Question: when you are going to skip the end of a book to find out what happens because you don’t care to read the whole thing, where do you skip to?
Do you jump to the last chapter, or the penultimate chapter?
Susan: Usually the third chapter from the end – enough that I have context, but not so far that I’m picking up all the stuff I was trying to skip.
Carrie: Usually the last chapter – but it depends on why I’m skipping. If it’s an anxiety issue, and I need to know if there’s a HEA, I skip to the last page and go backwards from there until I know if everyone is OK.
If I’m mildly interested in what happens but not enough to give the book a lot of time, I skim the whole thing, I’m an excellent skimmer.
Catherine: What Carrie said! Though certain authors have been known to DECEIVE ME with their last pages, Connie Willis…
Carrie: That Connie is a tricksie devil!
Sneezy: When I do it, it’s usually because of anxiety, ADHD, time, or some combination of them. If whatever is happening in the story has my anxiety up, *even if I know everything will be okay*, or my brain is just going, “But I want the happy juice NEEAAAAOW,” I skip to the final pages.
I also do that if I’m already in the Bad Decisions Book Club, and I’m trying to find a big button to smack for the happy juice so I ACTUALLY sleep when I lie down.
Doesn’t always work but, eh.
Catherine: Not to mention reading ahead to get to the sexy bits. Please tell me I’m not the only one who does that. (Sometimes the slow burn is too slow. Sometimes the fast burn is too slow too…)
Susan: The placement of sexy bits in romance novels STRESSES ME OUT.
If there’s a sex scene after chapter two but before the middle, I’m just like “… Shit, there’s going to be SOMETHING BAD to keep the tension going.”
Tara: I get so much shit for skipping ahead, which is frustrating because I’m always clear that it’s for anxiety management reasons. It’s not sacrilege to read ahead.
Sarah: Who TF would give you shit about skipping ahead?! UGH.
Claudia: I usually skim if I’m bored — the difference in my head is that if I’m reeeaaaally bored I will skip to the last chapter or epilogue just to see how the story ended. Skimming for me is different than skipping because I usually will read the first few sentences of a paragraph and only skip a few paragraphs at a time if it comes to that, usually if it’s too much description to my taste and/or is repetitive.
Tara: I’ve talked about it on my old podcast and my current one, and both times it was listeners, authors, etc. People were horrified.
Sarah: That is hot garbage. I’m sorry they bothered you about it at all!
Tara: Thank you! I just tell them flat out that I won’t apologize for my anxiety management practices and mysteriously never hear anything again…
Sarah: I am baffled that someone would feel it is their job to manage how someone else reads a book. What the absolute hell.
Tara: I’ve literally had authors ask me to review their books, but say that I can’t skip to the end.
Shana: That’s some bullshit.
Skipping to the end of the book, or reading the movie plot before you watch it…these are time honored traditions. Why wouldn’t an author want someone to enjoy their book? Instead of being miserable the whole time.
Kiki: I skip for anxiety reasons as well sometimes and it turns out I’m much better able to enjoy a book when I’m not also trying to calm down my nervous system about what may or may not be coming!
Maya: Seriously. don’t tell me how to get to the HEA.
Tara: I agreed exactly once and there was a moment so angsty that I felt hungover for three days. Never, ever again.
Maya: But also, the best books — the books I love with all my heart — I’ve read so many times I can basically recite them from memory. Knowing how it ends has nothing to do with my enjoyment.
Tara: People get weirdly precious about how to read or anything about books. You want to write in a book? Dog-ear it? I literally don’t care, because if that gets someone to read who wouldn’t otherwise, that’s great! I mean, don’t dog-ear or write in someone else’s book, but do what you want with your own!
Maya: Yeah, for me it’s like, if you love books and reading, then wouldn’t you want as many other people there with you enjoying as many stories as possible? However they can get there?
Catherine: I’m also the sort of person who cheerfully seeks out spoilers and others’ spoilery conversations about books, because sometimes it’s fun to go into a book with that context.
But as many others have said, it’s often very much about anxiety. There are books that I certainly would not have finished if I hadn’t been able to flip forward to see how it ends. And there is also flipping forward to see how long this scary/tense bit will last – sometimes just knowing that it’s only going to be for another twenty pages means I can keep reading rather than giving up on the book.
What about you? Do you skip ahead? If so, do you aim for a specific chapter or point in a book?
I read fast enough (sometimes too fast) that I seldom feel any need to skip things. This is why reading ebooks makes me crazy. If I read past something too quickly in a dead tree book and want to reread, it’s easy enough to page back. My Kindle, however, does NOT like to page back – it often pages forward even though I’m tapping the left edge of the page. Sometimes accidentally tap twice and turn two pages forward at once, and it takes forever for me to straighten that out.
I’m listening to REMNANT POPULATION by Elizabeth Moon, which should be my catnip: older woman stays behind on a presumably uninhabited planet, explores her new and glorious living-out-loud existence. Until she meets an alien species–who haven’t harmed her at all, who also don’t communicate–and she continually calls them rude, stupid, lazy because they don’t know how to sweep her floor when she demonstrates once.
Which brings me to my point. I am so angry at this woman who becomes the bully after being bullied her entire life. I have used every variation of the letter F at the wrongness of it, AND I CAN’T SKIP AHEAD to hopefully better times and some self-awareness. In an audio book, where would I go? But a book? Oh, yeah, one hot minute and I’d be staring down those last few pages because right now, I’m hoping they kill her.
And this is my take on skipping and skimming. Thank you for asking.
If I’m bored or dislike a book, I don’t bother to read the end of it, I just DNF. On the other hand, if I am really caught up in a fast moving or angsty plot, and too impatient to wait for the crisis point or resolution, I’ll skim ahead to see where the story goes. Sometimes I’ll do this when I’m reading late at night, and I don’t want to go to sleep not knowing what happened. I’ll skip over sex scenes for the same reason. But I always leave a bookmark at the point where I started skimming, and go back later and read from that point onwards.
I skip to the second to last chapter if I want to abandon a book
But I also skip to the second to last chapter if I’m very invested in the story, but I need to go to bed. I will almost always go back to where I was the next day to continue, but I need the HEA feels before I can fall asleep. (ALMOST always, sometimes I get re-invested and read the third to last, then fourth to last and occasionally I end up reading the book chapter-backwards)
I’m with the “I skip to alleviate anxiety” team. I read to relax, not to become anxious, even a little bit.
I’m not a skip-ahead-er. I may skim if the book isn’t holding my attention but I still want to know what happens, but if I’m going to DNF, I don’t bother with the ending at all.
I always read the last two or three chapters of a book and then go to the beginning and read it to the end. I don’t know why, I just do.
I don’t understand people thinking they can dictate how you read,they should celebrate that you do read. And, if I am paying money to purchase your book, say thank you and don’t tell me how to enjoy the product. I may not buy your books again if you irk me.
I love this post and all the conversation about it. It’s so timely, too. I’ve been feeling bad about skimming and/or skipping (my usual anxiety–belief that I’m doing things wrong). I’ve been trying to remind myself that I used to peek at the end (way before ebooks), which I’ve never done with my reader. It’s lovely to hear about others’ experiences. I often skim or skip. But I rarely DNF a book. I’m trying to teach myself to do that more. I usually skim/skip when I’m getting anxious or it’s getting way too late.
I’m an unapologetic skipper. (Although “peeker” is probably a better description.)
In olden times, I’d often read the end of a book in the bookstore before I’d buy it. If I didn’t like the ending it went back on the shelf. Once I got the book home, I also sometimes didn’t bother marking my place and would just re-open the book at random and start reading. Eventually, I’d read all the pages, just not necessarily in the intended order.
Now, for digital books, I probably skip ahead/peek 50% of the time–usually to the second to last chapter, but sometimes further back if I’m not getting the full context.
I listen to a LOT of audiobooks and skipping/peeking is harder with them so I don’t usually bother…unless I also have a digital copy I can open up. 🙂
I abandon books with … abandon if they do not grab my attention within the first few chapters or sometime pages. I was going to say that I rarely skim a book until I read @chacha1’s comment and realized that occasionally I do skim. The Linesmen trilogy by SK Dunstall is a favorite, and I frequently reread it. However, in the first book, I generally read only the chapters that focus on the main character (they are handily labeled); in book two, I skip the assassin chapters; and book three, I read in its entirety. I have determined that I read for the characters, so in this case I am reading about the characters I prefer.
I do a lot of reading ahead and it’s not correlated with whether I’m enjoying the book. It’s about me, not the book. I don’t skip over sections though, I still read the whole book (unless I DNF). I relate to Sneezy and needing the “happy juice”! I think I actually enjoy reading whatever it is I’m jumping ahead to – sexytimes, the grovel, the reunion, etc. – and then experiencing it again when I read that same scene in the proper sequence. I’m also really “bad” about using the ereader search function to find scenes to jump ahead to. I often do that before I’ve even read the first chapter. Occasionally I do end up spoiling plot points that I wish I hadn’t. But generally I find my approach ratchets up my overall enjoyment of a book. It’s like I’m getting 125% of the happy book vibes that the book is serving up.
Oh, thank you! I’m so glad I’m not the only one who manages my anxiety by skipping ahead. Knowing what’s coming, or how the book ends, often makes the difference between being able to keep reading, and not. Or for that matter, being able to go to sleep, and lying awake wondering if and how everything’s going to work out. And like Tara, I have gotten a lot of flak for this from various people, both IRL and online. So it’s always a relief to find others who like or need to skip ahead or read the ending.
I do have a few personal guidelines. I try to avoid skipping to the end when reading mysteries, so I can try to solve the puzzle myself. But since I mostly read traditional and cozy mysteries, not high-stakes thrillers or anything too dark, I’m usually OK with that, especially if it’s an author or series I’m already familiar with.
I do allow myself to skip ahead or read the ending when reading romantic suspense, though, and I avoid certain types of crime or villain that I find are more likely to trigger my anxiety. (It’s why there are some Nora Roberts books I just won’t read, much as I usually enjoy her books.)
As for romance, fantasy, historical fiction, even biography — I have no qualms about reading the ending out of order, or skipping or skimming ahead. And I think I will adopt Tara’s policy from now on, and tell detractors “I refuse to apologize for my anxiety management practices.” (Thank you, Tara!)
I should have said — when I read the end or skip ahead, I almost always go back and read the whole book, unless I was unhappy with what I saw when I skipped ahead. Sometimes I go back and read it in order from wherever I was when I jumped ahead. Sometimes I read bits and pieces (chapters, or longer chunks) out of order until I have read enough that I feel comfortable reading the remainder in order.
I also approach new-to-me authors with caution, dipping into the book in several places to get a feel for style, tone, and whether it’s likely to hold my attention and make me glad I read it. Sometimes that includes checking out the ending — again, it’s part of my anxiety management. I’m investing more than just time in a new-to-me author’s book; I’m also investing my trust. I want to have at least some sense that my trust won’t be abused. (Looking at you, Nicholas Sparks whose books are NOT romance.)
I almost never skip.ahead, and maybe because of that I have at least 5 books I stopped at the dark moment because I couldn’t take the stress of it. Maybe I should try it in those cases. I did skim the grosser parts of Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels books until I decided I didn’t want to buy another book I’d skim just to find out they’d FINALLY gotten together!
On the subject of counting/ not counting books for challenges, it’s your challenge, your reading, and your rules about what can be included.
As a reader, I am much more likely to DNF than skip or skim. Either the book is worth reading for me or it’s not. I recognize that other readers have different needs.
But if I’m reading a review, I need to know whether the reviewer has read the book or skimmed or skipped, just as I want to know if the reviewer DNF. The reviewer may have valid reasons for skimming or skipping, but I need to know they didn’t read the book the way the author wrote it before I can tell if the review will be useful.
I can remember one book where I skipped to the end, and then I went back to read the book. There was a special dog, and I wanted to make sure the dog was okay before I read anymore.
I would say otherwise I rarely skip, and if I do, I skip to a point where I can still figure out what happened without actually reading it. I have a low tolerance for why my mom calls “the Brady Bunch moment” because my sister or I would run out of the room at that point where the plot climaxes with something embarrassing or humiliating or there’s a big misunderstanding before everything resolves.
If I am meh or thinking about not finishing the book, I will definitely jump to the last chapter and skim it. If it catches my attention enough, I’ll backtrack and skim a little more, and repeat as appropriate. And yes, I admit I have skimmed sex scenes if they’re not advancing the plot or I’m not feeling them, LOL.
Oh, and if I’ve skipped to the end, I don’t tend to count those as books I’ve read—I consider those a DNF unless I’d read most of the book already.
“I refuse to apologize for my anxiety management practices.” Needs to be a cross stitch or on a mug or something
“I’ve been burned before.”
That pretty much sums it up for me. There are all kinds of reasons to skip ahead in books. I did it just the other day because the author tends to write serials and I wanted to make sure the book I was reading was a complete story.
I read to experience the story and sometimes it’s necessary to confirm the end in order to improve the experience. I don’t want to waste time reading a book that has an ending that will destroy/lessen my reading experience.
I don’t trust authors. Their ideas about what makes a satisfying story aren’t always mine.