Did you ever read a book without reading a summary first?

[kysel]

Sometimes, I just prepared not to read the summary to make the book and the story more surprising...

[young ralph gucci]

yeah...most books ave read i just went direct to the story leaving out the summary but i still get to capture the content in it clearly.

[nikkyteewhy]

I read every print I can find on the book before reading the book itself. I don't read just any type of book so I have to be sure I'm making a right choice because I wouldn't want to read a book half way and dump it or unwillingly finish it.

[Sariel88]

I almost always read the summary on the back of a book since just reading the title and looking at the cover gives me very little information. I might try blindly reading a novel but it would be from a list of recommended novels from a particular genre.

[NRoach]

I always read the summary, but normally only enough to figure out what genre it is.

[SammiArch]

I have never chosen a book by sight or recommendations alone. I have ALWAYS read the description and decided for myself. This may make an interesting experiment though. Simply select a book based on first visual impression. I wonder if the person selecting would still enjoy it?

[Dael Reader]

Only if it's a selection for my book club. I know I'll read it no matter what, and sometimes, the summaries seem to have little to do with the actual story.

[Henrytbab]

I've not really read the summaries for most of the classic books I've read, but still found them amazing.

Me too. I found them amazing without having read summaries other than "it is a classic."

[Arite Seki]

Yes and I highly recommend this. I used to go to the library and pick a book purely based on the title. Most of the books ended up being older fiction since they were hardback covers and had no actual cover, just the name. I wanted to try and explore more book and it really did work out well. Some of the books I read became an instant favourite

[azidy]

Definitely. I hate knowing what's going to happen and lots of summaries spoil the entire plot, which makes reading the book quite boring. If it's by an author I like, I will never read the summary because I expect it to be good. Friend recommendations, unique covers or titles and classics also don't require summaries, I'm intrigued without them.

[Yearly Joy Besoy]

No. The book's summary is the second requirement if I browwe for a book to read.

[Yearly Joy Besoy]

No. The book's summary is the second requirement if I browse for a book to read.

[readsbyarun]

Generally no. But sometimes yes. There are some books that are popular and have already heard about its reviews. In that case I wouldn't mind reading it without reading the summary.

[Bigwig1973]

I have probably more often not read a summary. I would just start reading. Once you become familiar with different authors, you can generally assume that whatever you read by that same author will be about the same and that you will probably like it. There are exceptions, of course, C.S. Lewis and Ernest Hemingway come to mind. I haven't read anything by Kurt Vonnegut that I haven't liked and I don't think I ever read a summary of any of his books. I read a short story of his called "Harrison Bergson" in high school and I liked it very much. At a used bookstore, I happened upon a copy of God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater which I bought and liked so I continued to buy books with his name on them. As a child, as long as the book had an animal on the cover or had animal illustrations, I considered it something I wanted to read. That is why I read Alistair MacLean's Caravan to Vaccares at the age of 8 or so, because it had a bull on the cover. My family kept their books in the basement and I would just grab books and start reading them which familiarized me with authors names, as did the many collections of short stories they had. I don't think I ever read a book not worth reading following this "system'" of mine. Of course, because my options were already narrowed by my family, I had some help!

[EmmaZ]

I know I'm not supposed to do this, but a lot of times I judge the book by its cover. I almost always read the summary as well, but maybe if a friend recommended the book and gave me a summary of their own I might forget to read the one on the back of the book.