Lara wants to know: How do you like your books?

I'm in the process of building a house, which has been an interesting, if sometimes maddening, experience. Because I'll be moving in the next couple of months, I've started re-evaluating my stuff, determining if I really need to keep this or that.  This scrutiny has extended to my bookshelves as well, though I have no intention of getting rid of any of my books (as if!).

I don't know about you, but I have a lot of series on my TBR shelves.  In many cases, I've read one or two books in the series, but as new books have been released, I haven't kept up with reading them in a timely manner.  And that's not even counting the new series I've discovered--since I am one of those people who can't start reading a series with a middle book, I have to start at the beginning.  That means I've got a lot of 'first in series' books to try, so I can determine if I want to add the rest of the books to my shelf.

I'm making it a point this year to catch up on several book series.  I've got plans to get up to speed on Shannon K. Butcher's Sentinel Wars, Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress (which has just wrapped up), Jo Davis's Firefighters, J.R. Ward's Fallen Angels, and Monica McCarty's Highland Guards.  It's a lot of reading, but someone's gotta do it. :-)

What about you?  Do you enjoy reading books that are part of a series?  If so, which ones?  Do you have to start at the beginning, or can you just jump right in?   If you don't like series, what are some of your favorite stand-alone books?                                          Tell me about it in the comments!