Series

Must you read them in order? I certainly try! I find I prefer an "order" of some kind. If no purposeful order in place, I'll read them chronologically by publication and hope. How about you?

Which series? Some series are more sensitive to this than others.

Any series. Speaking very generally. I agree completely that some series are more sensitive to "reading order" than others. However, sometimes what the author intends and what the reader comes away with are two very different things.

For instance, I accidentally read the Alex Plumtree series slightly out of order, but it didn't mess things up for me as a reader. The details that were "order specific" (the main romantic element) really didn't matter much to me. It was pretty ridiculous.