Sunday, September 25, 2011

Reading Challenge: Spoiler Point of View

I'm going to be honest here.  I don't like surprises:  good surprises or bad surprises.

If you have a good surprise for me then TELL ME!  Let me get excited too?  The anticipation of a GREAT THING is REALLY FUN!  You are denying me a better experience by keeping something great a secret from me.  I cannot think of any surprise that is best kept as a secret.  It is always better to know ahead of time... and get excited about the upcoming fun!

You should also know that I do not like surprise book endings.  Authors who string you along and feed you bits and crumbs and then slam a surprise ending on me infuriate me!  You wanna know something?  {{you know, since we are being brutally henst here}}  I read the endings to Nancy Drew books before I read the book.  I have been doing this for YEARS!

Alas, there is a new study out that suggests that Spoilers Don’t Ruin A Story, They Make It Even Better
University of California, San Diego psychologists Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt say in a study published in Psychological Science that knowing the ending of a book before starting it may enhance the reading experience.
I think this goes for ALL aspects of story telling.  You know when you are telling someone a story and they are like, "get to the point"?  Well, I {{very recently}} started telling the end of the story first... so that the people I am talking to have a frame of reference as I share my experience. 

For example, let's say that I do something and my boss totally blows up at me about it.

I could either say:

"I did all of these things {{enter long story here}} and then guess what -- my boss blew up at me." 

or

"My boss blew up at me because I did {{enter long story here}}." 

See the difference?  For me, there is a clear difference.  Long boring story about your day is just a long boring story.  It is gets interesting because your boss blew up at you.  Give me that part in the beginning... mkay?  "What?  Your boss totally blew up at you today?  What could you possibly have done?  This MUST be a good story!"

How does this apply to books?

Well, now when I read a book I go online and google "{{enter book title here}} spoiler" and read the spoiler.  This makes the books so much better!

I just read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter.  Yes, I read the spoilers ahead of time. 


Do you think that reading spoilers
enhances or ruins a book/movie?


Here is my challenge for you:  Read the spoilers before you start your next book.  Let me know what you think?

3 comments:

ms. mindless said...

I ALWAYS read spoilers. I have to know what is going to happen! Although, when I read the Hunger Games trilogy, I did not want any spoilers.

SusieQ said...

I never heard of spoilers so just looked at some of them.. I would NEVER read one ahead of time! I won't even watch the movie until after I read the book it is based on.. I want the story to unfold, page by page...

Fairy Grandmother said...

I have never heard of spoilers either...but I will try it...btw how was the book...I am looking for a new read.