Have you ever cheated and

[Maureen]

looked at the ending?:lurker::blush:

I must confess - I have done so on a few occasions. I still enjoy reading the book though. Some would argue that it would spoil the story for them. Have you ever done so?

[happyanddandy]

Oooh! Never!!

My son does this all the time - I can't believe it!! It spoils the story. :lol:

[Gyre]

Yes, Yes I have, sometimes I can't wait to find out what happened. :D

[Laramie]

I don't think I've ever looked at the end, but when I was young (well, younger!:lol:) and I was reading a really scary book I'd go on a few chapters and scan it just to check the character was still alive!! :lol: I don't really think it was cheating, and it never spoiled the book for me, I was just getting a bit of reassurance.

I'm pretty much the opposite, now: I get really annoyed if I accidentally go on and see a bit of what happens!

[Karen]

I have to admit I do quite often have a sneaky look at the back page. I don't necessarily read it but I do look to see what character names are mentioned in order to get an inkling as to what is going to happen.

This is something that I am trying to stop though.

[Sedge]

No, it all has to be a surprise for me, and I'm very rarely disappointed!

[Fiona]

I used to, but not anymore unless I don't plan on finishing the book in which I don't care if I ruin it or not.

[JudyB]

No - I could never spoil the surprise.

[Janet]

Never! :angcat: I think it would spoil things for me!

[Nici76]

Nope, never!

[Kell]

Never, never, never! The only reason I would look at the back pages is if it's 2nd hand - and that's just to check the pages are all there - I've been burned that way before!

[lovesreading06]

No i never do that. It would spoil the book.

[Icecream]

No. I always flick to the end to see how many pages there are, and sometimes I catch a word or so, but I try not to!

[Kylie]

No, I don't read the ending. The closest I've come was when I read Pride and Prejudice for the first time last year. I kept skipping ahead to all the Elizabeth/Darcy parts because I was desperate to see what happened between them (I had a pretty good idea how it was going to end, but I just wanted to see their interaction with each other). :blush:

I do have a terrible tendancy to look ahead a few paragraphs or on the next page if I'm getting to a really good part of the book. I just sort of skim the text and read the good bit, then I have to go back and read the rest. It's really a struggle to keep on my eyes on the lines I'm supposed to be reading sometimes and I get very annoyed with myself for doing it :banghead: Maybe I should cover the text with a piece of paper and slide it down. I know skipping ahead is going to be a problem when the new Harry Potter book comes out. :roll:

This discussion brings to mind a quote from When Harry Met Sally:
Harry: When I buy a new book, I read the last page first. That way, in case I die before I finish, I know how it ends.

[wrathofkublakhan]

Eeek.
I've heard of that, but never seen it.
While I've been known to enjoy some ice cream before the main course -- I'd never rush to the denouement without savoring each tasty plot turn along the way in a book.
I've even seen trailers for movies that show the ending -- I'm horribly offended to the point where I feel like a snob, but hey, I know what I like and how I want it to be like. Take me on the journey, I'll arrive at my own speed, thank you very much.



I do have a terrible tendency to look ahead a few paragraphs or on the next page if I'm getting to a really good part of the book. I just sort of skim the text and read the good bit, then I have to go back and read the rest. It's really a struggle to keep on my eyes on the lines I'm supposed to be reading sometimes and I get very annoyed with myself for doing it :banghead: Maybe I should cover the text with a piece of paper and slide it down. I know skipping ahead is going to be a problem when the new Harry Potter book comes out. :roll:



Gadzooks!
I've been known to get excited and find my eyes jumping about -- wishing I could read faster!

[angerball]

It's really a struggle to keep on my eyes on the lines I'm supposed to be reading sometimes and I get very annoyed with myself for doing it :banghead: Maybe I should cover the text with a piece of paper and slide it down.

I tend to do this, which is why I use a bookmark to underline the line I'm reading, though sometimes something will catch my eye on the opposite page and I find myself reading a few lines. :thud:

The only time I will skip to the end of a book, is when I've given up on it. It may be a lousy read, but I still want to know how it ends. :lol:

[vickythemaster]

I look ahead all the time. I can't help it! The page will randomly open at a page a few chapters ahead of me and a line will jump out and catch my eye. I'll read a few lines. It doesn't ruin it for me because I don't know what context it's in and it motivates me to read the rest quicker so that I can get to that part and know what was meant by it or understand it's context.

I have a tendency to read the last few lines of the book as well, I don't think I've ever read a book where I was able to restrain myself.

It doesn't ruin it that much. There's usually a sort of wind down point after the climax isn't there? The last couple of lines don't usually spoil the entire book for me.

I do try not to do it but my self control is astoundingly poor! :mrgreen:

Although I manage to justify it in the same way that Harry does in When Harry Met Sally. That way I don't feel too guilty.;)

[carm]

:readingtwo: i must admit i have cheated on occasion just to see if i could figure out if the ending was what i thought it would be- i tried doing that with the bourne identity by robert ludlum but it was making me crazy cause i couldnt figure it out so i stopped- carm

[Liz]

No, I don't do that when I'm reading. Even if it is a dull book.
I probably did that when I was little with Mr Men books or something, but I cannot remember doing that with a 'proper' reading book.

[kitty]

I always did it when I was younger, and it would drive my mum mad. I dont do it anymore, because the last time I did it I found out somebody died. I was gutted, so that has stopped me know.

[Polka Dot Rock]

Nope, I've never done it! Not even when I was a kid. 'Though, I can understand why people would.

It reminds me of a bit of When Harry Met Sally (one of my favourite films), when Harry says that he starts a new book, he always reads the end first so that if he dies, he'll know the end of whatever he was reading!

I hope none of you do that!! :lol:

[Oblomov]

I confess that I have done it a few times....very few. It is only when I want to be sure that my favourite character in the book does not die in the end :blush:. When I read Harold Robbins' The Adventurers some 35 years ago, I was very upset when Fat Cat gets killed in the end. After that, I have occasionally 'peered' to make sure that the same fate did not befall some other character that I had grown to like.

[Laramie]

So, Oblomov, what would you do if the character you liked DID die?

[Oblomov]

So, Oblomov, what would you do if the character you liked DID die?

To be honest, most of my 'peers' have not really been revealing and so I did not find out. I do not cheat enough to actually reveal the full ending. But if I do find out that my favourite character was going to die, I usually put away the book for a while.....but invariably go back to it a few months down the line.

I read a lot of books set during WWII and so characters dying is commonplace. Since history cannot be changed, most of the time I know what's going to happen anyway. Still, there are a lot of very well written books set during WWII that I have read & re-read several times.

[Echo]

You're all going to yell at me, but I cheated with the last Harry Potter book. I read a few scenes near the end that completely spoiled the climaxes for me! Of course, I didn't stop reading then, but I wish I'd left well enough alone. :lol:

[Janet]

You're all going to yell at me, but I cheated with the last Harry Potter book. I read a few scenes near the end that completely spoiled the climaxes for me! Of course, I didn't stop reading then, but I wish I'd left well enough alone. :lol:
:lol: Would we shout?!

I just couldn't do it. I think if I'd read the end, I wouldn't have wanted to continue reading it!

Do you think you'll do the same on Saturday?!

[Echo]

I'm not planning to read the new book until maybe next month, when I can afford to start buying books again. I know that I won't be able to avoid spoilers, but I don't think they'll bother me too much. Even though I read the end of the last one, and it sort of spoiled it for me, I still enjoyed it very much, and read it all in one sitting! :lol:

[Hazeltree]

I don't go and read the ending but I have flicked through the book once or twice if it has looked like someone has died - just to see their name and check they are ok! I did that with one of Diana Gabaldon's books - I just couldn't bear the thought that the character had been killed! :)

[Kasei]

I don't think I could bring myself to read the end of a book before its time even if I wanted to. Just the thought of it is making me cringe, literally. xD I guess I'm too much of a stickler for not knowing the ending (or much of anything really. I like to go into books without even knowing the premise sometimes, just to surprise myself. I've found a number of unexpected favorites this way) to read the last pages...or even to skip ahead. To me, if I see a character's name at the end of a book then it ruins it for me during the reading every time it looks like that character might die, or has died, because I know that they will be fine in the end. Saps all the fun and suspense out of it in a way.

[SteffieB]

Only a rare few times, when I am bored with the book and want to cut to the chase. I can only think of one or two books in recent history, so I hope this doesn't reflect poorly!

[supergran71]

No never never ever, spoils the story. I do sometimes peep over at the next page though!!:mrgreen:

[Danna]

I only peek at the end of the book if I am not enjoying the book and am thinking of not finishing it. There are too many books in my book shelf that are good... why waste time on something I'm not enjoying. But, I always have to know the end...

[Hazeltree]

I like to go into books without even knowing the premise sometimes, just to surprise myself.

I like to do that too - in fact I did with the new HP - I couldn't bear the thought of knowing anything about it before I read the book myself.

[Ruth]

I never read the ending. It would ruin the whole book for me!

[Merflerher]

I notice most people have said 'no' to this - yet, if you re-read a book, surely you already know the ending - so what do you do, temporarily forget it? It doesn't bother me if I know the ending to a book, or a film for that matter, and I frequently look at the ending, particularly if I'm getting bored, to see if it's worth carrying on!

[Kell]

In comparison to the amount of books I read, very few of them are actually re-reads, and when I do re-read a book, it tends to have been quite some time in between readings, so chances are I've forgotten much of what happens - there are only a very few that I have re-read multiple times (The Stand and The Chronicles of Narnia being two examples), and each time I read them, I discover something new.

There have also been occasions where I've read a book and finished it, only to realise on the last few pages that I've read it before! :lol:

[Ruth]

I notice most people have said 'no' to this - yet, if you re-read a book, surely you already know the ending - so what do you do, temporarily forget it? It doesn't bother me if I know the ending to a book, or a film for that matter, and I frequently look at the ending, particularly if I'm getting bored, to see if it's worth carrying on!

It depends what kind of book I'm reading. I would never reread a thriller or a whodunnit, for example, because the main point of reading the book is to find out whodidit, or uncover some secret. But with some books, it's more about the reading than the ending, if that makes sense. For example, I have read To Kill A Mockingbird a number of times, and although I know what happens, I just love the writing and reading the story again!

[Merflerher]

I would never reread a thriller or a whodunnit, for example, because the main point of reading the book is to find out whodidit, or uncover some secret.

I've just been re-reading all my Ngaio Marsh's, some for about the fourth/fifth time. It doesn't matter that I know whodidit, the pleasure is in meeting an old friend again.

[Merflerher]

There have also been occasions where I've read a book and finished it, only to realise on the last few pages that I've read it before! :lol:

Yes, I've done that too. When I worked in public libraries, I'd frequently find little marks or initials on the back page, from readers trying to make sure they didn't pick up the same book again. Can't do that in Waterstones though! What I find annoying is the way publishers use the same picture for bookcovers; or they issue a book with two different covers...the number of times I've bought duplicates:roll:

[Kylie]

This puts me in mind of that old quote about the journey being more important than the destination. Very true. Even if the path is well-trodden, it doesn't become any less exciting to walk!

I re-read a lot of books and I can't imagine only wanting to read a book once (unless I really didn't enjoy it). I think re-reads can be good because you might miss something the first time around or you might be able to better understand the events leading up the conclusion.

And sometimes I do forget the ending, or important events leading up to it (even in the latter Harry Potter books I recently re-read!) As for mysteries, I don't read too many. I know if I ever get around to dusting off my Nancy Drew books, they'll all seem brand new to me because I've forgotten everything that happens!

Ruth, I love To Kill A Mockingbird too. I re-read it recently for the first time in years, and it will be getting read a heck of a lot more in future, that's for sure!

[Ratna]

I would never read the ending of a good book or a book that I'm enjoying. I like to be surprised. But if a book turns out to be really boring halfway through, I might read the ending just to finish it off.

:readingtwo:

[Icecream]

I am tempted to look at the title of the last chapter in Harry Potter, but i am not going to. I know what it will probably be about and I don't want to spoil it. The titles give too much away.

[marbles]

I used to read the last few lines/page of a book when I was a lot younger but I found it totally ruined it for me. I'd end up spending the rest of the book trying to work out how it got to those last lines...

If I wasn't enjoying a book, i.e. it was a real struggle to see if it would pick up, I'd just give up reading it as, by that point, I didn't care how it ended!