[ * ‘Bloggy’ meaning something that’s basically useless, but which the author thinks people might like to read.** ]

[ ** The author might be wrong. ]

I have this habit – I always check out the end of a book or a movie about 30 pages/15 minutes into it. No, it isn’t like the thing many mystery readers do, at least not entirely, because I don’t generally read mystery.

There are two reasons for what I do. One is that if the book has a suspense or a tension element in it, I like to get it out of the way before I read the book. If I don’t, then I would be sorely tempted to read the book faster, simply to find out what happens, and, in doing so, I would lose more or less everything apart from that element. And if, after I read the end, I don’t like the book anymore (if, that is, the suspense element is the only good thing in the whole book), then I probably wouldn’t have liked the book anyway.

The other reason is much more fulfilling. Quite a few of the books I read are about characters and situations, rather than story, if you know what I mean. And the end of these books, I find, is mostly (seemingly) unrelated to the beginning, or sometimes very similar to the beginning. Once I know the beginning and the end, I take a great deal of pleasure in finding out how the characters got there, and pausing once in a while to see if we’re now one step closer, or perhaps further, than I thought we would be.

Call me a kook.***

[ *** No, I don’t mean ask a kook to meet me or anything. I mean you should say I am a kook. Say it. Say it! Say it? Okay, I will now stop because things are getting too kinky for my blog. Mail me if you would like to continue. ]