Derek Pietras

I have a thing about doing things in order.

But it’s true. If someone hands me a book that is the second in a series, I won’t read it until I seek out the first. If someone recommends a TV show, I will start at the first season and go through everything to get caught up. And so on. I just don’t like to do things out of order.

That’s not to say I haven’t in the past. One year, for Christmas, I received the second Artemis Fowl book without the first to go with it. I tried to read the second one, got very confused very quickly, and put the series down for quite some time. Only when I sought out the first book did I finally get into the series (and I’m glad I did—it remains one of my favorites).

Even now, I’m reading a series of novels by Robin Hobb, all set in the same universe. I read her earliest novels in the series, The Farseer Trilogy and even though I know she has more books in the series following the characters I met in those books, I’m reading the Liveship Trader series next, simply because it comes next chronologically. There is very little crossover between the two series, but because of the order, I am reading them this way.

It’s just a thing I do.

I also have a thing about finishing things I start. Very rarely will I stop reading a book I don’t like—I will almost always see things through to the end, complaining all the way. It may take longer because I can be a pro procrastinator when I want to be, but I will try to see things through to the end. I don’t know why I do this—I just know that not finishing what I started bothers me almost as much, if not more, than reading something I don’t like.

I think I just like to experience the story in the order the events occurred. Prequel films/novels hold very little interest to me. I prefer to keep the story moving forward, rather than seeing one event and trying to figure out what led up to it.

Once again, it’s just a thing I do.

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Do you have an obsession with doing things in order?

Note: Image of Unhappy Businessperson courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net. Caption is mine