Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday
Do you cheat and peek ahead at the end of your books? Or do you resolutely read in sequence, as the author intended?
And, if you don’t peek, do you ever feel tempted?

No I don't cheat. I have a friend who does though. She always has to know how a book ends. Sometimes she even decides on whether or not she will read a book by those last few pages. It drives me up the wall. When I loan her books I make her promise me she won't read the end first. I just don't see the point of it. The main enjoyment of the book is the journey itself. Not every book has a great ending which can spoil the rest of the book a little. But you still got enjoyment out of what lead up to it. Plus you could be reading something out of context. What sounds like a bad ending could be a good ending for that particular book. The only example I can think of is the Dark Tower series. The ending was awful! It tainted the rest of the series a little but I still enjoyed reading them. Had I read the ending first I might not have bothered and missed out on so much.

I have felt tempted in the past. When there is a character I like who does something that I feel is out of character or even might die I want to skip ahead. Either in the hopes that maybe that out of character action was done for a good reason or in the hopes of finding that character is alive. I don't though. It spoils the excitement of finding out the answers in the order the reader is supposed to. Jumping right to the end you miss that build up.