[Hitch]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

I'm with Meeera on this. Not impressed with the study (I hope y'all didn't get paid a lot of money to run that thing). If I read certain spoilers, I won't even read the book. And short stories are completely different than novels in shape, style, plot, time committed and so on.

As I mentioned earlier, I'm not shocked at the results, given where the study was conducted. If I assume it's all students, we know that the attention-span of people, particularly younger, seems to be getting shorter daily, with a real inability to focus for longer periods of time. My laments here on MR about my (endless) frustrations with our clients' unwillingness to read even a few paragraphs of instructions or "READ ME FIRST" material--not even 500 words--boggles my mind. Isn't this much of a muchness? People just want the result, not the enjoyment or effort of getting there? Are uninterested, if not downright disinterested, in the process, edification or power of the journey?

I like to know enough to know what kind of story I'm getting. For example, if I pick up a romance, I do expect a happily ever after. I don't regard that as a spoiler; I regard that much the same as if I order a pizza, I expect to get a flat bread with tomato sauce, toppings and cheese. If I read a mystery, I expect some element of clever sleuthing (and yes, I mean clever. Not just serendipitous) some type of crime and A RESOLUTION. The main mystery must be solved even if subplots aren't resolved.

Oh, yeah. I'm not a romance reader (surprise!), so I don't care about the HEAs as do those readers, but I get extremely annoyed when a book is termed a "mystery" and turns out to be a puerile action-adventurer, with no mystery to solve, just a "bad guy" to get. That doesn't mean that I won't read action-adventure, far from it; but I don't like anything called a mystery that doesn't require some level of puzzle-solving, whether it's traditional clues-herrings-whodunits or the creative hunting skills of the Inverted. MUST have a puzzle or problem to solve.

After all: who would have been talking about Presumed Innocent, five minutes after finishing it, had the Big Reveal been told upfront, or a third-of-the-way through? Then the book would have been a big nothing, really, because the reader wouldn't have been led astray in soooooooo many ways. ;-0 Clever bit, that one.

But all readers are different. And it's also quite possible than a segment of non-readers (people who read one or two books a year--or none) have different criteria for reading.

I think that's a given, as demonstrated by this thread.

I have what I call the 'Hitch Marital Compatibility" test: take the proposed couple, and give them both cafeteria-style meals, replete with all courses. If they both eat the courses in more or less the same way/order, they're reasonably compatible. If she (or he) eats dessert first, and leaves the veggies (or what he likes least) for last, they're not that compatible. If s/he eats her veggies first, because they're "good for you," and leaves dessert for last, while he's eaten the cake first, it's going to be a rocky road. (This isn't metaphor, particularly, but the food groups ARE metaphors. And, trust me: the test is a pretty good damn indicator.)

Perhaps a similar test can be derived from this thread? Spoilers first, or spoilers be damned? ;-) Hmmmm.......

Hitch