Point, from Natasha:
I’m a weird reader; I refuse to read anything—I mean, ANYTHING—about a book until it’s in my hands. Only for series that have a new book coming out, I don’t read about them. I steer clear of author websites, Goodreads, Amazon and I even go as far as not reading the back blurb on the book even when it’s in my hand. If the previous book has a “Coming Soon” in it, I close the book and put it away. I don’t want a sneak peek, damnit, I want the whole book! Stop teasing me with it, gimmie gimmie NOOOOW.
I like the surprise; I mean, I already know the character so why do I want to be teased with what’s going to happen? I’d like to read it for myself and I don’t want to spend months after reading a “Coming Soon” dying to know what the next chapter is.
This concept has served me well, but drives my fellow bloggers insane because I do the equivalent of plugging my ears and singing “La La La” when they push information on me. With Chloe Neill’s Hard Bitten, I may have screamed at a fellow blogger to stop talking to me. She was tweeting to me about it, while I was reading it! I don’t want to know how anyone felt about it!!! Leave me in the little bubble I have, please?
I was one of the lone few who held out and refused to even touch Karen Marie Moning’s Dreamfever because I was told there was a cliffhanger ending. I waited until the week before Shadowfever came out to read it. That was a brilliant idea (if I do say so myself) because that was one hell of an ending.
I know I’m weird, but I like the element of surprise, and sometimes I feel the back blurbs give way too much information away. So I’ll continue to be surprised, at least until someone else tries to tell me they can’t believe what happened in So and So’s book. Then you’ll hear me yell.
Counterpoint, from Myretta:
Hi. My name is Myretta Robens and I'm an end-reader. People look askance when I admit this. Right, Natasha? And yet I am unrepentant. Don't get me wrong. I don't open a book and turn immediately to the final chapter. Good heavens, I'm not that crass. No, I'm more gentle than that. I start at the beginning, just as I should. I like beginnings. I like getting to know the characters. I want to learn if I'm going to like them and I want to see what kind of trouble they're going to get themselves into.
I'll read two or three chapters—sometimes more—and then, something dire will happen. The heroine will be abducted. The hero will be imprisoned. The hero and heroine will be separated by an evil uncle or they'll have a falling out and each go his/her own way. And I just can't stand it. Although I know they'll be together in the final chapter, I need to console myself. I need to take a little break from the tension and look ahead to happier times.
Sometimes, when there has been a lot of pre-publication discussion about a book (Yes, Natasha, I eat up all that pre-pub chat on a long-awaited book AND read the back cover blurb), I jump right to the end. I'm one of those people who read the epilogue to J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows before I even started the first chapter. I mean, I already knew these characters, had known them for years. Before I started the last book, I damn well wanted to know if Harry, Ron and Hermione were still going to be around at the end. So there!
So, while I guess I can understand those peculiar readers (*ahem*) who don't want to know anything before it happens, I'm afraid I can't relate. Give me the Happily Every After and give it to me as soon as possible.
Book on the beach image by LWY via Flickr
Myretta Robens, The Republic of Pemberley
Natasha Carty reviews Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy on her website Wicked Little Pixie and lives in Toronto, Canada, with her cat, Seamus.
