Bookworms: Do you do what Levar Burton does?

Well, I lose respect for anyone so judgmental. To paraphrase Willy Wonka, ‘I can think of a worse one.’

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.

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.

This post evinces a kind of slavish mentality. Discuss! :wink:

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.

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?

I already said. It’s childish and immature. You like to do it. Go right ahead.

No, of course you aren’t: that experience is still open to you any time you want to re-read the book.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.