Revisiting Characters You Love

Ever gotten involved in a series and then run out of books to read? I’ve done that before. I hate to see the character go out of my life. I did that years ago with Sue Grafton’s alphabet series. Once I’d read every letter that was available and there wouldn’t be another one for a year, I missed Kinsey Millhone. When the next one came out, I didn’t buy it. After a year, I’d sort of lost interest; I’d moved on. Now, as I write this, I wonder if I could pick up where I left off and get re-involved.

That’s probably the way kids feel about the Harry Potter series. The wait and wait and anticipate the day the next one is released. Then they devour it and start the countdown for the next one. Except that glorious waiting excitement will end after this book. They’ll have a few more movies to look forward to, though.

Although I haven’t started reading Kinsey Millhone again, I’ve managed to start up with the Lee Child series again. Possibly because it hasn’t been very long since I’d read the last available book in the Jack Reacher series. I discovered him last year and since both my husband and I liked the series, we ran through what was out there fairly quickly. Then there was nothing. So I read other things in the meantime – very different books like those by Kit Frazier and Karen MacInerney. Now a new Jack Reacher has come out and I started it the other day.

It felt like visiting an old friend. By the time I got to page 100, I said, okay, now this is Reacher. That’s because at that point, things began to happen, things that typically happen to and because of Reacher. Now I’ve settled in and look forward to breaks when I can read a few pages.

Maybe I could do that with Kinsey.