Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Are you prone to peek??


 I cannot understand the why or the philosophy behind peeking at the end of a book you are reading. I guess I am what you would call a “linear reader,” which simply means that I read a book from beginning to end; I don’t read the beginning of the next chapter, or skip pages, or read the beginning of the last chapter or the last sentence of the book. Nope! I just love the idea of being surprised by the end of the book. I like seeing how the plot evolves and changes and how the writer takes you to unexpected places or situations. I like to see the process as it happens while you read the book in its original order. But, if we are talking about poetry books, magazines or newspapers, well, I am all over the place - not “linear” at all! Some people read their newspapers or magazines back to front and others only read certain sections of them. Some others peek depending on the genre: romance, yes, but never mysteries.

The more I talk to people about the way they read, the more I learn about all the interesting things they do. A friend told me that he knows his favorite author often has a character in his books that has a great heart, great personality and is just a very good, nice person. But this is the person that often gets killed at the end. So, my friend stops one or two chapters before the ending and creates his own where the nice character continues alive and well. Interesting don’t you think??

Rereading is another thing I don’t ever consider, but people often do. They have a selection of books that they reread every couple of years or so, and in some cases, they even mark sentences or phrases with different colors, one for each year, so they can see what was important to them at a certain point in time.

At the end, no matter what you do, just enjoy your reading!! If you are looking for something to read during this summer, don't forget about our Good Reads page with tons of good information and ideas on what to read next. Have fun!

1 comment:

tim snead said...

I only peek if the book is dumb and I don't want to read the whole thing.