# Looking at how the story ends (half way through the story)



## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

*I am guilty of being an impatient reader sometimes. I can't resist the urge to see how the story is going to end.*

       

Vianka Van Bokkem


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## Glenn Bullion (Sep 28, 2010)

I have done this, guiltily so.

I will typically do this when I'm reading a book and it starts to drag a little, and I wonder "Is it worth finishing?"  So I'll check out the end    If it's solid, I'll continue.

Terrible, I know.


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## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

glennbullion said:


> I have done this, guiltily so.
> 
> I will typically do this is I'm reading a book and it starts to drag a little, and I wonder "Is it worth finishing?" So I'll check out the end  If it's solid, I'll continue.
> 
> Terrible, I know.


Sounds very familiar! It's good to know somebody else can relate 

Vianka


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## theraven (Dec 30, 2009)

I've done that with paperbacks and hardback books but not with an ebook yet. Probably I don't know how to quickly get to the end of a book on the Kindle. Now if I did ...


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## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

theraven said:


> I've done that with paperbacks and hardback books but not with an ebook yet. Probably I don't know how to quickly get to the end of a book on the Kindle. Now if I did ...


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

I think the Kindle has pretty much cured me of doing this since it isn't as easy now, which is probably a good thing.


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## Margaret (Jan 1, 2010)

MLPMom said:


> I think the Kindle has pretty much cured me of doing this since it isn't as easy now, which is probably a good thing.


The same goes for me.


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## Laurensaga (Sep 29, 2010)

I guess I won't tell you guys how to skip to the end quickly on the Kindle . 

I don't normally skip to the end. If the book starts to drag I skip forward to the next chapter or a few pages to see if there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 
If I am impatient to see how a book will end, I will usually skip everything else. Like Bathroom breaks, eating, drinking, sleeping. You know the things that don't really matter to much.


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## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

I have been known to skip to the end if the story is dragging for me or if a character becomes intolerable. But it's only to see how the author resolves the situation. Once I know the ending, I never go back and read any further.
L.J.


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## S.L. Baum (Jul 21, 2010)

My sister has always done this and it cracks me up (totally makes me smile).
She likes to read the first CH or 2 then she reads the last CH... if it is still interesting then she might read a bit in the middle... then she'll go back to where she left off in the beginning and finish the rest of the book.  She has somehow managed to continue this practice with her eReader.  It is so completely her!!


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

I can never resist spoilers.  As a result, my measure of a good book (or movie, TV series, etc) is how it manages everything that goes on between plot points.  And really, if the only method a book uses to hold my attention is plot twists, I lose interest anyway.


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## 4Katie (Jun 27, 2009)

I would never look ahead. 

Everything must be done it the correct order, you know.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Yes, I skip to the end when I get worried about the characters. I have to make sure they're okay even though I _know _they are.

Plus, at my age, I need to find out what happens before it's too late.


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## 1131 (Dec 18, 2008)

half way through the story...Why do you wait so long? I read like S.L. Baum's sister almost all the time.



theraven said:


> I've done that with paperbacks and hardback books but not with an ebook yet. Probably I don't know how to quickly get to the end of a book on the Kindle. Now if I did ...


OK, here are the instructions. First bookmark your spot then
1. If your book has a table of contents go to it, find the last chapter and start paging. When you are ready to resume the "normal" reading process, hit back until you get to where you were or go to your bookmark
2. Alternate method (which is really my preferred method). Go to the last location and start paging backwards. When you are ready to resume the forward reading method, hit back until you get to where you left off or go to your bookmark. 
I call this reading Memento style, for the movie.

Sometimes I pick a topic or character and search then start reading in random places. There are more ways to do this, you just have to try some out.

It is really much easier to read this way on a Kindle then a paper book. I keep loosing my bookmark in a paper book.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

imallbs said:


> half way through the story...Why do you wait so long? I read like S.L. Baum's sister almost all the time.
> OK, here are the instructions. First bookmark your spot then
> 1. If your book has a table of contents go to it, find the last chapter and start paging. When you are ready to resume the "normal" reading process, hit back until you get to where you were or go to your bookmark
> 2. Alternate method (which is really my preferred method). Go to the last location and start paging backwards. When you are ready to resume the forward reading method, hit back until you get to where you left off or go to your bookmark.
> ...


I use a variation of method #2. I pick "go to location" and go about 500 locations before the last one. Then when I'm finished, back to the bookmark.


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## Robert Tell Author (Aug 17, 2010)

How to ruin a good book! Yes, I have skipped to the end of a book once or twice when the author created so much suspense that I couldn't wait to get to the end the slow way. I have to say that every time I've done this I've actually ruined the enjoyment of the book for myself. There's no quick way to cook a roast to get the best results. Everything else in my life is so rushed. Let me savor a good book the way the author wanted me to. Patience! Patience! Patience!


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

imallbs said:


> I call this reading Memento style, for the movie.


    I do this all the time, and now you've given me a name for it! Thank you!


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## 4Katie (Jun 27, 2009)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Yes, I skip to the end when I get worried about the characters. I have to make sure they're okay even though I _know _they are.
> 
> Plus, at my age, I need to find out what happens before it's too late.


lol!


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## Sandra Edwards (May 10, 2010)

I've been known to cheat...one or two times. Okay, well maybe three. *snort*

Sometimes I like to know where I'm headed before I make the journey


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## kindleworm (Aug 24, 2010)

When reading hardcovers and paperbacks, I find myself cheating and peaking at the endings, but have never done this with my Kindle, and, I don't want to know how to do it.


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## Guest (Nov 4, 2010)

kindleworm said:


> When reading hardcovers and paperbacks, I find myself cheating and peaking at the endings, but have never done this with my Kindle, and, I don't want to know how to do it.


Oh, it's so easy to do though. All you have to do is:


Spoiler



you wouldn't be looking here if you didn't want to know! But I'm not going to tell you. Skipping to the end of the book is baaaaaaaad!


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

Gertie Kindle 'a/k/a Margaret Lake' said:


> Plus, at my age, I need to find out what happens before it's too late.


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## ClickNextPage (Oct 15, 2009)

I've never done it.  My mom told me I couldn't have dessert before I finished my vegetables.


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## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

ClickNextPage said:


> I've never done it. My mom told me I couldn't have dessert before I finished my vegetables.


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## EliRey (Sep 8, 2010)

I did this with Twilight but only because my stubbornness about not reading Vampire novels or paranormal in general I refused to jump on the Twilight bandwagon. Finally one night I finished whatever book I was into, the next day was one of those lazy rainy Sundays perfect for reading and I had no book so I picked up my daughters copy of Twilight and thought, "lets check out what all the fuss is about" OMG I couldn't put it down! Then I was dying to see the movie so called hubby and asked him to bring home the movie (it had been out on DVD forever that's how long it took me to jump on it) so he got home before I was finished and was like "It's only a one day rental" So I _*had*_ to jump to the end. I was ALMOST done though.

Can y'all tell I still feel guilty about it? I couldn't just say yes I've done this. I had to explain my VERY good reason for doing so. I will NEVER do it again.   Typically if the book drags I just put it down, don't even bother reading the end. Oh and yes I did order all the other books in the series immediately and read them within a couple of weeks.


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## Kathelm (Sep 27, 2010)

I don't see why there's any cause for guilt, or any reason to say it's cheating.  There's so much more to a book than just the plot points.


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## 1131 (Dec 18, 2008)

Kathelm said:


> I don't see why there's any cause for guilt, or any reason to say it's cheating.  There's so much more to a book than just the plot points.


I agree. I don't consider it cheating or baaaaaaad and I don't have any guilt over reading the end (or the middle or page 74) before the other parts of the story. It is my reading experience and I'll have it my way, thank you. 
I just started a new book and I'm off to see how it ends.


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## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

I had a good friend & neighbor who ALWAYS read the last three pages of any book before she started it..... drove me crazy!!!  I absolutely never read the end or even look ahead.... I have to go through word by word... the way it is written.... no peeking for me.  For others.... that's just fine.... I just can't do it!


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## Andra (Nov 19, 2008)

I read ahead sometimes. It's usually because I need to get to sleep and I'm too far from the end of the book to finish in 10 minutes.


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## Luke King (Nov 4, 2010)

I don't even read the blurb if I can avoid it. There's no way I want to know what happens before I get there. If a book drags and I lose interest, I might sometimes look at the end, but only because I know I'm giving up on it altogether.


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## joanhallhovey (Nov 7, 2010)

I would never do such a thing, (I'm lying, I did once when the story dragged terribly and I wanted to know how it turned out) it's seems such a betrayal to the author.  But maybe that's because I'm a writer and I know the hard work it takes getting there.  I did have any author friend, however, (no long with us), who she used to do that and I never understood it.  I was always appalled.  lol  She laughed at me, too.  She felt no responsible to the author at all.  If her attention wasn't grabbed and held fast from the first paragraph, she considered herself under no obligation whatever to read the whole book just to find out what happened.


Happy Reading!


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

You people are sick!   I could never do this.  After I've bought a book, I won't even read the blurb after I've decided to start reading the book.  I never read spoilers or try to figure out what my presents are either.  I like surprises!


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## Daniel Pyle (Aug 13, 2010)

drenfrow said:


> You people are sick!  I could never do this. After I've bought a book, I won't even read the blurb after I've decided to start reading the book. I never read spoilers or try to figure out what my presents are either. I like surprises!


I'm with you. I never, ever, ever read ahead. I don't even look at the bottom of a page until I get there naturally, let alone the end of the book. I like to know as little as possible about the story going in. If I know too much about what's going to happen, I start to notice all the mechanics (foreshadowing, misdirection, etc.) and don't have nearly as much fun reading.


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## drenfrow (Jan 27, 2010)

Daniel Pyle said:


> I don't even look at the bottom of a page until I get there naturally, let alone the end of the book.


Yes! I have actually covered up the bottom of a page as I was reading when something exciting was about to happen so that I wouldn't inadvertently see it.


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## sabinfire (Nov 11, 2010)

I could never look ahead.  I don't even like to catch glimpses of what might be happening on the next page before I get there.  I guess the only thing I'm guilty of is speed-reading through dull or slow passages so I can get somewhere else a little faster, but I'm sure nearly everyone does this.


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## ClickNextPage (Oct 15, 2009)

Daniel Pyle said:


> If I know too much about what's going to happen, I start to notice all the mechanics (foreshadowing, misdirection, etc.) and don't have nearly as much fun reading.


Re noticing the mechanics, I'm having this problem right now, but it's not related to reading the ending. Just went through some editing on two different projects, and when I pleasure read, I can't seem to get my copy editor's hat off. GRRRR!!!


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## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

I may skip to the end if I'm bored or frustrated with the story, but curious to see how the author concluded it. But once I read the end, I move on. Without that element of suspense, I wouldn't enjoy the story.
L.J.


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## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

If the book starts losing or frustrating me in the middle, I will skip ahead. If the ending looks good, I'll keep reading. If it doesn't, I don't waste any more time. I never think of it as cheating, because if I get back into the book in the next chapter or so I'm not dwelling on what I read ahead to. (Spoilers  for a movie or book never spoiled anything for me: they either made me want to watch/read it more, or want to not bother if I was feeling wishy-washy.)


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## Robert Tell Author (Aug 17, 2010)

I believe that there is more to a good read than simply plot, many layers including theme, character development, action, dialogue, supporting facts, linguistic artistry, etc., etc. To look ahead to the end prematurely gives to plot a dominance over these other equally valid facets and cheats the one doing it out of the enjoyment to be had from immersing in these things.


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## AuthorDanielSpringer (Nov 23, 2010)

Great topic!

I *never* read ahead. I will catch my wife turning the pages ahead to see where the current chapter breaks and I cannot force myself to even do that. I like to read and have written suspense/thrillers and skipping around just ruins the story for me.

Dan


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## WestofMars (Sep 16, 2009)

The only time I do is when I'm ready to put it aside anyway. Otherwise, the suspense is part of the fun. Except for that one time I cheated with a book club book last year...


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## Robert Tell Author (Aug 17, 2010)

It's an interesting topic. As an author, I work hard to make my fiction entertaining enough so readers will want to read every word. If readers skip ahead or jump to the end, I would feel that I failed in this goal. On the other hand, as a reader myself, I sometimes jump ahead when the the action gets slow or the prose gets too dull. I wouldn't do this with a "page turner."


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## Jon King (Sep 10, 2010)

I won't do this.  It does feel like you're betraying the author...I mean, he/she wrote the book in that order for a reason, right?

It's like peeking behind stage at a magician's performance.  Sure, you've satisfied your curiosity, but the magic is gone, which presumably is why you're there in the first place.


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## PraiseGod13 (Oct 27, 2008)

I just recently ruined a story for myself.  I was reading Stephen King's Full Dark, No Stars which has 4 novellas/short stories in it.  I couldn't afford the Kindle version so was reading a DTB from the library... and wanted to put a bookmark at the end of the first story/beginning of the second story.... and when I found the last page of the first story... it had a total spoiler.  AARRGGHH!  I don't know how those who like to read the ending prematurely stand it.... but I do love it that we're all different.


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## Miriam Minger (Nov 27, 2010)

Nope, never read the end first--though I have written the ending of a novel first.  Go figure.  

Miriam


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

I've definitely done this because the suspense was killing me!  Really, all I need to know in situations like that is if the character I'm reading about lives or dies.  Not too long ago, when I finished the second installment of Charlie Huston's "Hank Thompson Trilogy" (the second book is called "Six Bad Things"), I knew that I wasn't going to read the third book right away, but I wanted to know if the main character lived or died, so I looked at the last chapter of the final book, "A Dangerous Man."  I finally finished this third book last week and frankly, knowing how it turned out gave me a peace of mind to read it and enjoy it.  Otherwise I would just been inhaling it, flipping pages, skipping paragraphs, just to see if the guy survived the ordeal.


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## VivianMarie (Jan 9, 2011)

imallbs said:


> I agree. I don't consider it cheating or baaaaaaad and I don't have any guilt over reading the end (or the middle or page 74) before the other parts of the story. It is my reading experience and I'll have it my way, thank you.
> I just started a new book and I'm off to see how it ends.


    Awesome. Hope it "starts out" good! 

I like to be prepared--I want to know what's going to happen before I get too emotionally invested in the characters. If I know a character is going to die, that doesn't stop me from loving them, I'll just be prepared for it. If there's a love triangle, I know who to root for so I'm not HORRIBLY disappointed (and possibly angry!) at the end. I definitely read the end of books all the time! I think that's one of my favorite parts about reviews on Amazon--I already know what I'm getting myself into when I start reading the book. I don't care if other people liked it... I just want to know more about the book.


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## Vianka Van Bokkem (Aug 26, 2010)

*For sharing your experiences!*

Vianka Van Bokkem


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## M.C. Walker (Sep 19, 2010)

I like to see how things unfold.


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## beckyj20 (Jun 12, 2010)

I looked ahead once during Pride and Prejudice just to see if a certain character ever came back. Well the one page I skipped to completely spoiled the rest of the book for me! So I told myself I would never to do that again. Then I started reading series and I had to know what happened so I would look at the description of the next book. Well of course that spoils things! lol So now the only thing I allow myself to do is skim the rest of the page Im on.


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