Imagine this situation: a sequel comes out in a series you are reading. But it’s been a while since you that the previous book. Do you re-read the first book(s) before moving on to the sequel? Or do you read just move forward and read the sequel? (Please let me know in the comments below!)
Watching Booktube it feels like most people like to re-read the previous books in the series before they read the sequel and due to the rampant mentality that re-reading is bad and reading new books is good, it causes many a sequel to go unread. Or so it seems from the side lines.
For me, I typically don’t re-read the previous books and there are a number of reasons for this:
-I have a fairly good memory. Even if I don’t remember much about the past book, reading the next book typically give me a crash course in what happened last time.
-If I did forgot things from previous books and the next book is good it provides an excellent opportunity for a re-read of the series.
-I don’t want re-reading to hold me back. if I have to re-read several books before getting to a new one the odds of me reading the new one is reduced.
-I have nothing against re-reads and I re-read books often. However when I re-read books, I do it to re-experience the book, not to be able to move on in a series. Essentially, I read for pleasure and most of the time I feel for me, personally, that re-reads before reading the next in a series is not pleasurable and reading the next one immediately is pleasurable.
What are your thoughts on this subject? Does it depend on the series/book? Do you only ever do one or the other? Am I turkey? Did the dragon come before the egg? I would love any comment you have on this!
Never Seen A Nevergreen 
What a nice post! I don’t usually re-read book but when I do it it’s just because i like the book very much and I want to read it from other perspective (because i already know every detail of it). So, no, i never re-read before moving on to a sequel
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Thank you! I’m of the same mind- i re-read a lot but never so that I can read the next book in the series.
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I don’t usually re-read books- like you said, there are so many other books out there I want to read, so I just want to get through them all😊. I as well have a pretty good memory when it comes to this stuff, so I don’t usually feel a need to read previous books in a series in order to read a new release. Great post!🙂
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Thanks! I find that if I was invested enough in the series I will remember at least the larger plot points and thus won’t need a re-read. If I can’t remember then odds are it was a more ‘meh’ book/series and there are many others out there to read instead of a potentially meh sequel!
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I totally agree, though I usually do like to finish series- I don’t know, it just makes me feel accomplished☺️
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I tend to like to finish a series too…mostly for a sense of closure!
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I think it very much depends on the series in question- especially if it’s a complicated story! I’m kind of dreading the next Game of Thrones book coming out because my memories of previous events are now entirely interchangeable with the TV series. This is an extreme example though. I would maybe read the latest one for the sake of building up the original excitement for what comes next, but the whole series… there are just too few hours in the day!
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That is a very good point! Game of Thrones is more of a series you need to wait until it’s all out and read it all at once, otherwise you won’t remember all the finer details and foreshadowing! My favourite Adult author likes to interconnect all her books and every re-read I find new connections! Even the ones I have read several times already. You are right in that these types of books are ones where re-reads are almost critical to new-book enjoyment.
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I usually just read the new installment in the series. I memory is pretty good when recalling what occurred in a story. Like you, I reread to re-experience a story, not to move on with the series. And I realized that trend on booktube too.
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Yup! Maybe it’s because they read so many more books then I do, and feel obligated to continue on with series they might not like they have the issue of needing to remember what happened before.
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Ugh, I totally feel you on this topic. It seems like everyone manages to reread 829174 series each year for each new release and I’m over here drowning in my TBR like a flailing walrus. I really want to reread, though! But I’ve never reread to refresh my mind. In that scenario I usually cross my fingers that the website ReCaptains has done one of their in-depth revisions on it (that website is a LIFESAVER) or a wing it in the hopes that it all comes back to me. I’d love to reread a few series that I finished ages ago, though – I’m practically gasping to revisit those worlds!
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Great topic! Personally, I’m a re-reader, whether for a sequel or just because I’m in the mood for the book again. If I loved a book the first time around, it’s worth the time to enjoy again. And yes, I don’t read as many new books because of that, but I don’t care. It’s like spending time with old friends versus going out and meeting lots of people, I think. 🙂
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Great perspective! I re-read old favourites for that reason as well, but have never really thought to myself ‘the next book in the series is coming out I should re-read these guys before I read it”. Weird, that, since I do re-read quite a lot – for example over half of my 40 books this year are re-reads!.
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