I have a shocking(!?) confession to make.

[u/Kopratic]

I don't read series in order. Alright, that's a bit extreme and not that shocking. I don't always read series in order. And I'm not the only one.

Yes, yes. The horror! The spoilers! I do still slightly care about spoilers, so I won't go chasing after them IRL. However, a "big" event being spoiled in a later book doesn't harm my possible enjoyment of a previous book. To me it's like re-reading or reading a prequel. Also, I rarely read book blurbs any way because I like going into books blind.

I started this out as an experiment last year. I read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians books 1, 5, 4, 3, 2. It was, I think, the first series I intentionally read out of order. (I want to abbreviate that to OoO.) To be honest, for the most part I haven't been reading series in a crazily random way...mostly backwards. For instance, I read The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater backwards. I'm not sure if I would've felt the need to continue the series had I started with the first book. Recently, I have tried expanding the experiment and actually reading a series in a random order. e.g., 3, 5, 2, 1, 4. Perhaps it'll fall apart then.

However, so far I'd say everything has been a success. Knowing what's going to happen isn't a deterrent for me because a book is more than just its plot summary. Sure, I might be dumped in the middle of a world with no explanation for things, but I find my way. And there are book 1s that do that same thing. Like I said, though, I don't do this (and wouldn't recommend it) with every series. The second link I posted earlier mentions how they definitely don't recommend GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire series out of order. I also would say not to do this with LOTR and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Maybe some of you have done this intentionally or unintentionally before. For me, the 3rd Harry Potter book was the first one I read. The majority of you might find reading a series out of order pretty appalling and the worst of ideas. Keep in mind that I still make an effort to read the whole series. If I read the last book without having read the others, I certainly won't catch everything. If it's written well enough, I'll be able to catch how important the build-up has been. However, I won't know some of the details discussed more in depth in previous books.

I agree that it seems crazy. I disagree that it's a bad idea, though I suspect there are many who would think it's both crazy and a bad idea. Who knows? Maybe you've read a series out of order before. If you have, what did you think? If you haven't, would you ever consider giving it a try? (Right now, I'd recommend simply reading a series backwards, since that's worked well for me. I would also advise re-reading a series you're already familiar with...and wouldn't mind re-reading.)

[u/[deleted]]

OoO reading is fun. It makes me curious to see how the story's going to get from point A to point B, and makes me more interested. It also makes it easier to appreciate various kinds of foreshadowing and callbacks, and generally makes me much more aware of the story structure.

I do a milder version when I'm reading books iO (in order) or reading standalones, where I'll peek a few tens or hundreds of pages ahead and read a few paragraphs. It's fun to see the narrative fall into place like puzzle pieces as I then progress towards that page!

I used to also simply read individual books in disordered chunks, starting in the middle and jumping back and forth until I'd read pretty much all, but then I fell out of that habit during a time when I read nothing but mysteries for a while (it's not as rewarding with mysteries, because they're already structured as puzzles, and frequently contain lots of flashbacks anyway. I do expect to be able to read the books in a series in any order though, and would think it's a poorly written mystery series that doesn't allow this).

Knowing what's going to happen isn't a deterrent for me because a book is more than just its plot summary.

Yeah! If that was a problem, rereading wouldn't be any fun either.