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Here are ten of my favourite books from series I’ve read. I had to dig deeply to come up with a sufficient number of answers because I almost never read series these days and only read them occasionally when I was younger.
That is to say, most of these titles were published many years ago.
For the sheer fun of it, I will include a brief, spoiler-free description of why I picked each one in this post.
1. The Giver (The Giver, #1) by Lois Lowry
Why: The world-building left readers plenty of room to come up with our own theories about what happened next.
2. The Girl with All the Gifts (The Girl With All the Gifts, #1) by M.R. Carey
Why: There is a fantastic twist in this book that takes a little while to fully reveal itself to the readers.
3. Flowers in the Attic (Dollanganger, #1) by V.C. Andrews
Why: This series begins with a wild premise that I will allow other readers to discover for themselves. I thought it worked best when it was first introduced because of how unusual it was.
4. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Why: There are a lot of Easter eggs here about things that were discussed in books #1-5 – especially The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – so that is why I strongly recommend reading this series in publication order instead of chronologically. You need that previous knowledge to fully understand why certain scenes are so thrilling. This is my favourite Narnia story because of its beautiful descriptions of how Narnia was created and how many different ways characters could find themselves in that magical land.
5. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Why: It worked perfectly nicely as a standalone story, but it also sets up and foreshadows so many important elements of the Lord of the Rings trilogies. I also thought the pacing in this one was much stronger than later instalments in this series.
6. Dead Until Dark (Sookie Stackhouse, #1) by Charlaine Harris
Why: Look, I adored Sookie and though this was a fun universe…but she also tended to make the same mistakes over and over again. This became repetitive later on, but it was endearing when I first met her. If you’re in the market for vampire romance novels, the first few books in this universe are the best ones.
7. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Why: It was such a zany introduction to these characters!
8. Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery
Why: This was a period of Anne’s life when so many of her dreams began coming true. I loved seeing her finally have the chance to attend college and enjoy her youth.
I’d say eight answers is pretty good considering my strong preference for standalone novels!
Flowers in the Attic was definetly unique and memorable. I don’t remember enjoying the other books in the series as much.
Same here!
I definitely want to read all the Anne of Green Gables books one of these days.
I think you’d love them, Deb.
I really want to read all of the Anne of Green Gables books. I have only read the first. I also recently read The Blue Castle by Montgomery and I love it!
You totally should sometime!
And, yes, The Blue Castle was amazing.
Yay Narnia! It made my list as well, though I’m surprised by Magician’s Nephew. It’s the only Narnia book I’ve only read once. Glad you enjoy it so much, though!
I’m glad you blogging about that series this week, too. What did you think of the other books in it?
I enjoyed pretty much all of them: they were all unique, with wonderful characters like Reepicheep and Puddleglum. The theology of The Last Battle was interesting, I thought, though I didn’t like the “BTW they’re all dead” ending.
I didn’t like that bit of the ending either.
Reepicheep and Puddleglum were great, though.
I read The Giver in middle school but never realised it was a series! I also still need to continue Carey’s series because I remember loving that first book when I read it years ago. Great list 😍
I believe there was a very long gap between books 1 and 2. But I didn’t know it was part of a series for many years either.
I own some of the Anne books, but never read any. At some point I’d like to. I also STILL need to read the rest of the Narnia books. I love what I read. 🙂 Thanks for visiting my website today.
You’re welcome. I hope you love them when you do read them. (But no pressure!)
So many great books on this list!
I’ve only read Anne of Green Gables but I enjoyed it!
I didn’t think of The Hobbit with LotR, but you’re right, I do love that story the best. My favorite book in the Narniad is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but Magician’s Nephew is a great one too. 😀 Thanks for stopping by my blog!
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was excellent! So exciting. And you’re welcome.
I always wanted to read the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I’ve only watched the tv show.
The series was a fun read. 🙂
OH.MY.GOD. I can’t believe I forgot Flowers in the Attic! I should go back and redo my list. That’s one of my favorite books. Happy Tuesday!
Heh, you totally should. 🙂
The Magician’s Nephew is my favorite for the same reasons, I would love a movie of it, I love how the world is created. The Hobbit is another favorite, I can reread that one a thousand times, but LOTR, although I like it, is more tiring to read.
I feel the same way. 🙂
I enjoyed the ending of The Giver so much that I decided to never continue with the series. I think the ending is perfect as-is!
And I think that The Magician’s Nephew is my second favorite of the Narnia series. The Silver Chair has always been my favorite of the Narnia books, though I didn’t include it on my list this week. (I think I always liked it so much because of the puzzle aspect of the signs.)
The puzzle aspect of the signs was so much fun.
And good choice on The Giver. That was the best book in that series.
Hitchiker’s Guide is so great! I still need to read The Girl With All the Gifts.
May you enjoy it. 🙂
Oh dear, I wrote Anne of Avonlea in my list and I think it was Anne of the Island I liked better. Argh! I switched the two in my mind. I knew I should have checked.
The Hobbit is another good one.
I hope to re-read The Magicians nephew soon.
I have heard a lot about Lois Lowery but I haven’t read her yet.
I enjoyed your list!
Thank you. Lowry has written some great stuff.
Eight is fabulous! I have read several of these and enjoyed them as well.
Thanks. 🙂
Good list–I didn’t know The Giver was a series. My kids both read that in school. My favorite “Anne” book is Rilla of Ingelside. First because it is amazing that anyone would rather be named “Bertha” lol and then because of the war and the poet. So poignant and, naturally, brings Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and the other war poets to mind.
It was such an interesting book. I was surprised by the preference for Bertha, too, though.
The Girl with All the Gifts sounds like something I should be reading!
It was excellent! Hope you like it if you read it.
I’m the same – I generally prefer the first book in a series. I think authors have to work really hard in the first installment to create a world that a reader will want to revisit, so they do their best work there. Or, it could just be that once I read multiple books in a series they all feel like one story and I can’t really remember the individual books. My memory leaves a lot to be desired! LOL
Happy TTT!
Susan
http://www.blogginboutbooks.com
I totally agree with you there.
At one time I had all the Anne and Emily books, for resale. They sold fast.
Still have all the Narnia books.
Still have all the Douglas Adams books except “Mostly Harmless.”
Some of those other series I never liked at all.
Thanks for sharing.
Wow, so many here that I love! The Anne series is wonderful (and I’d like to reread them all at some point). I just reread Hitchhiker’s Guide last year for the first time in many, many years, and could not believe how funny it still felt. The Girl with All the Gifts was amazing!
Yay! I’m glad.
Good idea. I could not decide which one from a series was my favourite, so I always picked the first one.
Thanks for visiting my post.
https://momobookblog.blogspot.com/2024/08/top-ten-tuesday-favourite-books-from.html
That makes sense. 🙂
I have an urge to reread Narnia! 😍
😀
I’d say that the fourth Cookie Stackhouse book is my favorite. 😊
Oh, cool!
I don’t know how I never realized The Girl with All the Gifts was part of a series.
Honestly, it took me a while to realize that, too. You’re not alone. 🙂
I love the Narnia series, but have to admit that The Magician’s Nephew was never my favorite of the series. That honor goes to the first book, or perhaps the first three. I do, however, agree with you wholeheartedly about reading the books in publication order — despite the author’s stated preference for chronological order, they work better in publication order because each builds upon the reader’s (and author’s) knowledge of the world from the previous books.
I’m glad you agree there. 🙂
Sorry for the late response, but great list! I have to agree that the first few Sookie Stackhouse books were really great. They differed enough from the show to keep things interesting and unpredictable, and I’m one of the many people in a generation that read Flowers in the Attic way before I should have and wound up scarred for life haha!
No worries!
And, yeah, I read that book too soon as well. haha.