What's the longest book series in existence?

[ProfJohn]

The most recent Wheel of Time is now out. This makes 13 books in this series. When the last book comes out next year it will be 14 books.


Does anyone know of any other book series that might be longer?

Bond had 12 books.
Potter and Narnia were both 7 books.
Sherlock Homes was only 4 books and 56 short stories.

Anything longer?

 

[theflyingpig]

The Encyclopedia. 26+ Books.

 

[Crono]

I'm assuming by your examples you mean only novels, right?

If you include non-English series:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guin_Saga

"126 volumes, with 21 side-story novels"

If you include children's/young teen book series, there are some American series that are pretty long. Personally, I think the longest I ever read was the Animorphs series (54 plus 10 companion books). Surprisingly good series, even years later... I wouldn't be surprised if it has a resurgence in popularity in the near future and another attempt at being made into a movie or TV series.

EDIT: looks like a good number of the books in Animorphs was written by ghostwriters

 

[GagHalfrunt]

The Destroyer series is up into the #140s

 

[Soccerman06]

Do comics count?

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

The Hardy Boys series has multiple sub-series one of which has about 200 books and probably totals about 400 books.

 

[SKORPI0]

Yellow Book :hmm: out since 1883.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Actually, if you want to include non-fiction series I am pretty damn sure the Serial Set has got to be the longest. I think it is just under 15k volumes at the moment.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

The Wheel of Time is pretty long. Close to 4 million words, I think.

Animorphs, Goosebumps. If you're into that kind of thing, Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series is quite long. And the Shannara series by Terry Brooks.

 

[Jadow]

Raymond e feist's series is like 20 and counting

 

[ProfJohn]

When I say series I mean books written about and staring the same characters.

I guess the Hardy Boys would count, but those books tend to be one off books and not a continuing series of books.

BTW I guess the answer is "Perry Rhodan" a german series that is some 2000+ books long, but it is more of a serial than a book series.

 

[Iron Woode]

I know John Norman's Chronicles of Gor has 28 volumes.

 

[Bignate603]

Boxcar Children has 127 books + 21 "specials" which include a full story.

 

[guyver01]

Perry Rhodan

2300 issues.

 

[pontifex]

Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is pretty long with recurring characters. There are 38 books so far.

Not all the same characters are in every book. Each book focuses on a set of characters and he rotates between books with that set of characters. Most times he does incorporate events or other characters from his other books into the next one as everything is taking place in the same world.

 

[thedarkwolf]

Anne McCaffrey's Pern books are up too around 20+ now. Her son has taken over the series and flushed it down the shitter.

 

[IronWing]

The Cambridge Medieval used to be the longest single narrative but I suppose modern fantasy has now surpassed it.

 

[Gibsons]

Travis McGee series got up to 21 books, same author.

 

[JimmiG]

The Wheel of Time is pretty long. Close to 4 million words, I think.

14 books, and each book is pretty long too. 3.7 million words, 10,529 pages.

I stopped after book 7 or 8 when the series had turned into a confusing soap opera in a fantasy setting.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

When I say series I mean books written about and staring the same characters.

I guess the Hardy Boys would count, but those books tend to be one off books and not a continuing series of books.

BTW I guess the answer is "Perry Rhodan" a german series that is some 2000+ books long, but it is more of a serial than a book series.

Picky picky!

 

[DrPizza]

The Hardy Boys series has multiple sub-series one of which has about 200 books and probably totals about 400 books.

That was the first one that came to mind for me. I read about 40-50 of the Hardy Boys books when I was a kid. That made me laugh about the OP thinking 13 books was a long series. (And, don't forget the Nancy Drew series for girls.) Amazing that they were never able to expand to other media with those series the way that Harry Potter did. I think each had a movie, but the movies weren't hits.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

That was the first one that came to mind for me. I read about 40-50 of the Hardy Boys books when I was a kid. That made me laugh about the OP thinking 13 books was a long series. (And, don't forget the Nancy Drew series for girls.) Amazing that they were never able to expand to other media with those series the way that Harry Potter did. I think each had a movie, but the movies weren't hits.

Don't forget the crossover Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books!

And yeah, I was laughing at the OP as well

I do wonder what the journal/paper/magazine with the most issues is...would be interesting to know. I will try to pull it up at work tomorrow.

 

[BrokenVisage]

The Neverending Story... that thing went on forever!

 

[Gibsons]

That was the first one that came to mind for me. I read about 40-50 of the Hardy Boys books when I was a kid. That made me laugh about the OP thinking 13 books was a long series. (And, don't forget the Nancy Drew series for girls.) Amazing that they were never able to expand to other media with those series the way that Harry Potter did. I think each had a movie, but the movies weren't hits.

The TV series in the late 70s had a little success. Only ran for 2 or 3 years. Oh yeah, and the old Mickey Mouse Club ran Hardy Boys installments that were (I think?) popular. Nothing like the Harry Potter stuff though.

 

[nageov3t]

The Neverending Story... that thing went on forever!

in fairness, it was a loop