Confessions of a Serial Reader – The Ones We Both Read

I’m the gatekeeper for the TBR stacks and lists at our house. The Hubster and I have similar taste in books. In fact, when we were first dating one browse of his bookshelves told me that we’d get along just fine. I read faster than he does so I’m almost always the one bringing new books into our household. I read faster and more than he does so our habit has been for me to pass along book I think he’ll like. He tells people that he never has to shop for books. He just looks at the stack on his dresser or the ‘books you might like’ shelf I keep updated for him on his nook.

Because he does read significantly fewer books than I do I only pass along the best of what I think he’ll like and limit any new series to the very best. There are several series we’ve both been reading since before we got married but since then I’ve learned to only give him the best of what I think he’ll like because he’ll never get to all of them

The series we’ve both completed:

Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games series

I had him listen to the first book when we were on a road trip (it was a re-read for me) and he was hooked. He read the other two shortly after I finished them.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series

We started reading the books about the same time and in fact he read Goblet of Fire before I did. He never read any after Goblet of Fire and said he was reluctant to pick them up again after so long because he’d want to start over but read too slow to do that. This year we watched the entire movie series and while watching, I continually pointed out things that were left out of the movies. . I finally convinced him to listen to the series from the beginning on his commute. He did and enjoyed it. Since then he’s decided he likes listening to audiobooks beyond just when we’re on road trips together

The series we’re both still reading:

The Dirk Pitt series and The Kurt Austin series by Clive Cussler and a variety of co-authors:

We both started the Dirk Pitt series before we met and have since both started the Kurt Austin series. I have recently switched to listening to these series and currently I’m listening to a Dirk Pitt book and The Hubster is somewhere in the middle of a Kurt Austin book. We both enjoy Scott Brick’s performance of these adventure stories.

Lee Child’s Jack Reacher

Reacher is just freaking awesome. That is all.

Tim Dorsey’s Serge Storms series

I continue to use the same description for this series as I did when I wrote my post about the first one. It’s like Pulp Fiction takes Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride through Florida. Craziness in a completely fun way.


David Rosenfelt's Andy Carpenter series

A smartmouth private investigator with the best dog that ever lived. Add in a few fun secondary characters and some decent mysteries and you have the perfect formula for books we’ll both like. I have the next one in my audio queue so we may be transitioning from print to audio with this series.

Robert Crais’ Elvis Cole and Joe Pike series

Elvis has the smartmouth PI style of Andy Carpenter and Joe is scarier version of Jack Reacher. There’s no dog but Elvis does have a cat who lives with him.

James Thompson’s Kari Vaara series

This was The Hubster’s introduction to Nordic Crime fiction and he liked the first one enough to read the second immediately afterwards. Now we’re both waiting for the third book to be released in March.

Chelsea Cain's Archie and Gretchen series

We both read Chelsea Cain’s column in the local paper long before we read her books. They’re rather gruesome but the local inside stuff and locations make them weirdly fun for us.

James Patterson’s Alex Cross series

We both like these for the same reason. Sometimes you just need an entertaining story that you know will be a fast paced and go quickly. The short chapters are perfect for those attention deficient reading moods.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series

We both read the first couple of these last year and want to read more. Neither one of us can believe we haven’t read them yet,



What about you? Do you have any particular series that both you and your partner read?