LIST: Favourite Reading Series [not mysteries]

I've always read a lot of mysteries, and I'll leave that list for another day, but a series is very satisfying to read. You get to know the characters, and you want to read about them. I think some authors feel handcuffed by their series books, that they can write other characters, much like some actors become so well known for a part that the audience only wants to see them as that character. Oh, hello Kelsey Grammer. And we want to read more and more about our favorite characters. Arthur Conan Doyle killed Sherlock Holmes off, but the public outcry demanded he resurrect him.

These are the series' that I am glad were written. My favorites over the years. I notice a large number are from my childhood. I think for this list and my purposes, a series has to be more than two books, that is, a trilogy minimum, which is why Bridget Jones isn't here. This list is in no particular order.

1. The Earth Children by Jean Auel
The prehistoric sex books, I was lucky to find these after they had all been written, except for the last book which was published within a year of reading about Ayla and the cave men. You must watch Ice Age after reading these books.

2. The Outlander by Diana Gabaldron
The Scottish sex books, that were passed around our staffroom for a few years. Claire and Jamie and their time travelling adventures throughout history. How can you not love Jamie? hmm, third daughter is named Jamie. That's weird.

3. Harry Potter by JK Rowling
Fabulous books, I read the first five aloud to my son. Luckily, he learned to read them himself this year. The imagination of Rowling to create this wizard world amazed me. I want an owl to bring me messages. I have found it very difficult not to read these books straight through. I knew it about Snape!

4. Bruno and Boots (MacDonald Hall) by Gordon Korman
Probably one of my favorite set of books all time. Korman has written much more than Bruno and Boots, but for young teenagers, these hilarious stories are terrific. Korman wrote the first book, This Can't Be Happening! (at McDonald Hall) when he was just fourteen, and I was ten when it first came out - it seemed so close. I still remember Mrs Adams reading it aloud to our grade five class, and laughing so hard she couldn't continue reading. Books can be so much fun.

5. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
What little girl didn't read this series? And wonder how they went to the bathroom? Laura and Mary, and Manly, and the Long Winter. I reread this series continually, and still have my books in the basement. I can't wait until my daughter is old enough to read these. She better enjoy them!


6. Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
My comfort food. I think it gets better as the series goes along, and Anne becomes a smaller and smaller character. Once Anne finds her family, and the love she needed, she becomes quieter, and leaves the scrapes to her neighbours. Still lots of interesting people, and her children's story, especially Rilla's, is a wonderful view of life in Canada during World War I.

7. The Great Brain by John D Fitzgerald
Life in a small Utah town at the end of the nineteenth century, with The Great Brain, swindling and conning everyone in sight. Another funny series of my youth, and such a different life than I was used to.

8.??

So, what did I forget? Remember, mysteries don't count here, we'll look into that another day. I never read Chronicles of Narnia, or The Lord of the Rings, because I'm sure those will make many other lists. I'm know I've forgotten some British series; I've always read a lot of British books. I contemplated Enid Blyton, but I don't remember a particular series that I loved to read. What are some of your favorite reading, non-mystery, series?