Eulogy of trilogies and other series

I love books . I love trilogies even more and if there are more than three books in the series, I love those series even more. Don't get me wrong - the single book in a non-series also captivates and thrills me. But. Once I read it, I no longer have the anticipation I feel when I have a new book, unexplored, it's twists and turns not yet revealed to me. I envy, no, I am jealous of someone that starts a book that I have finished and loved. I will never feel the same exhiliration again of running with Amir and Hassan as they run behind the last kite or sit with Uncle Tom outside the cabin while he whittles his wood or commiserate with Emma as she cries about the secrets Jack has just revealed. Instead, when I read the book again (which I know I will do many times - I never get tired of most books), it will be as if I am looking into a Penseive of my own thoughts and I already know what happened but I need to dust my memory a bit to catch the finer nuance of the words, a specific cadence that I adore. The last page is the beginning of my mourning - that the adventure does not go on, that the love story that has no end has ended or that the hero or the heroine is dead and a part of me that loved them as much as their lover did, died. So that is why I love a series in a book. I carry with me like a talisman the knowledge that the last page is not really the end, that Harry has gone for the summer and is having a good time at the Weasley's while I can finish my chores and await his arrival back at Hogwarts, or that Becky continues to shop and will soon be married to Luke in a grand affair or that Gage will be back with Cybil and the blood brothers will finish the Big Evil with the three fated women. I know - the series ends and my mouning is bigger for the bigger experience with the people in the book but the anticipation of the arrival of the next book in the series is something I liken to the arrival of a baby after months of waiting, carrying the expectation and the longing in your heart to just know what the book will bring with it and to share the joys and the emotions of the characters in the book. I salute you JRR Tolkien, I salute you JK Rowling, I salute you Sophie Kinsella, I salute you Nora Roberts for some of the best series I have read and for making my life rich with anticipation and excitement while you have slaved over your writing tool to provide me with yet another adventure filled, excitement loaded classic