Series Vs. Standalones | Book CHAT

Hello fellow booklovers! So the title is a bit vague. Why you ask? Short answer only answer is that it’s catchy and short. What exactly do we mean by this fabulous catchy title?

‘Do you prefer series or standalones?’

(which is also short…but oh well…😃)

If you know us well you can already see the outcome to this discussion – if not, then you will by the end of this!

So on a random day, one of us (Shanya) was scrolling through Goodreads (aka a place to discover new/old books and a place that would make your TBR (to be read) pile expand almost instantly) and had discovered something interesting…or rather found something missing. So obviously I, Shanya straight away mentioned this to Tanya (yes, as twins, we are joined by the hip and can read each others thoughts) and decided to make this into a discussion!

While there are options to filter/find books via genre, title and author, there is not one to filter books between those that are accompanied by other books (series) and by others that are not (standalones).

And we thought…what if someone out there wants to read series…or standalones? It’s great that there are 40 genres to choose from – fantastic even, it’s truly a great help in finding books that are your style! But what if you want a quick read…or a long one? What then? Well, Goodreads being Goodreads they also have an option for that…somewhat.

Goodreads developed a sub-section for genres called “shelves” – where people like us can create new type of sections to categorise books in. One problem – there are around 15,000 original shelves. And 2 of them are labeled with Series and Standalones with 1,250 results for both of them. So perhaps our concern that, there is no solid option to filter books from standalones and series is, no big deal…yet we feel that with these options you can filter the books you read, from:

• Quick reads and Long reads – which can easily help you choose a book in the time you have allocated to read
• Brief descriptions and Detailed descriptions – which also can help pick books that you prefer as (usually) standalones may contain fewer descriptions to get to the point
• And even for different genres – that is if you were to generalise the books you have read…for example, more (popular) standalone books are usually contemporary books (from our research on Goodreads).

And essentially finding and filtering books that you prefer from experience – for example, liking (extensively) John Green’s or Rainbow Rowell’s books would suggest that you tend to like standalone books. Whereas, preferring the sci-fi or fantasy genres may suggest that you tend to prefer series, for example books by J.K. Rowling or Suzanne Collins.

Of course these factors are not a definite…but yup it can help filter the results that lean more towards your preference of books.

Now by the looks of thing we did go off on a tangent, but we can say the title itself was kind of vague and therefore what we mentioned above is relevant to find your preference. So we guess the meaning to our title can be the added:

‘Do series and standalone deserve to be a filter option?’

(the answer is yes, obviously)

So onto what we generally prefer – series or standalones?

We like both.
And we’ll tell you why.

Standalones

Offers us quick reads and just like many others we too have read the ever great ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ by John Green – which we found to be cute and sad as expected from the contemporary genre. Standalones are books we know, that (usually) won’t require us to be bamboozled (quite pleasantly might we add, but can drain your energy especially if you are already exhausted or have a short time to read) by the intense world-building you usually get in the fantasy genre (and coincidently in book series) thus can allow us to focus on the plot and for some even the characters. And generally are less time consuming (unless you’re to read a Stephan King book – where the page count can go into the thousands). Plus, these standalones would be rich in imagination, as it would be unique due to it not having a sequel etc. A recent favourite standalone can be ‘The Little Prince‘ which we have done a review on recently as our comeback!

Whereas…

Series

Offers us long reads that require our full attention or (through experience) details can be missed that can be a gamechanger to the ending! In our previous posts, you would learn we love ourselves some world-building and Sarah J. Maas’ book series’ are perfect example for that (that is if you stick to the series long enough ;)). Good series would usually through time (or even from the start) develop their fictional world, plots and characters. However, series also can take a lot of time to read and a great dedication is a must, when committing to a series. As most series there is that standard wait of a year till the next book is published. Which can be excruciating. Don’t you agree???

*Us readers waiting for the next book in a series*

The one we (tend to) prefer is however (with supporting evidence from statistics/memory)…SERIES!

As most of our read books consist of series and as fantasy books (if you haven’t figured it out yet from past posts it’s one of our fave genres) are generally series and are rarely standalones…

Want to read more on this topic – if so we searched for you guys and found a more pros & cons of series and standalone books discussion.

So what do you guys prefer? Series or standalones? What do you guys think about series or standalones favouring particular genres?

Ciao from The Twins 😉