Saying Goodbye to a Series - Is it really Necessary?

One of the reasons I love reading so much is because more times than not, the characters of a book become like friends. We feel like we know them - how they act, think, what they would say or do at certain times. 

This is even more prominent when reading a series. You are around them longer, you get to know them better, you leave, but you know you can always go back again. You know there will be more so it doesn't hurt quite so much when you finish book one or two. Nothing is finished, not everything is finalized, things still have a chance of ending the way you want them to. You don't have to worry about having everything ruined for future rereading - you can always turn back and start them again.

But, eventually you reach the last book. What then? What do you do? What if you're not ready for it to end - to let go?

First of all, I normally don't really have to much trouble reading the last book in a series. I'm usually to curious to see how it ends and I know I can still go back and reread. If I don't like the ending then that's tough, I'm not the one who wrote it. 

That is, until the last book in The River of Time Series came out on August 21. 

I had honestly been excited about it, and I couldn't wait to read it! Then, I started having doubts about whether or not I was ready to read it. Then , the wonderful author warned us that "hard things happen in this book, and if we weren't ready to let some special characters perish we wouldn't want to read it." She said it was okay if we walked away and made our own ending. That really scared me, and I know I'm not quite ready to read it yet. I'll read it someday, but right now I have a lot of books to read anyway and I'm okay with waiting a while to finish the series. I'm just not ready to let it go yet. I don't want to not be able to read the previous books in the series without crying over the ending of the series. I want to hold on just a little bit longer to my happy ending that I had created in my mind. 

Like I said - I'll read it someday, just not today. And that's okay. It's okay to not finish a series until your ready. I'm not saying that you should do that with every series. We do have to learn to let go and live life to the fullest, it's a necessary but hard part of life. You just don't have to when you have a choice. You can hold on a little longer - until your ready. Just don't get attachment issues or anything! Finish it eventually. You never have to truly let go, you can always go back - They live on in our minds.

Someday!

Do you ever have a problem letting go of a series?