was younger, or just one book in a series and never returning to it (did this a lot, actually).

*Read more realistic fiction when I was younger. Just now discovering some great SF&F that I missed out on in my younger days.

*Have never been able to read multiple books at one time. I usually only have one book going at one time, and if on the rare occasion I have two, they are very different (such as a fiction and a non-fiction).

*Also, I've noticed how the internet has changed how I put in context what I read. For example, when I was younger, I didn't know much about many of the authors I was reading, other than that two or three sentence blurb about their lives on the back cover. Consequently, I now realize I probably didn't quite understand the context of what they were writing about because I was missing the information about their personal history. (of course, I sometimes wonder now with the internet available, if I get too much information about an author).

*I don't segue from one topic to another very easily, so I tend to read in thematic batches until I start feeling burnt out on a particular theme or subject.

My particular reading quirk is that when life is extremely stressful, I am unable to read fiction, but have to resort to nonfiction.

My daughter was seriously ill for 2 years, and during that time I made do with memoirs and other works of nonfiction. I simply could not focus enough, or have enough energy to suspend disbelief, or enter into the context of an imaginary world, or whatever it takes to read fiction. My daughter is well now, and I am back to reading fiction with a vengeance.

I usually have 4-5 books going at one time. I keep trying to break that particular habit, but cannot.

kkay md-
I also have trouble being "entertained" by fiction when in a stressful time. I turn to biographies-usually ones I have all ready read, sort of like old friends. Oddly enough, the one I have reread most is Matriarch about Queen Mary.

kkay, I had a similar reaction to reading fiction during the first four years of my younger son's life when I didn't know if he would survive. I could reread old favorites of fiction but nothing new -- I didn't have the ability to concentrate on or the patience to follow an unfamiliar fictional narrative. I wonder if that's rather common for parents of ill children, or having any other ill family members, for that matter. Even years later (my son is now 19) I still have trouble reading fiction when I'm the least bit stressed.

I am also guilty of having several books going at once. I get tired of one and go to another; some I eventually finish but too many I never return to.

Cindy and cece, I have never heard of Cindy being used as a nickname for anything but Cynthia and I have never heard of any other nickname for Cynthia but Cindy, so your comments are very interesting to me. Thia I would never have thought of. It was my father who insisted on Cynthia. My mother once told me she wanted to name me Martine or Martina.

Names are so evocative, aren't they. There are names I love and loathe strictly because they belonged to a particular person I have known or a character in a book. I suppose the most extreme example is Judas. Could anyone name a tiny baby Judas? I don't want to list any others-don't want to unintentionally offend anyone.
Kids love to play around with their names (except my two, who, though their names do have oft-used, recognized nicknames, both insist on their full name at all times.)I've also known a Victoria called Tori, a Stewart called Wart (and he was the nicest boy!) and a girl whose last name was Phillips known by all as Flip!
I am always a little anxious, too, when teaching literature to the young ones and an unpleasant character shares a name with a student in the class-some nasty playground taunting has happened.
Girls in particular let their imaginations run wild when they are writing, coming up with character names that are so involved and fancy-Jennifer Glinda Brittany Alicia Jones and her best friend Petunia Rosebud Lily Smith-or at the opposite extreme, Max and Sam...very overused by boys.

It's interesting. When I am stressed, I turn to fiction. When I'm very stressed, I need to reread due to the difficulty of concentrating. Having a seriously ill child sounds like the worst kind of stress there can be. Thankfully my reading ability has not been tested in that way.

A dear friend has recently gone through a horrific bout of her husband's illness. She read strictly cozy mysteries-I took her a large bag from my shelves-because "things always come out all right" in cozies-and she needed that tidiness when her world was out-of-control.
He is currently recovering, slowly.

Under stress, I escape by reading and reading and reading and sleeping a lot. I haven't, thank Heaven, had to undergo a child's serious illness, though.

cece, names are very interesting. I am always intrigued by what names people choose for their children. I have a good friend who named her five kids names that are unnicknameable. She dislikes nicknames. Our family loves nicknames which morph into sillier and sillier ones at times, even for our pets. My nephew Noah is currently Noey-no,Noey-no calls cousin Stephanie Stephonya, and so forth.

Stress Reading....for me it depends. Sometimes I need an escape and sometimes comfort. Going through major illnesses with children...I haven't had to endure that particular nightmare...possibly the Enquirer and the Globe would be all I could manage with that.

Interesting that this topic came up. I was going to have my gallbladder out and my doctor decided to do a stress test as part of my pre-op workup. I failed it miserably and now I am going to have a cardiac catherization and stent placement next Tuesday instead. I am not unduly nervous, esp. since seeing my great cardiologist, and I have taken care of many pts. with stents and know several people who have had this done. Meanwhile I am out of work and reading fiction, still gettting through the Beverly Lewis Abram's Daughters series...book 4 with a Jane Langton mystery, a Lisa Wingate (new to me), and a Bachelor Brothers waiting in the wings.

Gooseberrygirl, my husband had stents put in about four years ago, and he is doing wonderfully well. Best wishes for a smooth and uneventful placement. Keep reading!

Cindy (gbg!) Best wishes-just think of it as a trip to a spa where the food's not great and the robe doesn't close too well! Seriously-keep us updated-although as you said, it has become a very useful and oft-done procedure. I'm beginning to think that stents are the new fashion accessory, so many people I know are having them done!

Hee, I read that thinking 'mmmm, I'd love to go to a spa'. Then I realized it was the other Cindy. Ah well :)

Names are very interesting. I always wished I was actually named for my grandmother. I love the name Celia, very sophisticated and mature. But as I got older I realized I was neither and so I stayed Cindy.

In the Jewish tradition, children are named after deceased loved ones. So when my mother's parents and their three siblings came over, they named their first daughter after the mother who had died in Russia - Glickle. Thats the Yiddish name. Each girl became Gladys. So for years I always knew of the four gladys's in my family.

Also on my dad's side - my great grandfather was Zelig, again a Yiddish name. So I have several uncles and cousins named Jerry, Gerald, and Jim or James.

Carolyn and cece thanks for the encouragement. I just want to get it done but cardiologist's are entitiled to a vacation too, I suppose!
Cindy I could arrange for you to go the "spa" for me! ;-)
I have known two celias and both went by Celia and yes, it is a beautiful name.
Now here's something...my maiden name is Sullivan. My biological father died when before I was born ( he's the one that wanted me named Cynthia if I was a girl ). When I was 3 my mother married another Sullivan (no relation but we live in a very Irish Catholic area). My mother died 8 years ago and 6 years ago my dad (stepfather) began dating a woman by the name of Sullivan. So if they had gotten married I would have had 2 mothers and 2 fathers by the name of Sullivan.

OT, but great news. Yesterday the cardiac cath showed I had congenitally narrow coronary arteries and did not need a stent. They are clear. Yeah!!

The books I bought to the hospital with me were:

The Face on the Wall by Jane Langton...my current read
Sleeping at the Starlight Motel by Bailey White...in case I needed a good funny comfort read
Rumpole A La Carte by John Mortimer....in case I needed a spot of Rumpole
Limbo by A. Manette Ansay...a memoir

gbg

Great! Thanks for letting us know.

Excellent news-so it really was just a nice rest at the spa!
hehehe!