lists

I like a good book list. I just finished the last of the blue bonnet books- by reading Atherton: House of Power. It is loosely in the fantasy genre, and something I never would have read if not for this list. Of course I am slightly ticked off with the way it ended, leaving me hanging, so that I now have to consider whether or not I should get the next one in the series. It isn't really complete all by itself.
This is a tricky part of series books. It seems to me that a book should be complete on its own, and for that reason alone I am tempted to not continue reading, but the story really pulled me in, and I do want to find out what happens next. I thought most of the Harry Potter books, well the early ones at least, did a good job of standing alone. In some ways that was annoying, because the 2nd and 3rd ones had sort of an extended introduction to the world of HP that dragged since I had read them all in order. It wasn't so much in the later ones, or at least I can't remember it, because I tend to skip a lot of things when reading.
But back to my main point- a good book list can challenge me. Even a list of all the books by a particular author can be interesting- how is their late work different from their eariler stuff, do they try different styles or age level audiences, What others are they collaborating with. Reading is always about surprising yourself and discovering what can be between the two covers. If left to dig deeper into my own rut, I would miss all the other ways to challenge myself.