Books, games, movies -- "falling behind" vs. your own pace

[Tasaio]

Greetings,

When you have complex plot arcs for series -- Babylon 5, Robert Jordan, Harry Potter -- do you think it better to take each installment as it's released, or to wait until the series is concluded?

It would make sense to wait until it's finished...but this effectively isolates you current fans, and it makes you feel you're perpetually behind everyone else.

What do you suggest?

Thanks in advance!

[Andy]

Definitely a tradeoff there. I think I prefer not to wait over and over for the next in the series to come, though at the same time waiting for it ALL to be over is quite hard itself. For me it depends really. For instance, watching 24(the tv show) I notice that I enjoy the season much much more if I wait till the end of the season and then watch the episodes in quick succession rather than one per week.

The harry potter books, I got into them after the 4th one was already out, so it was quite nice being able to read 1 through 4 pretty quickly. I read 5 and 6 right after each came out, and thinking about it now...I'd probably have enjoyed the experience more being able to read 5-7 one after the other instead of having to wait each time.

Interesting topic, I hadn't though too much about it before, I think it's ultimately better waiting and "falling behind", not to mention the time saved obsessing about the next installment. It's definitely tough though since that entails bypassing all the hype..which can be fun

[Mark Lapierre]

Heh, interesting topic. I tend to become addicted to certain types of series so I prefer to take each installment as it's released, otherwise I'll watch a few episodes in a row when I should be going to sleep, or move onto the next book while my pile of non-fiction grows ever larger.

And even though at the end of a particular episode/novel I might be itching to find out what happens next, that feeling quickly fades and I allow my focus to turn to other things, preventing me from obsession about what happens next (at least until I talk to someone about it)

[Wanderer]

I think the trouble lies when your watching TV. if your on a role with watching things you feel like you have to continue - Im very much like that with prison break atm, so books yes read when they come out, but tv watch only when available on dvd.
Just my 2 cents

[Tasaio]

I agree, wait for TV shows to finish -- heh, I can't imagine what Babylon 5 would've been like with only one episode per day. :

What about games and software? One advantage of waiting is that the bugs are ironed out (*cough* NWN 2 *cough*).

This one confuses me -- why rush out to get Vista? What's the need for a new, untested, incompatible operating system?

[Dilman]

If I had to wait 10 years for a book series to end, I don't think I'd even be interested in it anymore. For Harry Potter, I read all the books in the series a couple days before the next book comes out, to remember what happened. I personally couldn't wait for all of them to come out, plus I like the suspense leading up to each on coming out.

[Mark Lapierre]

Originally Posted by Dilman

If I had to wait 10 years for a book series to end, I don't think I'd even be interested in it anymore. For Harry Potter, I read all the books in the series a couple days before the next book comes out, to remember what happened. I personally couldn't wait for all of them to come out, plus I like the suspense leading up to each on coming out.

I'm the opposite. If a series is good, no amount of time will shrink my enthusiasm. I'll put the existing volumes out of my mind soon after I've finished them (a few days, a week, a month, it all depends on what else is going on in my life), but as I read the next volume, little references here and there are enough to bring my memory of the preceding volumes to the surface, including the emotions (though less intense).

And in the case of series like The Wheel of Time, I would have much preferred to start reading it when it was first released. Then I wouldn't have wasted my friggin' time with it after about volume 4. But because I had easy access to all up to volume 9, and they were easy to read, I kept going even after it started to drag ever more slowly because I still wanted to find out what happened next, and knew that I could find out easily. One day I'll learn to direct my curiosity more effectively

[Tasaio]

Originally Posted by Mark Lapierre

I'm the opposite. If a series is good, no amount of time will shrink my enthusiasm. I'll put the existing volumes out of my mind soon after I've finished them (a few days, a week, a month, it all depends on what else is going on in my life), but as I read the next volume, little references here and there are enough to bring my memory of the preceding volumes to the surface, including the emotions (though less intense).

And in the case of series like The Wheel of Time, I would have much preferred to start reading it when it was first released. Then I wouldn't have wasted my friggin' time with it after about volume 4. But because I had easy access to all up to volume 9, and they were easy to read, I kept going even after it started to drag ever more slowly because I still wanted to find out what happened next, and knew that I could find out easily. One day I'll learn to direct my curiosity more effectively

I'm the same. I'm going to wait for the final, 12th novel (reputedly 2000 pages long) to finish WOT.

If I enjoy a series enough, I'll reread it endlessly (e.g. Raymond E. Feist).

[Baltar]

Originally Posted by Tasaio

I agree, wait for TV shows to finish -- heh, I can't imagine what Babylon 5 would've been like with only one episode per day. :

One episode per day? I think you meant one per week. Luckily for me I only started watching that show long after it ended, so I just bought it on DVD. Right now Battlestar Galactica is the next B5, but the scheduling is pretty ridiculous. There's going to be a gap of almost one year after season 3 ends this week. Filming of season 4 will only begin in May.. Sci-Fi channel should be smacked upside the head.

[Natasha]

It depends on the situation: When it comes to really good book series, like George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, or Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials, I like to read them as they come out, because otherwise I rush through them and don't get a chance to mull them over and digest them.

For TV shows, I prefer the DVD or marathon option, because you get a better sense of the over-arching plot line, rather than the episodic stories. But, as other people mentioned, it does mean you are more likely to spend a much larger portion of the day watching TV, rather than doing something productive.

I also have all the way up to Book 10 of Jordan's WOT. But I still can't make it past book 8 or so, and wish I never got any of them past 5 or so.

[starlet]

The only shows I every watched on TV rarely were multi-episode shows, so I just watched. Books...once I buy a book I must read it asap. Most likely I will have read it at least twice more before the next one comes out. Harry Potter - I go to the midnight sale and stay up all night reading

[Sam988]

falling behind depends on what.. for book series its impossible to fall behind because people are always telling you what happened in the book so it loses the fun.. just like movies and TV series


maybe for games and softwares falling behind isnt very much of a bad idea like someone said up there why getting a bugged windows vista now if i can wait some months with my windows xp which is working fine?

[A.K.Light]

I rarely deliberately seek anything out. I'm usually a couple years behind and I just watch the reruns as I happen to stumble upon them. If I was interested enough, I could go buy all the shows I haven't seen, but I've never liked a show enough to want to do that.

If I like a thing, I like to leave bits and pieces of it out there for later. This way it might take years to get the full experience. For me there's no rush, so everything always seems enjoyable.