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?

I've read a few posts that made want to do a discussion post like this.  Katie talks about how weird names frustrate her.  I read another post at Book Brats that got me thinking.

It seems like authors are trying to out do each other with ridiculous character names.  Kind of like Michael Jackson's child BLANKET or Gweneth Paltrow's kid APPLE.  Like really?  

Ever watch the show Breaking Amish?  A few months ago I was watching this show and out of nowhere I just starting thinking about how much the Amish lifestyle reminded me of the Abnegation factor in the Divergent series.  

  A few months later I read Temptation by Karen Ann Hopkins where an English girl falls for an Amish boy.  And again I just kept comparing the two lifestyles.  

I've sort of become fascinated by this way of life.  It makes sense on paper that stripping our lives of electronics and greed would be good, but I don't think I could handle getting rid of all of it.  There are times I think I like the Amish lifestyle, but then I think (excuse the language)  

I'd never be able to live without indoor plumbing, microwaves, pants, books, etc.  The week we lost electricity from hurricane sandy I had to take cold showers by candle light and it was terrible!

Anyways, got a little side tracked there, but here's what I've noticed while reading. 

How do you feel when a great book gets a makeover? 

As most of you know by now, I am guilty of judging books by their covers.  But really that's what covers are there for.  Their purpose is to give the reader a little slice of what the book is about so the reader can decide if they want to pick up the book and read the summary.  So you can imagine how frustrated I am when I find books being republished with new covers that are not as pretty or have nothing to do with the book.  Yes, I understand it's sometimes to target a new demographic, but still.  Why ruin a good thing.  Take a look at some changes I found.