Book series have "seasons"!? Madness. But thanks for explaining, though I'm starting to suspect this author (or their publisher) just enjoys confusing people.
But what are the things people love about this show (or hate)? I know people love this show, so fill me in
My opinion will be biased in favor of it as I adore this show right next to the Fate series (am I drawn to confusing series? lol) but I'll give you the good and bad as I see it.
The good: So what I love about this show is it's themes in exploring humanity through apparition spirits. Each "arc" I will call them has a character being haunted by an apparition of some sort, but the premis delves deeper into more real troubled situations which the apparitions are there to highlight rather than detract from. The show delves into some heavy subjects matters like mental trauma, domestic abuse, depression etc but it does so in a very positive way imo. The main character Araragi tries to help these people with their apparition issues and comes to learn what is the real cause underlying it is. And I also like how, as a certain hawaian shirt guy always say's "people save themselves" with the help of our protagonist in the end.
The neutral: The show is very dialogue heavy,and despite it being based around different apparitions there is minimal action and no horror elements so you may not enjoy it if you don't like sitting though tons of unbroken dialogue.
The bad: At it's core it's a ecchi harem show and the protagonist Araragi is unashamedly the biggest pervert in anime history. It puts a lot of people off (though things like that don't bother me and I like the comedy it brings to the show personally).