Best series

Recently, I asked for suggestions of what genres/topics related to books people wanted to hear about next.  My friend and fellow book-lover Sarah suggested "best overall series of books."  That was definitely not something I had ever thought about before, but it seemed like an interesting - if daunting - topic.

In order to figure out what series to include, I decided I needed to set some parameters.  These are the ones I decided on:

• There have to be at least three books to qualify as a series.  Otherwise, it's just a book with a sequel, not a series.
• I have to have read all of the books in the series to include it on the list; or, if it is a series still in progress, I have to have read all of the books published to date.
• Not every book in the series has to be amazing, but they all need to be of sufficient quality to make it worthy of embarking on the series, and if the series has come to an end, the ending has to be satisfying.
• The series has to be memorable, can't just be books that I remember that I enjoyed but can't really remember anything about.

Once I figured that out, it became abundantly clear to me that though I had many, many series which I had enjoyed, I had a clear top 3 favorite series ever.

The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin - To anyone who is a regular reader of this blog, it should come as no surprise that this is my favorite series of all time, since I pretty much can't ever stop talking about how much I love these books.  (For example, see
my post on memorable books and my post on dystopian fiction.)  These books are not only crazy long but kind of crazy in plot, a combo of government conspiracy and post-apocalyptic sci fi horror as quasi-vampire-zombies take over the world, but they're also beautifully written literary fiction with amazing, indelible characters.  All 3 books made my top 10 lists for the years I read them, but more than that, all 3 were 5 star books for me - something no other series might ever accomplish.  I love these books so much, and have to say that everyone I know who has read them - even people who usually are not into this type of book - seem to have also been blown away by them.


The Dublin Murder Squad series by Tana French  - This mystery series, as the title suggests, is set in a squad of murder detectives in Ireland.  Each book has a different detective as a main character, though characters from previous books appear in the other books.  The books are very well-written with compelling mysteries, but the characters are incredibly compelling as well.  This series is still in progress, with 6 books so far.  5 of the 6 books have made my top 10 lists, and even the one that didn't (the 4th entry in the series) I still loved, just not as much as I loved the others.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling - Do I really need to describe the Harry Potter books for you?  Most of you have probably read them, and if you haven't, you surely have heard of them unless you've been living in a cave.  And if you haven't read them, you really should!  These books are not just for kids, they're just as enjoyable for adults.  Only the first and the last books of this 7 book series made my top 10 lists, but I loved them all.

These three series are all pretty much perfect in my book and well worth the commitment, and books I would recommend to anyone regardless of their generally preferred genres.  I was going to do a list of runner ups, but it was just too hard to narrow down!  There are plenty of other series I love too; you've heard about some already in my posts on dystopian fiction and chick lit, and I'll certainly tell you about more in the future especially since coming up with this list as a mental exercise made me realize that most series tend to fall into genres like fantasy, science fiction, and mystery. So stay tuned in the future for recommendations of yet more series to add to your to-read lists!