Spoiler Alert! BookieMonster likes to ***SPOILER***

I have a terrible, terrible confession to make. My name is BookieMonster and I read the end of books first. I love spoilers.

Yes, it’s true. I am an inveterate spoiler of books, movies, TV shows, you name it. I’ll read about 20 – 50 pages of a book, just enough to get the jist of the plot and/or mystery  and then I’ll flip to the end and read the climax. I look movies up on IMDB and read the spoilers, and I listen to Slate’s Spoiler Specials podcast before seeing the movie. I google TV shows and read the recaps on Televisionwithoutpity before I watch them. Sometimes I don’t even bother watching them after that. The recap is enough.

I just can’t help it. I don’t like surprises, and I don’t like distractions. Particularly with books I find that not knowing what’s happening and focusing on the plot machinations is a distraction to reading and enjoying the book. I know, I know, it’s an awful habit and I ought to be rather ashamed – and I am, but I’m not going to stop.

This is probably the main reason why I’m not a huge fan of mystery or thriller genre novels. When you’re so busy trying to figure out what’s going on and whodunnit it’s easier to ignore bad or mediocre writing and make the plot king, and unfortunately thriller and mystery writing have their fair share of mediocre writing. Or perhaps it’s just my literary snobbiness coming through. I think the former, or course.

P.S. While I’m getting things off my chest I also have to admit I don’t like Harry Potter and I could never make it further an about 1/4 of the way through Lord of the Rings. Sorry.