Trilogies in Progress

Happy Thanksgiving Eve. Blah. I'm sick today. Combine that with car trouble and bluetooth trouble, which I will probably describe in a later post, and you have my week.

Well, not everything has been gloomy. My cats are getting along better. And I cleared up a backlog of reviews for "The Book Trolley," though my new editor has yet to post any of the reviews I have written since late July.

I noticed a pattern in my last bunch of book reviews. There were an awful lot of sentences like: "This is Book One of the ___ Trilogy," and: "Stay tuned for Book Two, titled ____." It got me to thinking about how many trilogies, or at least series, I am in the progress of reading through right now. A quick count of series I am reading, and in which I am certain there is at least one book that I haven't yet read, is staggering. Including series in which I am waiting for the last book to come out in paperback, and series which I have complete on my shelf but haven't finished reading yet, I give you in no particular order:

The Ratbridge Chronicles by Alan Snow
The Touchstone trilogy by Steve Augarde
The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins
The Pendragon series by D. J. MacHale
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
The Discworld books by Terry Pratchett
The Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian
The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
The Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke
The Inheritance trilogy by Christopher Paolini
The Dragonback series by Timothy Zahn
The Alfred Kropp series by Rick Yancey
The Monster Blood Tattoo series by D. M. Cornish
The Gideon trilogy by Linda Buckley-Archer
The Leven Thumps series by Obert Skye
The Eidolon Chronicles by Jane Johnson
The Wednesday Tales by Jon Berkeley
The Lighthouse Land trilogy by Adrian McKinty
The Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde
The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix
The Dumari Chronicles by Anne Patrice Brown
The Sally Lockhart mysteries by Philip Pullman
The Imaginarium Geographica chronicles by James A. Owen
The Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan
The Thrilling Tales series by M. T. Anderson
The Moomin books by Tove Jansson
The Erec Rex series by Kaza Kingsley
The Minerva Clark series by Karen Karbo
The Fire Within series by Chris D'Lacey
The Wolves chronicles by Joan Aiken
The Sea of Trolls series by Nancy Farmer
The Sylvie series by Roderick Townley
The Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage
The Pure Dead series by Debi Gliori
The Hero's Song series by Edith Pattou
The Greenwitch series by E. D. Baker
The Justin Thyme series by Panama Oxridge
The Measle series by Ian Ogilvy
The Arthur and the Invisibles books by Luc Besson
The Withern Rise trilogy by Michael Lawrence
The Children of the Lamp series by P. B. Kerr
The Kedrigern Chronicles by John Morressy
The Golden Hour series by Maiya Williams
The Faerie Wars Chronicles by Herbie Brennan
The Castle Cant series by K. P. Bath
The Molly Moon series by Georgia Byng

In addition, I think there will be further Chrestomanci books by Diana Wynne Jones, Charlie Bone books by Jenny Nimmo, Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer, Further Tales by P. W. Catanese, and Young Wizards books by Diane Duane. I am supposed to start reading some Pern books by Anne McCaffrey, more of the Time books by Madeleine L'Engle, the Magic or Madness trilogy by Justine Larbalestier, and various "quartets" by Tamora Pierce (of whose work I have only read one book so far). And I recently rediscovered John D. Fitzgerald's Great Brain series, which I first read when I was in about 8th grade; I might give them another spin!

Plus, I started reading, but decided not to continue, the Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card, the Age of Discovery trilogy by Michael Stackpole, and The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind, more or less because I thought the first book of each series sucked. I never finished C. S. Lewis's Space trilogy either, because I put down That Hideous Strength and never felt like picking it up again. Or rather, I felt like never picking it up again. And I know there are more books in Brian Jacques' Redwall series, but I've found they are all pretty much the same and I don't know if I can stand to read another one.

So I have no reason ever to be bored while waiting for the next book in a series to come out...because at any given moment I will be a couple dozen books behind on series I am following, whose next book has come out!