# Bookworms: Do you do what Levar Burton does? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949 "2013-12-10T03:22:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/81 "2013-12-14T18:01:09Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > (And, I’ve lost a little respect for those of you who do. I’m just sayin’!) > [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > So yeah, like **elbows** said, I too lose a bit of respect for anyone who says they do this. Well, I lose respect for anyone so judgmental. To paraphrase Willy Wonka, ‘I can think of a worse one.’ ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/82 "2013-12-14T18:01:16Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Because for a lot of the responses in this thread, it reads as a lack of self restraint. Several people have said they do that because they need to know if a character they like survives to the end. It’s like something a child would do and it makes me think of a kid who looks for his Christmas presents days early because he can’t wait to get them on Dec 25. They need to know _now now now_ and don’t have the maturity and patience to wait. > > So yeah, like **elbows** said, I too lose a bit of respect for anyone who says they do this. Funny, I was thinking of the Christmas analogy too. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/83 "2013-12-14T18:06:22Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Funny, I was thinking of the Christmas analogy too. Christmas analogy fails. Opening a present is the end of the process. Once you open it you’re done. People in this thread explained the variety of ways a peak at the end enhances their enjoyment of the reading process. The book still gets read and enjoyed. Peaking at the end doesn’t end the experience. I’ve described many reasons I enjoy reading the last couple sentences (not a chapter, or pages) and why it’s fun. Others explained why reading even more makes it more enjoyable for them. That’s a reason to diminish respect for them? Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/84 "2013-12-14T18:09:28Z")
Well, if it makes you guys feel more “mature” that you read every single word in absolutely the order presented, that’s great. Of course, that must mean that you never ever read a novel for the second time, right? Because then you would know the end. Which would make the book meaningless. Right? OK then. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/85 "2013-12-14T18:09:30Z")
> [@nachtmusick](#): > > Absolutely. The best stories and poems have a sequence. Events build one upon another, and the ending is meaningless without the resonance of all that precedes. I seldom judge, but inability to deny oneself the temptation of reading ahead strikes me as abjectly immature. This post evinces a kind of slavish mentality. Discuss! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/86 "2013-12-14T20:08:25Z")
> [@nachtmusick](#): > > I seldom judge, but inability to deny oneself the temptation of reading ahead strikes me as abjectly immature. If knowing the ending does not spoil the tale, then how much are you getting from it in the first place? If you can only enjoy a story when the ending is a total surprise, how much are _you_ getting from it in the first place? A book that would be totally ruined by seeing a few lines ahead of time can’t be a very good book to begin with. I’m not in the habit of peeking at the ends of books, but I do sometimes flip ahead to see how many pages are left in a chapter. This often involves seeing how the chapter ends. I don’t feel this diminishes my enjoyment of a book, because I’m not reading books just to be surprised at every turn. Many books don’t even have much in the way of big surprises, and when they do then seeing the last few lines of a chapter or the last few lines of the book usually isn’t going to spoil them much. Even murder mysteries, where the killer’s identity is meant to be a surprise, don’t typically reveal this information at the very end of a chapter and almost never do so on the very last page of the book. Even without peeking I already know how things are going to work out whenever I re-read an old favorite or read for the first time a famous work of literature, a book that’s been adapted into a movie that I’ve already seen, or a book based on a well-known story such as the legend of King Arthur. And when it comes to non-fiction, it’s often the case that anyone interested in the subject already knows how things will end or that the author explains what conclusion they’re building towards at the beginning. If you consider all such books “spoiled” and can’t get anything out of them then I feel sorry for you, but I don’t think you’re in a position to accuse others of being immature in their reading. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/87 "2013-12-14T20:47:53Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > Well, if it makes you guys feel more “mature” that you read every single word in absolutely the order presented, that’s great. Of course, that must mean that you never ever read a novel for the second time, right? Because then you would know the end. Which would make the book meaningless. Right? OK then. Example fail. Reading a book the first time and reading a book the second time can be totally different experiences. All you are doing is depriving yourself of that first kind of experience. ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/88 "2013-12-14T20:51:26Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Example fail. Reading a book the first time and reading a book the second time can be totally different experiences. All you are doing is depriving yourself of that first kind of experience. You are depriving yourself of the experience of knowing the end of a story before you’ve begun to read it. We’re all depriving ourselves of experiences all the time. Why is the particular experience you’re targeting so significant it actually acquires moral import for you? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/89 "2013-12-14T20:55:03Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > Why is the particular experience you’re targeting so significant it actually acquires moral import for you? I already said. It’s childish and immature. You like to do it. Go right ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/90 "2013-12-14T21:06:45Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > You are depriving yourself of the experience of knowing the end of a story before you’ve begun to read it. No, of course you aren’t: that experience is still open to you any time you want to re-read the book. > [@](#): > > Why is the particular experience you’re targeting so significant it actually acquires moral import for you? I’m not the person you’re responding to, but I’ll point out that skipping ahead to the ending may—_may_—indicate a lack of self-control, a lack of patience, an inability to delay gratification, or a problem living with uncertainty, all of which potentially have moral significance. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/91 "2013-12-14T21:14:05Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I already said. It’s childish and immature. You like to do it. Go right ahead. It’s not exactly the height of maturity to make a big deal about how other people are morally wrong for having harmless personal habits that you do not share. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2013, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/92 "2013-12-14T21:20:29Z")
Yeah I pretty much always do this. Sometimes in the beginning, sometimes towards the middle. I just read the last page though, which tends to just add more mystery rather than having many spoilers, especially if it is an epilogue. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/93 "2013-12-15T00:05:00Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I might read the ending if the tension gets to be too much. If I know how it ends, I can go back and enjoy the story, appreciate the writing, etc. This for me, too, though I only did it once. The book was Stephen King’s _Misery_ and I just couldn’t stand the suspense. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/94 "2013-12-15T00:24:27Z")
Only bad people skip to the ending. I think we can at least all agree on that. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/95 "2013-12-15T00:31:45Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Only bad people skip to the ending. I think we can at least all agree on that. We won’t know what we all agree on until the end of the thread. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/96 "2013-12-15T03:32:22Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > Because this sounds insane. > > He has a late night commercial on talk radio preaching about the joys of reading. In this commercial he states (more or less): “Sometimes, when I’m in the middle of a really good book, I’ll flip to the very last page and take a peek at the last paragraph. Because a good book should have a good ending.” > What!?:dubious: > > Spoiler Alert Fail!! yes, i have done that. not so much to see if it had a good ending, just to see who the murderer is, or if a character lives. thus far it has not stopped me from reading the entire thing. it is more difficult with an ereader. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/97 "2013-12-15T04:37:30Z")
Absolutely not. I find it borderline unthinkable. The only situation I would do this is if I find myself not wanting to actually read the book – I might skim through and read random passages and maybe the ending just to have a little extra idea of it. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2013, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/98 "2013-12-15T04:38:11Z")
No. I flip to the end only if I’m bored and am virtually certainly I won’t be reading all the way through to the end. I don’t regard it as a crime against literature, as some people seem to, but neither do I routinely do it. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/99 "2013-12-20T07:39:59Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > If you can only enjoy a story when the ending is a total surprise, how much are _you_ getting from it in the first place? A book that would be totally ruined by seeing a few lines ahead of time can’t be a very good book to begin with. I’m not in the habit of peeking at the ends of books, but I do sometimes flip ahead to see how many pages are left in a chapter. This often involves seeing how the chapter ends. I don’t feel this diminishes my enjoyment of a book, because I’m not reading books just to be surprised at every turn. Many books don’t even have much in the way of big surprises, and when they do then seeing the last few lines of a chapter or the last few lines of the book usually isn’t going to spoil them much. Even murder mysteries, where the killer’s identity is meant to be a surprise, don’t typically reveal this information at the very end of a chapter and almost never do so on the very last page of the book. > > Even without peeking I already know how things are going to work out whenever I re-read an old favorite or read for the first time a famous work of literature, a book that’s been adapted into a movie that I’ve already seen, or a book based on a well-known story such as the legend of King Arthur. And when it comes to non-fiction, it’s often the case that anyone interested in the subject already knows how things will end or that the author explains what conclusion they’re building towards at the beginning. If you consider all such books “spoiled” and can’t get anything out of them then I feel sorry for you, but I don’t think you’re in a position to accuse others of being immature in their reading. I want tension. I want to ask myself where the hell this is all going. I want to be both confused and engaged. I do not want to be able to see what is coming, because if I could have written it myself, then why am I wasting my time? ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949/100 "2013-12-20T14:37:30Z")
> [@nachtmusick](#): > > I want tension. I want to ask myself where the hell this is all going. I want to be both confused and engaged. I do not want to be able to see what is coming, because if I could have written it myself, then why am I wasting my time? Well, congratulations on being picky and easily bored when it comes to reading. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bookworms-do-you-do-what-levar-burton-does/675949.md?page=6)