Do you save the end of a book?

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by rcentros

By reading when her husband is asleep? Huh?

Exactly. I knit in the car, just read while he is sleeping. He goes to sleep at 9; I go to sleep at 12.

[kansaskyle]

I will delay the ending if I know I'm getting close to finishing, but I don't have a dedicated chunk of time to read and finish the book (i.e., I only have a few 30 minute blocks here and there due to work, church, etc.).

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

I am currently reading Stephen King's Sleeping Beauties. I am about half way through, and it is getting really good. We are driving out to Idaho to go skiing, and the book is so good, I decided to leave it for the nights of our road trip, when I always have a hard time getting to sleep (especially since my husband is an early bird and I am a night owl.)

So I saved it a week ago, and we aren't leaving until Friday, and I am going nuts. Of course the book I am reading in the meantime is awful, so that just makes it worse. I occurs to me that this is really odd behavior, but since it involves reading, I am sure someone here either does this or can tell me what they do to prolong the joy from a really good book.

I couldn't do that. I'd be afraid that the break in-between would lessen the impact of the book. Like when you pause a movie. I also can't read more than one (fiction) book at a time. Good, bad or indifferent, that author has me beginning to end.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Apache

I do not save the ending of books. Especially if they are very good books. I do not have the discipline to do so. In fact the closer to the end I get the more likely I am to forego sleep.
Apache

+1...

[JSWolf]

If I am going on vacation, I do not save the end of a book. But what I do is pick out a few books that I want to read and what order so when I finish the book I am reading, I know which one is next.

[barryem]

I just read when I feel like reading. If I'm getting near the end and I don't have time to finish, I wait. I don't really plan my reading. I just read when I can and feel like it.

I nearly always have my current book on my phone as well as on my ereader so I can always read a page or two or more in those little waits that are always happening in today's world. I do most of my reading on my Kindle but a fair bit of it on my phone. I finish when I finish.

The past week I haven't felt like reading. Life has been a bit topsy turvy. Probably that's about over and I'll be reading again today or tomorrow. My book is always waiting. It won't go anywhere.

Barry

[Hemmi]

I can't just stop reading and save a book that I really want to read. I tend to stay up late to keep on reading.

I'm often reading 2 or 3 books at a time. I have a couple of ereaders going and a paper book as well. If one turns out to be really really good, I ignore the rest to finish that one.

[disconnected]

I don't stop in the middle of a book but I do try to save some books that I've been really looking forward to reading until I'll have plenty of time to enjoy them without lots of interruptions.

[Philippe D.]

I might have done that (delay finishing a book) when I was carrying paper books around, so as to make sure I'd have something to read at another time - though I don't remember doing it, I might have done it.

But now that I have my e-reader, and always have some extra books in it, I don't think I'll ever do it. It might happen that I start a book and then start another one before finishing the first, but that also happened with paper books - usually, I'd just give up on the first. Now that the first one is still in there at all times, it's easier to get back to it

[sakura-panda]

Yes, I'll save books sometimes; it's one reason why I have so many going at one time!

I'm the early bird in my family, so when we go on vacation, I can expect to have at least an hour in the morning to myself, and I will usually have a book that I have "saved" in anticipation.

In your case, I think I would save the awful book until I came back and instead pick up a book I've read before. Since you already know how it ends, you can enjoy the alternate book now and then put it aside when your vacation starts. You could bring both books with you in case you happen to finish the vacation book early. The "awful" book will be waiting for you when you get home, and it might not be as bad once you've gotten your saved book out of the way!

I hope you have a nice trip!

[pwalker8]

I don't save ending, but I do save books if I know that I'm going to be in a situation where I will have time on my hands (vacation, jury duty, etc). If I'm in the middle of a good book, I'm much more likely to stay up all night reading rather than save it.

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I do the opposite. Sometimes I read the first few pages then skip to the ending. If I like the way it ends, I start over and read the whole book.

Me too. I wondered if anyone else did this. I also check out the ending of movies (with friends) before I watch. Too many books/movies that have good endings to bother with the bad ones.

[gmw]

I sometimes save the ending so that I can finish reading it in bed - even though it is usually very late by the time I get there (so I relate to the night owl thing too). ... But I do this because I prefer to let a good book sit in my head for a while before it gets replaced with something new. If I let myself finish in the middle of the day I know I'll be looking for something else before bedtime.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Bad Monkey!!

Originally Posted by Apache

You tell him.
Apache

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

Me too. I wondered if anyone else did this. I also check out the ending of movies (with friends) before I watch. Too many books/movies that have good endings to bother with the bad ones.

A kindred spirit

I hear ya. In my younger days, I read lots of sci-fi and adventure library books by little-known authors but found many that started off good and ended rather poorly. I got tired of wasting my time doing this so I started my "read the beginning and ending" rule. It saved me lots of grief.