Bookish Musings - Amanda's a Naughty Reader.. She Cheats

Bookish Musings is a feature here at Beautiful Bookish Butterflies that allows one of us to share our thoughts and opinions, talk and discuss things happening in the book and blogging community or share a personal book related issue we have. Today, Amanda is talking about her reading methods a little more. Of course, she reads like any other normal person does, except, she does something other people might do. She's a little weird, you may begin to dislike her. For this, she apologises.

I'm a naughty reader. Sometimes, I do the one thing most readers punish people for doing. It's a shocking confession, something that may cause you all to dislike or even hate me for me, but sometimes, just sometimes, I do an awful thing, the dreaded thing, a shocking thing.. I read the last few pages of a book before I've finished it..


Please don't try and kill me, I'm sorry, I just can't help it. I'm inpatient, I can't wait, I need to know whether thing will be better or worse and sometimes, the ending actually encourages me to read a book I may have dismissed otherwise, but it's a shocking confession none the less. Now, I guess the big questions is, why do I do it? Erm, well, actually, there's a number of reasons why I like to read the last page or two of a novel before I finish it and while some of these reason may be excusable, you will no doubt still dislike me for it, but here goes.

1. I Need To Know Whether To Continue: This is possibly the biggest reason why I will read the last few pages of a book before I've finished it, because lets be honest, how many times have you read a book only to find that the ending stinks and that it didn't get better? Probably a handful right? I don't tend to make that mistake often because of this weird crazy habit. If the last few pages sound rubbish, chances are, the book didn't improve, it really just carried on it's spiral, but sometimes, for example, the most recent of reads to fall victim to this habit, Noughts and Crosses, it actually encourages me to continue the book, (I will at some point, promise) because I wonder 'how the hell does that end up happening?', 'really, that's how she ends it, why?' and sometimes even 'woah there, woah..' and this can result in me finishing books that prove to be worthwhile. I don't do this with all books, I definitely didn't do it with We Were Liars or The Hunger Games, neither have I done it with Percy Jackson or Skulduggery, but I do use the habit when I'm a little, unsure continuing or not and 9 times out 10, it helps.
   
   


2. I Need A Positive Ending: This kind of compliments, if you could call it that, my bad habit of searching for spoilers because sometimes, I just need to know that everything will be fine, then I can read these books, and enjoy the reading and not feel all the negative emotions like 'OMG are they going to die?' or 'I can't finish it, it's too sad' because I know things will be good, I know it'll end well and all that pain will be worth it. I think some good recent examples of this were Into the Still Blue and Shadow Kiss. When it came down to Into the Still Blue, I was struggling to get into it, so it was both a mixture of reason one and this one, but after I read those last pages, I was pleased that I would get my happy ending, or at least, most of one, and it gave me the encouragement I needed to continue. I didn't spoil myself, not really, but it helped. Same goes for Shadow Kiss, things were looking doom and gloom and I wasn't enjoying much, and I already knew about Dimitri anyway, I mean, come on, how could I NOT know?, so I read the last few pages and let me tell you, that line - '..of the kill the man I love..', it had me sold, I pushed through and continued the series. Damn, that series..
   
   


3. I Lack Patience: This is one of the worst reasons for this terrible habit, but honestly, I'm so impatient it's scary. I can't read through 500+ pages for you tell me something I can skip to and read in five minutes, you can't, it's unfair, it's illogical, it's- probably very normal for all of you, but once again, this is part of my spoiler issue. This happened with Dark Days and Darquese; I mean, I'd guessed it as much, but I read the final pages of that book before reaching half way, merely because I was impatient, I didn't need to know the ending for happiness, I was certain I would continuing, I just couldn't wait. I think I've done this a few times.. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was another one, I just- how can you expect me wait for the ending of that, really?! Funny fact, when I read Deathly Hallows, I actually read the final third, then the first third, then second and then third again, just because I couldn't wait. Yes, it made it a little confusing but man was I happy with that ending, all the points to Rowling!
   
   


4. Because It's Just There: Tell me something, have you ever not been tempted to just flip to the back and read the ending you've finally been waiting for, have you? Because I have, of course you have, hence the post Amanda, jeez.., and it's really hard to resist. It's literally there, right there, in your hands, you literally just have to move your hands a little and read, it's that easy, it's there, how do you resist? I struggle, honestly, it's just so tempting! I did manage to resist reading the end of Dying of the Light, jesus, that series killed me, but generally, like Sweet Reckoning, or The Night Circus, I just couldn't and I read it and yes, it did change the ending, but it didn't change my feelings. I still read the book, I just, cheated a little..
   
   

Soooo, I'm confessing a lot these day, how do you feel about that one? Scary right, like, the ending is the most important part.. meh, it's what I do, but how do you feel about this? Have you ever sneaked a peak at the end before you've read, did it change your feelings? Do you hate me and think I'm utterly bonkers? Leave me your thoughts..