Short and Sweet

I'll try to keep this one short and sweet.

I hate reading books that are a series.  Well, check that.  Hate is a strong word.  I despise series.  Yet, I read a great many books that are part of a series.  My rule to this is that I do not normally start a book until the last book has been published and I can sit and read it all the way through without being thoroughly annoyed when there is a cliff hanger ending or that feeling of wanting more and not being able to have it.

I sat and read all seven Harry Potter books, beginning to end, in about a three week time period a few years ago.  I loved them.  And I do not have that annoyed feeling of wondering what will happen next.  I did not have to wait a year or two between each book.  I did not have to go back and skim over the previous book to remind myself what had happened before picking up the next book.

The quandary I face today is that I have hungrily devoured the first three book of the Song of Ice and Fire series, and I am having a hard time restraining myself from picking up the fourth book, which will inevitably lead me to the fifth book -- only to leave me what?  Hanging?  Annoyed?  Frustrated? And the worst part of this is that George R. R. Martin is a notoriously SLOOOOWWWW writer.  Game of Thrones was published in 1996.  Clash of Kings and Storm of Swords came along fairly quickly, published in 1999 and 2000, respectively.  The fourth book, and the one I am currently hesitant about picking up and starting, A Feast for Crows, was not published until 2005.  The last published volume, A Dance with Dragons, came out just recently in 2011.

At his current rate, Martin won't finish and release the sixth book (of the planned seven books) until 2016 or 2017.  If I pick up the fourth and fifth book now and plow through them, will I be thoroughly annoyed and angry and have to let that anger and annoyance stew for 5+ years?

Inevitably, I am going to read the remaining published books.  Inevitably, I am going to be angered and annoyed.  And this will serve as a reminder to myself never to pick up another series again until all planned books have been published.