Do spoilers ruin a book for you?

[Phoenix]

Do spoilers ruin a book for you?

 

[Dopples]

I would say...yes. I never finished The Amber Spyglass because my friend spoiled the ending for me (Which sucked. I really liked the His Dark Materials trilogy)

 

[Yggdrassil]

Someone spoiled what happened to Pennywise at the end of It.

That really took away my motivation to finish it. I mean, the whole point of reading a book is for me is the ending, and if I already know what happens why even try to get there?

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

Because it's still worth experiencing.
For me it's not the events in a book it's the set up, the suspense, etc.

I mean I know the good guys gonna win in most any book I read.  No surprise there.  I read Sword of Shanarra and then read the prequil, I knew what was going to happen.  Didn't bother me none.  I knew so and so would die in this book, or the ending of that book, kind of can dampen things but I don't see how it ruins it.

I'm still reading for experience and to get lost in words, not to get to the ending so I can see what happened condensed in a short "so and so died" set up or a "they did this and then that" line.

 

[candle]

When the details of Harry Potter VII were leaked, I of course looked.  I tried not to, but I couldn't help it.  It didn't change anything.  I still cried when Dobby died. (it was the only book to actually make me cry like Goodkind's Chainfire almost did)

Then you spend all day watching The Stand.  Trying to read the unabridged version after that is like pulling all your teeth with a hacksaw and no novocaine.

 

[skirtboy]

I would say yes. Had I known when I started reading Deathly Hallows how Voldemort would fall, I probably would not have read the book, because without the previous two chapters, it would have seemend like a cop-out. Or, if I had known the secret of Harry's scar, I would have gone into every page expecting him to find out, and miss much of what is going on.

 

[Grathea]

Well, yes and no. Like Sixty, I read more for the book itself than the knowledge of what happens. That said, it's hard to lose yourself in the book if you're nagged by the knowledge of a specter of future events hanging over you as you read.

 

[mawk]

I'll still read/play for the experience, since to me a book/game isn't entirely about what happens. I still plan to buy a 360 (or get a better computer) and play Bioshock, even though by this point I've spoiled most of the points worth writing about for myself, my reason being that I expect it'll still be a thoroughly enjoyable shooter with incredible atmosphere and a storyline that honestly isn't reduced so much by the knowledge that Mr. X is actually Mr. Y and Mr. Z has a secret agenda to do W. The same goes for Mother 3.

However, that said, I'll still come to the part that was spoiled for me and wonder what the experience might have been like if it had come as a surprise.

 

[Demosthenes2k8]

You mean...Dobby dies?
I really hope nobody read this and didn't know.
I read/play it anyways, so I can enjoy the rest of it. A book isn't a beginning and an end, it's also the journey and what happens.