Style Saturday is a meme hosted by me where each week I present a prompt about reading style and explain my answer. Feel free to join in with your answer in the comments or leave a link to your Style Saturday on your blog.
Do you have a suggestion for Style Saturday? Let me know! (Seriously folks, my list of ideas is shrinking otherwise Style Saturday may be done for a while.)
This weeks: Minor Spoilers
How do you feel about minor spoilers about a book? I’m defining ‘minor spoilers’ as little things that don’t really ruin the book. You know things like whether your friend liked it, does it move too fast, is it boring, etc. Basically just other people’s thoughts on the book.
Do you want to know things like that before reading a book? Or do you avoid everything to do with a book until you read it? (Avoid talking about big spoilers i.e. Who killed who. That’s for next week!)
I’m okay with little spoilers about the book. I want to know what to expect. Is it first half super boring but get so much better in the end? I need to know that! Otherwise I’d likely quit reading. It really helps out.
For example I’m reading The Magicians right now. It’s pitched as a Harry Potter for adults so I thought it would be lighthearted and fun. I glanced over a few reviews and found out it’s not lighthearted and is a bit dark. Knowing that I was able to enjoy the book more. I might have been a bit confused and quit reading if I didn’t know that in advance.
I like being ‘prepared’ for things. Not to mention I’d like to know if a book is ‘worth’ reading. There are far too many books in the world that I want to read. I don’t have time to read them all so I don’t want to waste my time on something that’s no good or that I won’t like.
What are your thoughts?
The Cheap Reader 
I think this really depends on the book… As a blogger I obviously read other blogs, get to know about other books, etc. But it’s pretty rare that I’ll see a book and go look up reviews before deciding to read it or letting reviews influence if I decide to read it. With books that seem interesting to me (ie ones I just happen to come across vs ones I find on the blogs) I want to go in blindly – no preconceived notions based on anything but my own “hey this sounds good” thoughts. I do like to read reviews AFTER I finish a book to see if my thoughts are similar to others, to see what others think about the book, etc. If someone recommends a book to me, I do like when they warn me about things like to stick with it or it starts out slow. I’m notorious about stopping a book if I’m not into it pretty quickly.
That’s interesting, Candice. I have a bad habit of just glancing over reviews before reading a book. I actually like having a bit of an idea if the book is good/bad before reading it. Of course, like you, I go and read other reviews after I finish the book.