SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Tweet by Tasha Suri:

"My mum just told me she enjoyed "what she read" of a particular book, and when I asked what she meant she gave me the most terrifying clarification.

Apparently she often reads books from the middle to the end, THEN reads the beginning?!"

https://twitter.com/tashadrinkstea/st...

People in the thread then go on saying how some of them also do this, or only read the beginning and the end, not the middle, or other mindboggliness. (Totally a word.) I have questions!

I'd like to hear from people who do not read like normal humans (ie. beginning at the beginning and reading through in a linear fashion, unless it's a weirdo book that's meant to be read in unconventional ways.)

HOW do you read books?
WHY do you do this?!
WHAT is wrong with you??!!
WHO gave you permission?
WHEN are you going to stop and start reading the correct way?

(I knew some people read the end first, which also boggles my mind in a big way, but that's at least something I can kind of wrap my brain around if I try very, very hard.)

When I was a kid I would sometimes read the end of a book because I was impatient.
I sometimes listen all over the place on an audiobook because I fell asleep at parts. This is not ideal or enjoyable because I personally hate being confused but I think some people enjoy that mystery of feeling lost in a story which is why in medias res and unreliable narrators are popular.

when I was much younger, I would often look at the end of the book because I hated sad stories and wanted to make sure there was a happy ending.

the only "books" I read in the bounce around method are collected works, especially the Delphi ones, because I might want to read a certain book in the collection before another or to totally skip one. Short story anthologies can be read in this manner too.

I sometimes look at the end and read a couple of sentences if it's a really suspense book.
Also, I hate books that start with the end. Then I go to the end to see that it ends very different.
If it's a sad story, I go to the end of the book to see if it would come okay or not. If not, then I'm angry at myself that I've peeked.

I read beginning to end, skip nothing, and never look ahead other than to see how many pages left in a chapter. The first time I read a short story collection I read them in order, but when I revisit, I often read only one or two and don't worry about where in the book they fall.

I usually read beginning to end but there are a couple of exceptions. If it's a book that keeps getting bleaker as I go along I sometimes look at a few lines on the final page to see if this carries through to the end. If I get to the point where I'm doing this I'm probably going to abandon the book anyway but perhaps I'll see something at the end that changes my mind.

The other exception is for books with multiple widely disparate points of view. If I find myself invested in one character and not the others (happens more often than I'd like) I may read just that character's story through to the end. This is more likely with paper books and long reading sessions.

I begin at the beginning and end at the end!

This topic header! I never expected to see the like ;). I'm a strictly beginning-to-end reader.

i start by reading only the first paragraph on odd numbered pages. if the story still makes sense when I do that, i dnf it

jk. the only books i read back to getting are manga

I start at the beginning and read to the end. When I was young sometimes I’d read the end but haven’t done that for over 40 years.

Now that I think about it, one of my sisters used to read the last page first.

Almost always beginning to end. The only exceptions I can think of are that sometimes I will flip to the end of a book I'm about to dnf. And I only read the Nina parts of King of Scars - I'd previously read Six of Crows but not Shadow and Bone and I didn't care about the characters that came from the latter series. This isn't something I'd usually do, though, even for multi-POV books.

I mostly read like a normal human, at least when it comes to the book as a whole. I start at the cover page and move sequentially through the pages from beginning to end. I used to even skim the copyright page, until the day a copyright page spoiled me for Cloud Atlas. Now I ignore them if they’re at the beginning of the book, except for grabbing the ISBN # and publication date to log into my database.

I also usually save introductions until after I’ve finished the book, especially if I’m reading a classic, but I think that’s pretty normal behavior for people who hate spoilers? Too often the “introducer” seems to think that if a book is old, then everybody already knows the story and so they can spoil it freely with all their clever observations about key plot points. I guess we’re supposed to be born with knowledge of the classics and never have to read them for the first time? If so, I was a defective baby.

There was another thread here a few years back in which I learned that a lot of people deliberately skip prologues, which was also weird to me. I guess some prologues are pretty skippable in retrospect, but a lot of them provide context that makes the main story more meaningful, and you don't know which is which until you read the book.

The only thing I can think of that I do that might be a little weird is that I quickly glance over an entire page when I turn to a new page before I start reading properly from top to bottom. I’m not always conscious of doing it, and I don’t think I do it all the time, but I often find myself already knowing what happens further down a page while I’m reading. And there have been a few times when I've caught something startling during that scan and had to forcibly take control of my eyes and put them back at the top of the page rather than continuing my reading from the thing that caught my eye. But I’m not sure that’s really unusual. That’s how I intentionally read work e-mails, anyway. With e-mails, especially since many of them are poorly written or poorly organized, it helps to quickly get the context of what they’re talking about first and then the individual sentences all make more sense. Plus a quick scan allows me to determine its priority if I’m busy.

Mostly beginning to the end, but depending on the book I actually do skip to the last / last few pages to see what happens in the end. And I might do this multiple times, not just once. I do this with books that I feel I'm stuck with to see if the ending is worth the effort of reading the whole book properly OR if I read only the parts that feel important properly and skim the rest OR dnf the whole thing.

I'm also the type of person that 98% surely reads only the first book of the series and never touches the rest of it or reads them after a very long period of time. This is the case with trilogies and longer series, duologies I consider to finish only if the first book is worth it. I really prefer standalone books, but these days everyone writes series, so that's why. When I was younger, I read everything from the same series, if it was easily avaiable to me (Dragonlance f.ex.). I properly learned (meaning not only from school books and Seventeen magazine) to read in English from HP-series, because I wasn't patient enough to wait the translation of book 5 and what came after.

I always read a novel start to finish. I admit that the quality of my attention may vary. If I’ve decided I don’t care about anything except how the plot turns out, which does happen, I may end up practically skimming. If I decide I’m not interested enough in a book to read it through with some level of attention, I abandon it.

I read several books in different genres at the same time.

If one book reaches a rough patch or starts to become draggy, I switch to a different one of a different genre to tide me over and read it until that book reaches a stressful scene OR the story starts to drag again. I go back to the first book or switch to another one again. And repeat.

No matter how bad a book is, I try my best to finish it til the end. I know it’s a little ridiculous but I feel like it’s my due diligence to actually finish books that I’ve purchased and started.

I usually end up reading and finishing 5 books around the same time because of this habit OOPS. I’ve been in a 2 year book slump and have resumed reading again recently. Decided to change my ways and stick to reading one book at a time, until I get to the hard to read novels (aka the classics!)

Like some others, I read more than one book at a time, for various reasons--I started doing this as a child.

FICTION vs NONFICTION :)

Fiction:
IN PRINT
For the majority of my life I read this from the beginning to the end with no peeking. I also would finish virtually ever book I ever started even if I didn't like it. During this phase, the only time I skipped anything was during that long speech in Atlas Shrugged.

AC (After Children) I usually start a book and then peek at the end to see if I want to keep reading it. Real Life is full of things and I rarely want to read a novel that doesn't end well. But I might dnf a book even with an ending I like if I don't care for it, am bored with it, etc, although sometimes I still finish books I don't like for challenges or because I want to. I will skim over boring parts, skip sex scenes (I think I read them last in the Clan of the Cave Bear series, but--and this is personal--I don't care for reading about other people having sex, but as a teen I read them--I prefer it left to my imagination.)

Once, with the third installment of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series I started reading all of the woman's POV until the book was over and went back and read the other POV. I refuse to read the later ones because the original author's father and brother shafted the author's partner with rights and other things.

AUDIO:

If I only have the audiobook, beginning to end. If I have a print copy I often peek at the ending, and sometimes I'll alternate between the two formats.

NONFICTION

It depends on the type of nonfiction. Sometimes I'll start in the middle or anywhere I want to, and at times I'll just read the parts I am insterested in. With literary nonfiction or any nonfiction I am reading for a group read or a challenge, then I read the entire thing--for literary nonfiction I usually read it from the beginning to the end.

I always read books from front to back unless it’s really bad then sometimes I quit halfway through, and I also occasionally read the back page before actually reading the book.

I am also really bad at finishing series. There are so many trilogies of which I’ve only read the first. And it had nothing to do with whether I liked the book or not. I suppose that’s a different conversation, though.

DivaDiane wrote: "I am also really bad at finishing series. There are so many trilogies of which I’ve only read the first. And it had nothing to do with whether I liked the book or not. I suppose that’s a different ..."

I am very mixed when it comes to finishing series--the longer the series, the higher likelihood that I won't bother finishing it.

Odd pages first read through then even pages on re-read...





OK not really. Front to back with the very occasional peek at the end if I want.

Sunbee wrote: "I read several books in different genres at the same time.

If one book reaches a rough patch or starts to become draggy, I switch to a different one of a different genre to tide me over and read ..."

I didn't think in terms of reading multiple books at the same time from the original post, but I always read more than one book at a time

It's an absolutely linear process for me. Start at the beginning, carry on to the end, and no looking ahead.

And never more than one book at a time. I am shocked at how many are reading multiple books at once, and vaguely suspicious that they may be interdimensional beings with no regard for the sensible rules of time and space in our universe.

Lee wrote: "IAnd never more than one book at a time. I am shocked at how many are reading multiple books at once, and vaguely suspicious that they may be interdimensional beings with no regard for the sensible rules of time and space in our universe."

the key is totally different genres and story types. A Sci-Fi, a Fantasy and a Mystery work quite well together.

Lee wrote: "It's an absolutely linear process for me. Start at the beginning, carry on to the end, and no looking ahead.

And never more than one book at a time. I am shocked at how many are reading multiple b..."

You're not the first person I've "met" on GR who feels this way :)

For me it varies, but usually it's like CBRetriever, different genres and story types. For example, I usually want something light and/or funny if I am reading heavier fare. Right now I'm listening to an autobiography when driving, reading a plot-driven historical fiction with some humour, a literary, character-driven historical fiction and a romantic comedy.

But I read a number of other genres, so the mixes vary.

How do you read a series?
Reading Multiple Books at the Same Time

(I tried so hard not to but I can't help it.)

The generation of a plotline is a careful dripfeed of information to the reader and has to be read in proper order to have the impact the author intended.

That said, once a book is in the hands of the reader they can do what they damn well please, but if they read out of order they'll be missing out on an aspect of the full curated experience.

I always read beginning to end with one teensy exception. If a character I like apparently dies or disappears, I'll sometimes be suspicious about that, flip to a page towards the back, and scan for the character's name.

Oh, Adrian, I've done that! I guess I just called myself out, then. Here I thought I was a strict beginning to end person, too.

I’ve always had multiple books going. It would seem crazy to restrict myself to one at a time.

I also read more than one book at a time. I try to have a physical book, an ebook and an audiobook going at once. The different formats allow me to keep the plots separate.

I am definitely a beginning to end person. But also multiple books at the same time. Well, usually two - one on my Kindle, and one audiobook. But sometimes a paperback as well, and perhaps a TV series based on a book.

The key, for me, in reading multiple books simultaneously is format and type. But mostly format. Audio and print and sometimes dead-tree and ebook. I will also stick in a children’s book, poetry collection or part of a non-fiction book while novels are on-going.

I read beginning to end like a proper human. :)

But I had a VERY disturbing conversation with my best friend once. We were reading the same book and he happened to say "do you bother to read the epilogue? I never do." and I almost crashed my car. I berated him until he read the epilogue.

Adrian wrote: "The generation of a plotline is a careful dripfeed of information to the reader and has to be read in proper order to have the impact the author intended.

That said, once a book is in the hands of..."

That's a valid point, but not everyone reads novels for the same type of experience, and since there are only 7 basic plots after a while that part isn't as important for some people, although in a mystery and some books you can spoil things by starting in the middle. Some authors are rather clever and make sure the last chapter gives virtually nothing away to thwart people who read the ending early on, but if a reader enjoys a book, in the end it doesn't matter how they read it. It's rather like raising children--they don't do what we'd like all the time, either.

Last night I read an interesting bit about seeing a film that way--it's set in 1938 so the protagonist went to a movie that was half way through, watched to the happy ending and then watched the part she missed (at the part where things were going badly) and thought it mirrored real life better that way. It's in Rules of Civility by Amor Towles. Since the prologue is set years later, reading the epilogue before I was done in no way ruined any surprise in which man she married and loved, and since this is a character driven novel it didn't spoil any plot points.

PS when I was a child I went to see a film this way with my mother, and to this day I'm not sure why I went with her since I was rather young for it given some of the scenes. I may have done this more than once, but I have a few clear memories of this film due to being a bit too young (but I was not emotionally devastated, it just made a big impression on me.)

Kristin B. wrote: "I read beginning to end like a proper human. :)

But I had a VERY disturbing conversation with my best friend once. We were reading the same book and he happened to say "do you bother to read the e..."

:) By this logic, after I had children I was no longer human ;). Childless women, beware...

One of my closest childhood friends, and the one who first got me reading adult scif when we were 10, is a Kristin B, but that was with her surname, (she's K.A.B.), but when I see your name it reminds me of her :)

Karin wrote: "Last night I read an interesting bit about seeing a film that way--it's set in 1938 so the protagonist went to a movie that was half way through, watched to the happy ending and then watched the part she missed (at the part where things were going badly) and thought it mirrored real life better that way."

when I saw Ghandi, they had the reels in the wrong order, so all of a sudden we skipped to a protest (salt mine/operation I think) and then went on to Ghandi being shot, then went back to the skipped reel. Needless to say I was rather confused...

CBRetriever wrote: "Karin wrote: "Last night I read an interesting bit about seeing a film that way--it's set in 1938 so the protagonist went to a movie that was half way through, watched to the happy ending and then ..."

Yes, for sure, that would be confusing! It's not the same when you skip around in a nonfiction book and you know you're reading it out of order or you go to see a film and it's already part way through. When it's presented that way without you knowing it's a different kettle of fish, isn't it?

I never start novels half way through or films if I can help it because it's too easy to not know what's going on (unless it's something formulaic with movies.) I dislike it when family members join me and want to ask what's going on and it's not the commercial break as well, because if you aren't listening you can miss too much. This is why I almost always watch on demand, so if my family can interrupt and I don't miss anything.

Beginning to end, always, whether fiction or non-fiction. Like YKK I'll skip introductions to "classic" books and wait to read them until after I'm done, if then. A number of publishers put this kind of material at the end now, perhaps in acknowledgment that non-academics read these books and are looking for different things from the book than students would.

With longer fiction books in paper I've semi-recently gotten into the habit of skipping ahead to a random page and reading a few paragraphs before my current reading session. Maybe, along with participating in discussions of books I haven't read, that's gotten me less adamant about not wanting spoilers. In the long run, how we get there is more important to me than that X happens at all. Unless it's something really striking, I won't remember what I've read when I skip ahead anyhow, although I'll recognize it when I come to it again. One of the major setbacks of ebooks is being unable to do this, imo.

I do read one "B&W" and one audiobook concurrently most of the time, which isn't all that out of the ordinary. My reading habits are pretty boringly conventional. I'm keeping an eye out for the rest of you weirdos, though

Beth wrote: "Beginning to end, always, whether fiction or non-fiction. Like YKK I'll skip introductions to "classic" books and wait to read them until after I'm done, if then. A number of publishers put this ki..."

Yes, I skip the introductions to classic books because they give away far too many things.

I hate all spoilers for books, so even though I now read the ending early on to see if I want to finish it, I want to know NOTHING about the scenes in the middle. If I could just know "good ending" or "negative ending" I wouldn't have to read the ending at all if I don't want to invest the reading time to be disappointed (it's my leisure time, after all and I know that it's not the same as real life.)

CBRetriever wrote: "when I saw Ghandi, they had the reels in the wrong order, so all of a sudden we skipped to a protest (salt mine/operation I think) and then went on to Ghandi being shot, then went back to the skipped reel. Needless to say I was rather confused ..."

Digression from the topic (which is fascinating).

I don't recall if the film made it clear, even in the right order, but the issue over salt was a British tax on it, which was regressive (that is, it effected the poor more than the rich), and could not be evaded, since salt is necessary for health, and for preserving food.

The protest was to march to the coast and collect salt left by evaporating pools of brine, thereby violating the law. A symbolic gesture, of course, in line with Gandhi's non-violence.

But I wonder whether any British officials at any time had remembered that the gabelle, a similar French tax on salt, was one of the grievances leading to the French Revolution.

Ian wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "when I saw Ghandi, they had the reels in the wrong order, so all of a sudden we skipped to a protest (salt mine/operation I think) and then went on to Ghandi being shot, then we..."

That reminds me, I still need to go back to reading Salt: A World History! By now I'll have to start again. I have it on audible on my old, offline computer so may just get a copy of the book on paper.

This thread is a bit of an eye opener to me because I realised something about myself.

With non-fiction I do skip around a bunch. The only time I have read non-fiction in a linear fashion was when I listened to an audiobook and I hated it. I blame my education for this. Studying history and trying to read books in a linear fashion is a study in madness.

With fiction books, I normally give it around 30%. If it is a physical copy and it doesn't grab my attention I will skip the next 30% and then just read on until the end. Maybe I'll even skim the last 30%.
On a e-reader I DNF a lot faster because jumping around feels 'unnatural'. Don't ask me why. But if I don't I will have read the whole story from beginning to end in a linear fashion.

With audiobooks I will often reread parts because I fell asleep or lost attention and then I skipped too far back so I will just re-listen to whole parts because I'm too lazy to make the effort.

When I was younger I would sometime read the last few chapters first (so the last chapter first, then the chapter before that etc.) because I was uncertain if it was a happy end or not. But I don't do that anymore.

Ada wrote: "With audiobooks I will often reread parts because I fell asleep or lost attention and then I skipped too far back so I will just re-listen to whole parts because I'm too lazy to make the effort."

This happens to me a lot, too, especially since listening to an audiobook has been the only consistent way of getting my brain to wind down at bedtime for quite a while. I chuckled when I got a "marathoner" badge from my audiobook app for listening to 8 hours at one time, because I'd been awake for maybe ten minutes of those 8 hours.

Ian wrote: "The protest was to march to the coast and collect salt left by evaporating pools of brine, thereby violating the law. A symbolic gesture, of course, in line with Gandhi's non-violence."

I had no idea why the protest was going on while watching it, but I remember that the false "ending" showed reasons leading up to it

Anna wrote: "I'd like to hear from people who do not read like normal humans (ie. beginning at the beginning and reading through in a linear fashion, unless it's a weirdo book that's meant to be read in unconventional ways.)

HOW do you read books?
WHY do you do this?!
WHAT is wrong with you??!!
WHO gave you permission?
WHEN are you going to stop and start reading the correct way?"

Funny 😄 University turns us into abnormal humans then, when I had to read 4 to 5 different books (fiction and nonfiction) concurrently. At least that's what I remind myself when a shot of boredom hits me and I switch among 2 or 3 open books now (again fiction and nonfiction). What panders (I mean, accommodates) this habit is having audiobooks as well as digital and printed books.

I tend not to skip around in nonfiction unless it's an anthology. I'm also usually consistent about not DNF-ing nonfiction, especially if I have the audiobook.

But fiction gets different behavior. If it's a classic, I've learned not to read the preface or introduction until after I finish the book (why don't they understand the concept of spoilers?!). If the beginning doesn't grab me (I don't put a page limit), then I might skip to the ending to help me decide whether to plunge on. Depending on how interesting the ending is, I won't necessarily resume the spot in which I first stopped. I might read backward one chapter at a time to determine whether to continue with the book. Yes, one time, I had read the first 8 chapters, skipped to the end at ch 24 or so, and then read ch 23, ch 22, and so until I got back to ch 8. I don't do this frequently, this is only for the iffy fictions, which means that I had strayed from my preferred crime fiction or UF genres or it's a new to me author.

The concept of reading the chapters backwards like that just made my brain hurt ;)

I'm a as-defined-by-Anna normal reader. The only exceptions are audiobooks where I can't get my mind into the setting (usually happens with Space Opera/military SF). I phase out there and if I get into flow after some chapters I start again in the hope that the gathered familiarity gets me into the story from the beginning.

Like others already mentioned I also skip POVs (mainly in epic Fantasy) if I can't stand the characters. If I feel that I might miss something relevant to the plot I read the summary on some wiki page.

My wife and I generally read very different material, but occasionally something will cross over. One time she recommended a book to me and I asked her, “How does it end?” She replied, “You can’t ask that!”, so I said, “Well, I don’t want to read it if it has a bad ending.” Her reply was, “There’s a big explosion and everybody dies!”

Now think about that. How many books (and movies more so) end like that? It’s become a running joke in our family and it still cracks me up because it’s true!

If I need to read fast - I read by diagonals. Or watching the summary for the book. But I prefer to read slow and enjoy it.

Anna wrote: "Tweet by Tasha Suri:

"My mum just told me she enjoyed "what she read" of a particular book, and when I asked what she meant she gave me the most terrifying clarification.

Appare..."


HOW do you read books?
I start at the beginning and read through to the end.

WHY do you do this?!
Well, I thought that was the way you were supposed to read a book. Unless it is poetry, but I almost never read those.

WHAT is wrong with you??!!
I was born in Iowa, but there was nothing I could do about that. So I generally don't apologize for it.

WHO gave you permission?
I have been doing it so long that I am not sure anyone gave me permission. Or even if anyone did.

WHEN are you going to stop and start reading the correct way?"
Wait...that isn't the correct way?

LOL.