Okay, yeah (hangs her head in shame), I do read the endings of books first...

What can I say. It's a job hazard that can't be avoided... And it's come up more than once in the blog comments over the last year or so, so it's time to come clean...

It's not so much about spoiling the surprise for me, because I'm not really reading for content or plot points. Actually, unless it's a book that's been adapted to a movie I've seen, discussed on the Internet (a-la Harry Potter), or someone esle has blown the surprise, if you haven't read the beginning yet how could you technically spoil the ending by reading it first??? The circular thought for the day. No need to thank me ;o)

As an artist, I cherish the work and the magic in how others express themselves above all else (no matter the form or delivery of the art). And I guess I need to be even more amazed at the creativity of another artist to be carried along for the amazing experience they've promised me. And writing the ending (as well as the beginning) of a book is so much more art than craft. The craft is key, but the emotions and relationships and symbols in an ending should speak to your soul (whether you're reading biography, comedy, drama, or something in between).

So, if the author's not giving us her best in the end, it pretty much louses up the experience for me. To the point that I get angrier than my yoga instructer ever wants to hear about me getting. Think of the nastiest, thundercloud of an emoticon you've ever seen and superimpose my featers. It totally sucks to be let down that way. So, I do flip to the back and read the dismount first. I know, not the most endearing facet of my nature.

You could say that I don't trust the writer. Or you could say that I'm impatient and can't wait for the good stuff. But I've come to grips with the compulsion by seeing that it's more that I understand what feeds my need to read--connecting with characters and their journeys and how they get to where they've been marching throughout a book. Get that wrong, and you're not just disappointing me, you're abandoning characters I've gotten very attached to.

Okay. Fess up yourselves. Do you have a secrect cheat that you do that others refuse to understand?

I'll prime the pump a bit more...

My son eats only the bottoms of muffins. Good thing that I only like the tops, right ;o) To the point that we now have pans that only make tops, lol!

Oh, and my husband loves the crust and bottom of really good pizza. Me? I'm a cheese girl. Very early in our relationship, we bonded over pulling apart more than a few pies, so we could both have exactly what we wanted. And we've been co-conspirators in that altered behavior pattern ever since. That and the fact that we like the pizza better the morning after--cold!

It's the truely disturbing things about folks that make them even more loveable, don't you think ;o)