Saturday 23 October 2010

My public pledge with books

I have a very bad habit when it comes to book. It isn't bending the spine (although I do that). It isn't turning over a page corner (yup, I do that too!). It is...

....drum roll...

Reading the last part of the book shortly after starting it.

For the record, I don't read the entire last chapter. Once I establish who my favourite character is, I skim read the last few pages to see if they survive (they usually do since I love the protagonists the best).

In my defence, I do this if life is giving me lemons because some days I want a happy ending.

It has been drawn to my attention, thank you to Cat Clarke, Sarah of Sarah's Book Reviews and Lynsey of UK Book Tours that this is not a good thing to do.

So much so that Cat said she would be very angry at me if I do that to her book. Which somehow got me pretty scared. I like Cat. She's bubbly, funny, loves books and is a brilliant cheerleader in whatever I do. I don't want to get her mad.

I then realised that perhaps although I thought I had good reasons for doing this, they aren't good reasons at all. I mean, I'm a book reviewer. I review books. How is it fair that I peek at the end, and thus denying myself the experience that most, good, readers have? 


I don't peek to the end of a film. I don't skip to the last episode of an anime series to see what happens. Or do I? For every anime I watch, I um look online to see what happens. Sometimes I'm glad, especially in one anime (yet to finish) where my favourite character dies before the end.

I need to break this habit! So, this is my public pledge that I, Nayuleska of Nayu's Reading Corner, will no longer look at the end of a book before I naturally get there.

*squirms*

This is unbelievably hard. I've been doing this for so long.

My friends are trying to come up with a way to ensure that I stick with this pledge. I know I will. Because really I've been cheating.

Suggestions to make sure I do stick with it are welcome. And I made this public for a reason.

So, I do apologise to everyone whose books I have peeked at the end first. I still loved the end when I reached it! I always had fun trying to work out how the characters would reach the end in that state. I was usually surprised at the twists in the story.

Thank you for listening to my pledge and apology. I am a reformed reviewer!

*fingers shake at the attempt to not turn over the last few pages*

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Great pledge Nayu :o) I still can't believe you used to do that LOL. I've not come up with a good plan for stopping you yet but hopefully now you've made a public declaration it will help you remain strong. It will be interesting to see how different you find your reading experience doing this!

Nayuleska said...

Thank's Sarah!

I've done it for years. Yes, the public pledge is the best pledge.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Aww, good luck! That is a difficult pledge, but I believe you'll be happy in the long run for it. :)

Nayuleska said...

Thanks Michelle! I'll be posting a following post soon. It is quite frustrating at times, but makes everything more exciting.