***The Starry-Eyed Revue***: recaps

I know I'm not alone when I say that it's entirely too difficult, not to mention insufferable, waiting a whole year -- and sometimes more! -- between installments in a series. Obviously, the hardest part is the waiting. And it's even worse if the release gets pushed back.

But even more dreadful than the waiting is the forgetting. I've already read 150 books this year, which is the same as I read in all last year. Which is to say, I read a lot, at least by some standards. So much so that's it's easy to confuse characters and plots in my current reads, as well as recently finished reads. Not to mention how difficult it is to remember key elements in a book I read a year ago.

I resolved this pretty quickly when it happened, so most of you are probably oblivious, but last Tuesday, I posted a teaser from Never Fade by Alexander Bracken, and the author politely advised me that the teaser in question contained a rather large spoiler for this sequel to last year's The Darkest Minds. I don't know how you guys pick which teasers to post, but I usually head to somewhere in the middle of the novel and then read a little bit and try to find a tantalizing teaser. One that's actually interesting. I mean, the point of teasing the books is to spark interest in the title, no?

Anyway, this particular teaser made the heroine sound badass. But it also hinted at something or someone that will definitely change the course of the novel. Except, it had been a year since I read the first book, and so I didn't realize the implications of the teaser. (I'm sorry for anyone who was exposed to the spoiler and comprehended what it means. It's unfortunate, but I haven't heard from anyone that anything was ruined, so I'm hopeful.)

As soon as I was contacted by the author, I removed the teaser and put a placeholder up until I could get to the book and find a replacement. Alex was super nice about the whole ordeal, even pointing out why said teaser was so spoilery, to which I replied:

@starryeyedjen haha, I've been so paranoid about avoiding scenes with him that I've run out of teasers to share! xx
— Alexandra Bracken (@alexbracken) September 24, 2013

Anyway, good author experience...but bad blogger. Sometimes I can't believe how much it's possible to forget in the span of a year, especially when it comes to really awesome novels like these. And that's why it's awesome that some authors provide recaps on their own blogs or elsewhere. Ilsa J. Bick has pretty good recaps for her Ashes series on her blog, and Maggie Stiefvater collaborated with The Recaptains for her recap of The Raven Boys. Honestly, I wish all authors would do something similar.

And I wish there were more sites or more offerings like those from The Recaptains. I've often considered doing something similar on my own blog, but I just don't have the time these days. If I need a refresher, I usually just listen to the audiobook, if it's available. But that can get costly.

Have you ever committed this reading faux pas? How do you counteract this problem? Take really detailed notes while reading to refer to for the next book in the series? Do you know of any other sites that recap books?