True Blood: Skipping Around the Books
I’m one of those people who’s not only picked up HBO’s True Blood this summer, but also Charlaine Harris’ best-selling Southern Vampire series, upon which the show is based. I enjoyed the first book, but I’m busy, and impatient, and I keep seeing the words “Eric” and “shower” mentioned in reference to Book 4, Dead to the World, on our True Blood blog posts. I own the first seven novels (they were on sale!), but here’s my dilemma: Do I skip Books 2 and 3, vowing to return to them even though I know I won’t to get to scenes of showering Eric quicker, 
or do I exercise restraint?
I took the question to Twitter, and Harris fans talked me down (SPOILER ALERT!): “Do NOT by any means skip book 2!!! Eric at the orgy is hilarious!” “Book 2: pink spandex bodysuit… Book 3: he, um, makes 1st ‘contact’ w/Sookie. Plus many many other essential things.” “Nooo! You can’t skip them! Besides there is an awesome Sookie/Eric scene on a hood of a car in book 3. You gotta have build up.”
What book series have you been tempted to skip around in? And if you jumped ahead, did you regret the decision later?
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I don’t usually skip around a series, but I often skip around a book if it’s boring.
Like for example, I find the House of Night novels boring, so while I’m reading i skip chapters. =P
Then there’s my impatient factor where I read the last 4 pages of a book to see if it’s good. Which I often regret because I end up ruining the rest of the book.
That’s exactly what I do…I read the last page and find out what happens in the book anyway, it totally sucks and I never seem to stop myself.
I’m getting annoyed with the books and the series here. They are both good but they are so outta sink with each other. I love the Tara character in season 1 and 2 but the books she’s not even in book one. I’ve just started reading the books because the series has me locked in but, they don’t follow one another. Like season two no one knew what Mary Ann was but in the books they know right away because she tells Sookie. I guess they just got a general direction for the show by the books because they don’t follow very well. I know that’s the second time I said that but, I’m not going to quit watching nor reading them just stating my views.
In all honestly… skipped the first book, but honestly they’re such easy reading that it doesn’t take much time to get through each of them! I read about a book a day, so I would say, MAX skip the first but the others are really entertaining reads! That’s my 2 cents
ditto. I read just as much. You CANNOT skip books 2 and 3. You would not understand the significance of Book 4…. Books 2 and 3 are the build up… they are where Sookie learns the ins and outs of Eric’s personality and the truth of Bill’s character.
i skipped the first one as well.
DONT SKIP
I skip thru the parts that are boring to me. All the books are great and I can’t wait for the 10th one next month.
i read everything through the first time….. subsequent readings I skip past parts I dislike or ones that felt too slow the first time around
ditto
DO NOT SKIP!!!!!!! the car scene ( its in book 2 btw) is awsome as well as the scene with eric wearing nothing but silk boxers….. wow…. yum.
me too i read all the way through the first time , then skip through as i please all other times ( how many times have i read sookie and eric only scenes………)
oh and yes the sookie book due out next month is a compilation of reprinted sookie short stories. the 10th book comes out in may
So when do you think the 10th book will be coming out in england? hmmmm.. i’m desperate for more. and the ending of nine was abit “/
*possible spoiler*
I mean, why didn’t Eric come to Sookie’s rescue instead of Bill? He still didn’t explain that.
and i’m still fairly confused why everyone says eric made this big sacrifice for sookie in the last book which showed he loves her.. anyone explain on what the sacrifice was, please?
SPOILERS*
Sacrafice of what? The stupid knife incident? That was the worst.
I can’t figure out why Bill came instead of Eric. I think it’s all becasue Eric doesnt really love her. and Bill does.
I’ll bet he will tell her in the next book that he didnt come to her rescue becasue he had “work bussiness” to do. He is more concerned with work than her. Area five, Sookie? Area Five, Sookie? Which do you think he would choose?
When Niial said at the end, “The vampire is a good man.” I think he was talking about Bill. Eric is just too.. Eric.
What do all you book fans think?
He was speaking of Bill —NO DOUBT
The 10th book is not comming out until October! The book that is comming out is a bunch of short stories that deal with Sookie that weren’t put into the books!
its not the 10 th book it is prepublished sookie stackhouse short stories. they introduce the queen ect.
the next book is out in may- only one of the reasons to love my birth mont
These books are some books you shouldn’t skip, since they differ quite a lot from the show. Well, except for the first book, sort of.
I don’t usually skip books/chapters. I just stick through it.
I skipped the first 3 books just to find the shower scene and then the kitchen scene as well. But then after that I read the first 3 and I found Club Dead was more enthralling! Hha! Eric and all his wicked ways into Sookie’s.. Ooh I love that man.. Devilish but highly charming
My advice: just skipped but then make sure you return to what you have left! you wont be sorry
everyone keeps talking about the truth of Bills character what it is it?
that he is a deceiving and confused lover? in the book, the reason he approached Sookie was because the Queen ordered him that so Sookie can fell for him and be under the queen’s command
thanks! i like sookie and bill together,he seemed so genuine with her!
nah, that was in tv.. in the book version bill’s had a slight different personality and he is not always there for sookie
The only series I’ve ever skipped around in was the Twiligh Saga. Eclipse was the hot new title (i worked in a book store) and I picked it up on my break and was totally sucked in. I went back and read the first two later but it was strange knowing some of the stuff already happened especially with charaters dying in the book I’d already read.
I suggest not skipping. Like someone said before they are easy reads, and take like a couple hours to read one book. There are some part of book 2 and 3 with Eric and Sookie that you DO NOT want to miss!
do not skip! i’m just about to finish dead to the world (book 4, and ultimately so far the Eric and Sookie book!) and am so glad i got to know eric in the first few books. he is in the books much more often then he is in the show, and he is kinda cooler. i mean trueblood eric is fantastic (yum) but i love how much more he gets to show us about his personality in the books.
oh and bill is a douche, enough said.
*Lots of Spoilers*
I think everyone is a bit hard on Bill. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Sookie Eric fan too. But don’t you think it’s kinda sweet how Bill asks Bubba to watch sookie, And he still watches her house for trouble even after she breaks it off with him. Yeah he is kinda a stalker, but it is still kinda sweet. And just bc their relationship started off bc of lies, doesn’t mean that he didn’t grow to love her. He did almost die for her in book 9, and he wasn’t even getting some… then… From Sookie… lol!
I’ve read all 9 and I bought the frist 7 as a set (on sale!)
I skipped to every scene with eric before I read the whole book. I literally skimmed pages until I found the name ‘eric’ and then I started reading.
I don’t really regret it. but I’m happy now that I’ve read them all in their entirty. I can read book 4 over and over again (I think I’ve read it about 10 times already). but I still go back to read about eric in texas, at the orgy, in missisippi. in rhodes, in the big easy, and whereever he’s following sookie to.
I knew I’d go back and read them. if you know you won’t – DON”T DO IT
*SPOILER
Is anyone else disappointed with how severely the series is swaying from the books?? Loved, loved, loved the books. Just really disappointed with the proposal scene. I have a feeling we aren’t going to see the “shower scene” (crap) Bill was such a cad in the books. Love Eric. How long until the next novel comes out?????
The next novel comes out in october. It’s a compilation od short stories to fill the gaps between some of the books. I think it’s called A touch of Dead. The short stories are called:
Giftwrap, Tacky, the Britlingans go to hell, Dancers in the dark, Lucky, One word answer, Fairy Dust, Bacon, and Dracula Night.
And Charlaine Harris has signed with Penquin for another three books.
Her next actual Sookie novel comes out next spring and it’s called Dead in the house, I think.
You could chack out Facebook. in the search bar type in Sookie Stackhouse Fan Club and you can see our discussions and… stuff.
The tv series has to be different from the books so we won’t know everything. I did not get the feeling that Bill was a cad in the books. I just felt like he was a thinker and a very matter of fact kind of vampire who had accepted that certain things had to be accepted that one cannot change. If you’ll notice he was always instructing and educating Sookie. She gained a lot of knowledge of how the vampire systems work. Knowledge of that seemed to be what protected Sookie when she was left to her own devices. She always said Bill told me or Bill said…
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