The 10 Book Series You’ll Never Want to Stop Reading

With the Crazy Rich Asians series, Kevin Kwan gave us a peek into an incredible world. Main character Rachel Chu is a stand-in for the audience, an American girl who can’t believe the beautiful and lavish lives her boyfriend’s family members live in Singapore. Kwan’s books are genuinely funny and delightful, and tell an engaging family story over three books.

Four spirited senior citizens who, finding themselves less respected after retirement, use their diverse career skills to solve crimes they come across around their community. Psychologist Ibrahim has insight into motives, nurse Joyce contributes her medical expertise, Elizabeth has a spy background that’s always useful, while Ron was once a union leader and understands conflict. In the five books (and counting), you’ll fall in love with this endearing quartet.

No one knows more about creating a mystery series than Agatha Christie, whose 33 Hercule Poirot novels have been adapted into numerous movies, plays, and TV shows. Poirot, a brilliant and persnickety Belgian, has an unusual ability to understand the human mind that allows him to pick up on clues no one else sees. If you’re not ready to commit to reading all 33, some of the most popular include The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

That Tolkien inspires fans so deeply that they’re willing to learn Elvish, a constructed language, is something special. Men, elves, and a wizard band together on a journey to defeat evil. The themes are so universal, yet beautiful, that a series written for children has become an all-ages classic.

Few series have the same hold on fans as The Hunger Games, which, years after the original books and movies were released, can still cause crushingly intense debates. After the original trilogy was published between 2008 and 2010, two prequels, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping, to the joy of readers.

Most series fall into genres like fantasy or mystery. The Cromwell trilogy, which begins with Wolf Hall, is one of the few to focus on historical fiction. Mantel’s trio of books tells the story of the dramatic role that Thomas Cromwell played in the royal court of England, from 1500 to 1540.

Thus Adonis was Murdered and the four books that follow it are some of the most quietly funny mysteries ever written. Caudwell’s characters are five tax attorneys in a British law firm and an Oxford professor they’re friends with. Nothing about that sounds fun, but the four titles in the series are amazingly witty.