Let's Discuss: Starting with the Wrong Book

 

So random thought popped in my head as I was commenting on a post the other day. It made me wonder if this happened to anyone else and what you did?

Starting with the Wrong Book

Have you ever started a series and realized things were a bit off with the story? That the characters kept mentioning something that never "happened"? And then it finally hits you, this is not book 1 of the series like you thought it was! So now what do you do? Do you track down book 1 and start over? Or just roll with it from where you're at?

This happened to me at least once. I feel like after this instance I was better at checking the sources and verifying without a doubt that the book I'm about to read is the correct one for the series lineup, be it 1 or whatever!

The first time it happened to me was with Kim Harrison's Hollows series! I picked up The Good, The Bad, and The Undead because I could tell it would involve vampires what with that title and as I was reading I kept thinking something seems off. They kept mentioning something that happened not too long ago, yet this was the first time this person popped up on the page and I kept thinking WHO ARE YOU???

Then I looked at the front of the book and those early pages and saw I was missing an entire book! I immediately went out to Borders and picked up the first copy and likely started it then and there. I want to say I was maybe 30-40 pages into the second book before this happened and I'm like, starting fresh! Let's do this! Lol.

So needless to say, it was a lesson learned kind of situation for then I made sure to always check those first few pages to see the author's previous works and verify that I am in the "correct" spot!

Has this ever happened to you? Did you mistakenly start a series with a book other than the first one? What did you do? Did you stop and go get the first one and carry on?