Somewhere around 1994 I began to read a fantasy epic series called "The Wheel of Time." I learned a really good lesson about reading series of books - namely - don't start the series until it is finished.
It's a really good series if you like the genre, but five books into it, I found out that I'd have to wait to continue. Two years passed before the next one came out, and I bought it immediately and finished it in short order, and then....two more years. Good god. Write faster, RJ..."have Stephen King show you some tips on how to crank out books or something" was my thought at the time.
Eight books into it I stopped buying and reading. The time in between books was so long that I would forget many of the plot elements by the time of each new release, so I just said "screw it." I figured I'd just start over when the whole thing was done. I admit I had the following thought: "Dude, if you die before finishing this series, I'll kill you" ha ha titter titter. Ok, I'm sorry...I take it back. It was just a joke. I never expected it would really happen.
There are 11 books out now, and the 12th was almost done when just as I feared, the poor man died of a rare blood disease.
Fortunately for WoT fans everywhere, Robert Jordan (real name - James Oliver Rigney) spent a lot of time dictating plot lines and whathaveyou for the 12th and final book in the series, so hopefully it will still be published.
"The wheel of time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose in the Mountains of Mist. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of Time. But it was a beginning."
RJ, I apologize for my lame joke. You were a good writer. Rest in peace.