BTT: Cheating

It's Thursday and Deb has posted another Booking Through Thursday prompt. This week, bloggers are asked:

Do you cheat and peek at the ends of books? (Come on, be honest.)

Before I sat down to write my answer, I read the first 6 or so responses to today's question. Interestingly, a couple of people seemed to react the same way that I did to the question. To answer the question as asked, I have to admit that I rarely jump to the back of the book. I have done so once or twice, but it is very rare that I will look ahead.

But my reaction to the question is to bristle a bit at the negative implication that peeking at the end of a book would constitute “cheating”. Unless you're reading a book for a course and your instructor has forbidden you to read ahead of the rest of the students so that everyone will have exactly the same knowledge of the story so far when it comes to assignments or class discussions, then what would it matter if you read the last couple of the pages of the book out of order? Would the poser of the question consider it “cheating” if you read a review of the book? What about reading reviews (or even the book jackets) of subsequent books in a series?

I agree with the other bloggers who have commented that reading isn't a competitive sport where the playing field has to be absolutely even. Nope. Reading is entertainment. I feel free to pick up the remote control and fast-forward through a movie and I feel the same freedom to skim passages, or skip ahead in a book that I'm reading. I'm not accountable to anyone but myself for how I read and I don't have a rule that says I must read every word in the order they appear in the book.