I recently got a little click happy on B&N.com and ended up buying the second book in a bunch of series that I've been reading.  And if you've seen me around the blogosphere lately you know I'm a little too excited for Bout Of Books 7.0 this month.  That's because I intend to reread the first books of those series I just bought and then start on the second.  I know I definitley have to reread those first books because I can't remember everything that happened in them.  I read those about a year ago and my memory is slowly getting worse with age.  So it got me thinking about which is better:

Starting a series before or after all the books have been published?

     I find that I personally like to read books as they come out.  I don't mind rereading the first book.  So here are the Pros and Cons of reading books as they are published.

1. Anticipation of the next book coming out (twitter parties, cover reveals, & WOW posts) is fun.

2. Getting the chance to review an ARC or egalley of it is super exciting.

3. You have more people to talk about it with.  Everyone's reading it at the same time and wanting to chat (like when Clockwork Princess came out twitter and exploded with updates as people read it).

1. Cover changes can screw up your collection (I have the old Shatter Me and the new Unravel Me and my OCD doesn't like it!)

2. You can't read them one right after the other so rereads are usually necessary.

3. This goes with #2...if there is a huge cliffhanger at the end of a book you can't start the next book right away and the wait can be torturous (Jennifer L. Armentrout I'm lookin at you girl!)

     Don't get me wrong, waiting until all the books are out in a series can be just as great of an experience.  I discovered devoured The Hunger Games, The Mortal Instruments, and Vampire Academy series once all the books were already out.  In a way it was great because I could go to the library and take all the books out at once and just drown in a sea of amazing books.  I was tempted to make book angels (like snow angels--in case you were wondering) and just read until I finished the series.  But something was missing.  I didn't really have anyone to fangirl over them with because people weren't really excited about VA as  much anymore since the first book was published in like 2007.  And there was no built up excitement prior to reading it.  I kind of just stumbled upon those series.

  

     So which do you prefer?  Are you a binge reader?  Do you wait until a series comes out with the last book to dive in?  Or are you like me and you anxiously wait for each book in the series to come out?