In Defense of the Stand-Alone

I am famous for not finishing what I've started. In my house, there are nine half-knitted scarves, an orphaned guitar, and at least half a dozen journals that only have writing on the first seven pages. I write short stories, poems, and blog posts because real novels are just too much work. To be honest, I'm really surprised that I've continued to blog for over six months now. Expect to be abandoned any minu









Just kidding, I'm not quite that flaky. But it's close. In any case, I don't always finish my projects so coming to the end of something always feels like a bit of a triumph. That's why I personally like stand-alone titles.

It feels like every book I've read lately is "the first in an exciting new series." And they all seem to be trilogies, what's up with that? In any case, no one seems to be writing individual books any more, which is a real shame, if you ask me. The problem with starting a series is that you have to finish it, unless that series is the Plum series by Janet Evanovich because there are approximately four gajillion books in that series.

Now, I understand not wanting a world to end. When I was thirteen, I read L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables in its entirety because I was in love with the slower, more romantic era that Anne embodied. And when I finished the series, I read it all again. In fact, I still sometimes pick up my dog-eared copy of Anne of the Island and thumb through. The same was true of Harry Potter's magical world, where I would be a Ravenclaw, thankyouverymuch. And I have nothing against series books, per se. When it has been planned out from the beginning of the first book, as Harry Potter was.

(Oh Gilbert Blythe, you beautiful rascal, you were my first literary crush)

However, there is something to be said for leaving a world behind and coming back to the one you live your actual life in. Much as I would like to imagine it, I would lose my mind in Scarlett O'Hara's stifling society and I'd probably slap her silly, too, if I were the slapping type.

Reading the-first-part-in-what-is-sure-to-be-the-most-thrilling-series-of-the-decade-and-will-make-other-authors-quake-in-their-bunny-slippers is a little exhausting, in my opinion. It just seems that every book has become such an undertaking. Once you read the first, you have to keep an eye out for the second-third-fourth-etc. so you haven't actually gotten to the end of any storyline. In my humble opinion as someone who reads what may actually be an obscene amount of books, many authors end their books with a cliffhanger so that you simply have to read the next one just to find out what happens. See Matched, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, and myriad others for proof. And more often than not, it feels like the second "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. The first one was good. Leave it there.

Plus, I personally like the feeling of having finished something, especially since I get that feeling so rarely in life. Don't take that away from me.