Forum: Author Hangout

Reading Books Backwards

Crumbly Writer 🚫

I just read an interview of Anne Lennox of the Eurythmics (anyone recall her?) in NYTimes in response to her recently published retrospective (no autobiographies for her), where she describes that she reads books starting at the end and reading backwards. And yes, she in neurodivergent—which if you ever listened to her music seems like a "Duh!" reflection.

She also details which genres she won't touch (fiction in general and Science and Sci-FI specifically. Intrigued, I thought some may want to explore these issues further.

Replies: whisperclaw Pixy TheDarkKnight jimq2

whisperclaw 🚫
Updated:

@Crumbly Writer

Back when I was in college I took a playwriting course as an elective. One of the textbooks taught to read plays backward. You read one scene, then the scene preceding it, then the scene preceding that, etc. The idea is that you can more easily tell if one scene doesn't directly lead to the next. It's a way to make sure that your scenes logically flow the way they should.

Pixy 🚫

@Crumbly Writer

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."

Every single one of them.

A couple do it for films and TV shows, again because they don't want to be left with an ending they don't like.

Interestingly, the majority of them are also 'young', ie, under thirty.

Replies: samuelmichaels

samuelmichaels 🚫

@Pixy

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.

Replies: rustyken

rustyken 🚫

@samuelmichaels

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

TheDarkKnight 🚫

@Crumbly Writer

I don't get it. Part of the joy of reading a well-written novel or story is seeing how the author develops his/her characters and plot. Yes, occasionally I find one where the ending doesn't seem to match the buildup, but I still enjoy the trip. Maybe the keyword here is 'well-written'.

Replies: irvmull

irvmull 🚫
Updated:

@TheDarkKnight

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.

Replies: Pixy awnlee jawking helmut_meukel

Pixy 🚫

@irvmull

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.

There is too much truth to that statement. It used to be that focus was on the journey, rather than the destination, but for the current generation, the focus is more about the result, the goal.

They don't have the time to dawdle, everything needs to be instantaneous, time waiting is time wasted for the always-on generation.

It's why films and music are becoming shorter. Songs are turning from a structure with a chorus, to just being the chorus. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-052ab668-403d-416f-b5a6-c5692313b9b4).

Some in the learned community believe its simply the brain adjusting to modern day requirements and stimuli. All part of humanity's continuing evolution.

Who knows. Certainly not I.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@irvmull

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

In my experience, the teacher is the barrier to imagination. Give a kid a cardboard box and they'll play with it almost as imaginatively as a cat does. But display imagination in a schoolroom and they'll be labelled as difficult or a troublemaker.

AJ

helmut_meukel 🚫

@irvmull

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.

jimq2 🚫

@Crumbly Writer

Kids today have no imagination, they wouldn't put up with a cardboard box, unless it had something it it that plugged in. Saw a 3 year old the other day that watched a movie on a tablet the whole time they were eating. I was about 4 before we had a TV. Out of boredom, I learned to read "Little Golden" books before I went to Kindergarten. It got interesting watching the others learning the alphabet.

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Reading Books Backwards

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