Reading and other such fun things

I just finished reading two books simultaneously. That was an interesting mind challenge. I found that I just plain get tired of the plot of one book and so I could quit and pick up the plot of the other. I also had the added challenge of forcing myself NOT to read the end of the mystery I was reading. (see reading resolution for 2009) That, my friend, was harder than I was expecting. I truly have a big habit of looking at the end whenever boredom with book begins to creep in. I mean I just picked up the new Vince Flynn book and read the first 20 pages and already I was thinking, "boy, I'll have to see how this turns out here rather quickly." AGRH. Stop it! So with the mystery I just finished, I had to force myself not to 'cheat' just because all of a sudden I needed to see the end. I did tend to skim more doing it this way, though.

The books I was reading were quite different from each other. Enough so, that switching back and forth was fairly easy. I read The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I'd seen as a movie so I knew how that one ended anyway, for a book club. Then I finished my first "Miss Dimity" mystery by Nancy Atherton. I really enjoyed it on the whole, but it was the one I had to commit to not peeking at the end. I don't think I'll make another resolution like that again soon. I mean, why does it matter if I look at the end ahead of time or not? Ok, well I admit, I was surprised by the ending and guess the pleasure of that would have been spoiled by looking at the end ahead of time.

See now, there's some perverse pleasure I get in knowing the ending ahead of time. I remember seeing "The Sixth Sense" for the first time. I turned the movie on with only two minutes left in the program. Only, I didn't know that. I had no idea where they were in the plot. So I knew the whole surprise to the movie when I actually got to see it through from the beginning. And I didn't mind that the surprise had been spoiled. There was no discomfort or disquiet about the whole mystery. And that's the way I feel about a book too.