I am intrigued by these examples, in the abstract they don’t seem to me like it would work at all. If you can’t figure out the focus of the plot or the protagonist’s motivation from the book itself, it seems like a preface trying to explain it would just draw attention to how bad the book is.

are you being sarcastic or? it's hot garbage

I completely agree. I gifted it to my dad with explicit instructions not to read the book blurb before he'd finished the text.

This perspective confuses me. How many books you have not read could you describe the entire plot and ending of?

A few, no doubt: a handful of cultural touchstones, books especially popular in your circle that you’ve never actually read, anything you’ve already seen a screen adaptation of.

Now make that list and compare it to the many thousands of books 10+ years old that currently exist. I don’t care how old a book is, unless it’s Romeo and Juliet level of cultural penetration, most people who haven’t read it won’t know the details.

I recently read Project Hail Mary and boy is there a big spoiler in the blurb. I heard it was an enjoyable read so just started at page 1. There was lots of suspense and new plot points popping up. Then I read the blurb when I was done and it just straight up tells you what happens in the middle of the book.

I think the story would have been much less interesting, or at least less suspenseful, if I'd read the blurb first.

I read all three as a child. I enjoyed them all. I think Little Women is the strongest in terms of quality of writing, but I agree with you Little Men is more fun for children reading it. Thank you for your review.

I don’t know, I usually read these after finishing a book but most of the time they just seem like bloviating without having any real point. It’s rare they actually bring great insights or perspective.

the title is fye asf

Reading comprehension for one. But just because something is fictional doesn’t mean there aren’t lessons to be had. Most books, even bad ones will make you think about. Politics and philosophy are not missing just because the world is fictional, it can even allow you to explore it in ways that you can’t if you are tied to reality. Putting yourself through someone else’s head can have a positive development on empathy. And this is without even mentioning imagination itself and having fun, which would be perfectly valid reasons on its own

Also, a lot of fantasy and sci-fi uses allegory as a way to criticize aspects of society without being obvious.

If you’re having headaches, this might not be of much help, but sometimes I just search for a PDF of whatever book I want to read. If the file is NOT a pdf, don’t even click it. But I have found the whole ACOTAR series, folk of air, tons of other famous books, scans of short stories, and often on public school sites there are books that are scanned and uploaded to students. I wouldn’t trust links, but pdf files are really trustworthy (in my experience)

That's an interesting analogy, never thought about that. Thank you!
As someone else also mentioned, you'd improve reading a book if you're looking for improvement, which is a true!

​

>Fiction is IMPORTANT. It gives us a chance to really think about what it means to be huma

Agreed, definitely required! Sometimes just a little extra creativity and thinking is needed!

[removed]

Sounds like something a PREFACE writer would say

I think you are more interested in reading about the book and author then many. I am the complete opposite, and prefer to know nothing about the author other than what they wrote.

As for general knowledge of Christe, I expect most people to have heard of her, and perhaps seen an adaption of some of her works, but that does not translate into having read all about all of them. As OP says, it would be fine having more information at the end rather than the front. For every reader is will be their first time once, and they would probably prefer to not be spoiled that time.

Oh wow, a fiction book based off of things that actually happened! That is amazing! Gotta check it out later, thank you for the suggestion!

>I have yet to encounter a book, however, where the women were written believably but the men were not.

You clearly don't read enough romance, haha. I love the genre but the male leads are poorly written far more often than the female leads are.

Can't agree more with your points! Thanks for commenting!

Read Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes. Man lived through every single horror that was depicted in the book, only the names were changed. Took him 30 years to finish this work of "fiction". If this were an autobiography, you'd feel sympathy and move on. Because its fiction, you are right there in Vietnam next to Karl, with jungle rot in your feet and a leech crawling inside your penis.

Oh thank you!

But well, the more I learn, the more I feel like I know nothing of it, guess that applies to everything but it's true! There is just too much to learn! I still can't read a lot of great books like the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, solely because I'd have to lookup a word for every line I read, lol!

Outstanding! Great words from Terry Pratchett!

I am probably not the right audience (that is completely the wrong word; my brain feels like mush today). I had collected everything Christie wrote by the time I was 14. I was suuuper into mystery when I was 13-14, so I know I am more aware of her novels than most. But I was also thinking of adaptations in regular tv shows where a single episode will have been jumped off a plot (of many authors, not just Christie), and the fact that Christie, especially, is mentioned everywhere. There are recent French adaptations of her novels on prime right now.

I may just be more involved in reading about the books and authors I’m interested in than many? It would be atypical for me not to know at least the basic life history, novels published and when, and their plots of any author I pick up. I’ll typically look up even the authors and their publications of even the fluffiest fluff I read. I do this for tv shows, too, so I typically know if an individual episode is based on a book or short story or film, even if it’s one I’m not familiar with.

Edit to split a paragraph so it wasn’t just a wall of text.

The gap is closer indeed, reading your and others' comments! I learned a lot from this post from the advantages of reading in general, and what fiction has to offer, and changed my mind lol! thanks!

Oooooo that's an intriguing standpoint.

As you said, when you read, not only are you interpreting the text, but also you're depicting it. That in itself requires some thinking and could be seen as an exercise for the brain and your imagination! Thanks for commenting!

Ah, awesome points!

These are great advantages of reading, not just limited to fiction!

Thanks!

No problem. And just gotta say, ur English seems pretty good, u might be underestimating urself