To Infinity and...meh

The one thing that has surprised me since I have started reading teen fiction is the number of series books that keep coming out. It seems like I cannot read a book and be done with the story; I have to buy the next book and then the next. This would not bother me except for the fact that many times I think there is a lot of editing that could have be done to condense the book to one or two books. I end up feeling like I am being strung along and trapped into buying another book.

Last year I was on a committee to choose books for a county "reader's rally." One of the books that I was assigned to read was "Infinity Ring." As I started to read the book, I was quite unimpressed by what seemed like a contrived plot and silly dialogue. I felt it was almost insulting to my students to read such a condescending book. So I started researching the book and I learned that the author, James Dashner, also authored the book "The Maze Runner," which I absolutely loved. I wondered how he went from writing that book to this new one? Then I read that the following books in the "Infinity Ring" series would have different authors. I found this peculiar. It wasn't until the committee meeting was held that I understood the big picture. Another media specialist was also assigned to read "Infinity Ring." She looked upon it more kindly, however she noted that the series would indeed be written by different authors and she shared her suspicions that the series was simply a money-making venture. Her remarks about what seems to be a common practice in the literature world certainly left me troubled.

Perhaps it is my background in art that makes me view the act of writing in more artistic terms. I consider books to be the expression of an author's thoughts and ideas. I naively had the notion that an idea or story would come to a writer and they would then put words on paper as an artist paints on a canvas. I guess the act of writing is now more about business than the art of storytelling. Although I would never throw a book series out the window--there are MANY WONDERFUL ones out there--I am now mindful of this trend in writing. An inspired, well-written and thought provoking story that is told in one book may not provide great wealth to an author, but I certainly admire the talent of a great storyteller and I believe that talent and creativity are worth much more than money.