Forum: Author Hangout

I know many people who do that. Universally, the reason is "Because I don't want to spend the time reading a book for an ending I don't like."

I've done it a few times. Especially in the old days, before buying a book (which was a non-trivial cost for me) from an unknown author, after being burned a few times, and when the blurb didn't indicate what type of plot this was. I would sometimes read a page in the beginning, a page in the middle, and the last page to see if this seemed like a book to spend my money and time on.

I've used the same strategy when buying books. I haven't resorted to that with ePubs, yet.

That's not that different than my approach to reviewing a story (I story I've told before). I'll pick the book up, read a random sentence in the middle of a paragraph at a random page near the beginning of the story, then I'd read a random sentence at a random page a little further on, then I'd do it again, around the three-quarter mark.

If those three random sentences entrance me, I'd purchase the book, regardless of the plot, simply because it was so beautifully written (rich descriptive details, tight emotional scenes, tight, rapid dialogue) I'd snap it up in a hurry and look through a few more of the author's writing.

Unfortunately, not everyone writes so beautifully, so we have to rely on plot, story arc, enchanting characters to a few twists, just to keep readers guessing. And there's plenty of room in this world for the both of us, as they're simply two different enjoyable stories, written as the author is best suited to tell. There's nothing wrong with either, and as long as people are reading both, there are more eager readers for all of us to appreciate.

The other keyword is "imagination" - something that is almost non-existent in younger people. Don't believe me, ask a teacher.

Without that, all the words up until the last sentence are just "work" to be waded thru to get to the ending. And work is hard.

all the words up until the last sentence are just "work" to be waded thru to get to the ending.

Hmmm, but novel length increased dramatically over the last 50 years. Many of the actual novels contain blah blah blah bloating up the word count. Removing at least part of the blah blah would make a better read. Skimming over the blah blah lets you probably miss something — hidden deep in the blah blah — necessary for fully understanding the story.

HM.