I never thought about it before but I love a trilogy.

Thanks, Gud. I was having nightmares about Adobe Flash.

My favorite is a well-paced trilogy. Quartets are acceptable as well. Almost any time a series goes longer than that (no matter how addicted I might get), I expect an unfortunate degradation in quality. (I'm looking at you, George R. R.!)

A series of trilogies or quartets set in the same universe but with different primary characters can be awesome, too. (Tamora Pierce!)

Standalone novels are good, of course, but I prefer incredibly long books like Anathem. I tend to like epic scale, especially in Fantasy/SF (my genres of choice).

I do like well-written (and paced) short stories, but my favorite form is the trilogy.

Funny you mention this, because last night, another blog had as its question of the day "What is your favorite short story?" I'm going to be cutting and pasting a lot of recommendations from that thread, I think. My mentions were "The Yellow Wallpaper," "Shambleau" and "Black God's Kiss" by C.L. Moore, "With Delicate Mad Hands" by James Tiptree, Jr., and for pure fluff, "Who Am I This Time?" by Vonnegut.

I dislike flash fiction, and I'm not a big fan of short stories either. I like a good self-contained novel. A series that's really well done I like as well, but a lot seem to peter out.

This is me.

My favorite is a well-paced trilogy. Quartets are acceptable as well. Almost any time a series goes longer than that (no matter how addicted I might get), I expect an unfortunate degradation in quality.

Hah. I just wrote on my new blog about how I'm usually disappointed by trilogies: A Trilogy of Trilogies. BTW, that link is not spoilery for Mockingjay.

I love a good short story, but I have to be in the mood. Otherwise a novel is what I generally read. And anything that continues into a series is usually welcome, but some mystery series do have the same-old feeling after a while.

I read fast, so I love a GOOD engaging massive tome.

I also love good series; I really like following characters I love despite the OMG GIMME MORE NOW A YEAR, FUCK -ness of many.

One of my truest pleasures is finding a new-to-me series I really like that already has about 4-5 books in it published. NOM CRACK.

Flash fiction always feels like writing exercises to me, although some can be excellent. I love a good anthology of short stories, esp. as bedtime reading, because then I don't feel compelled to stay up till 3 finishing the book.

I love an elegantly crafted shorter novel, too; Duras is especially a favorite for this, although some leave me cold (Blue Eyes, Black Hair) and some I adore (The Lover.)

Oh, hell, I like it all. Depends on mood.

I have trouble with short stories generally speaking. I definitely prefer a meatier read.

I love anything compelling, doesn't matter if it's long or short or in between. Just don't bore me. I also prefer efficiency and can't deal with written meanderings or people desperately in need of an editor. Boyfriend obsessively loves the endless words (and books) of William T. Vollman and I can't deal with even one paragraph. Eggers is the same way.

After 11 years of reading nothing but "serious" fiction and non (mostly for school, but also because I wanted to be well-read in the classics), I am having a serious case of "CRACK ONLY" please! It started with "The Passage" and is now "Mockingjay". So I will need some more crack soon but not right away(after the baseball play-offs). Crack suggestions are welcome. I will probably go and re-read a bunch of Stephen King, to begin with.

I always think I dislike short stories, because of the fast reading/wanting something big to sink into issue, but then on the rare occasions that I actually make myself sit down and read them I usually love them. But then I don't think to go back and try more until the next time.