Ruin the Ending

In a recent post, Ryan Holiday of ryanholiday.net, blogged about how he manages to read books that are intended, theoretically at least, for people with more formal education. At 20, his favorite topics include Greek History and Applied Economics, subject areas he has never taken classes in.

Among his suggestions for understanding a book regardless of your education level, two stuck out for me: Ruin the Ending and Read the Reviews. Before you even open the book, he says you should go to wikipedia and find out what happens. Then, he says, go to Amazon and read the reviews of the book.

His theory is that once you know what happens, you can concentrate on why it is happening and how each development will affect the resolution. The reviews will give you an idea of the important themes and cultural significance of the work- while you may come to these same conclusions yourself, the idea is that you can appreciate them as they come. This also gives you some idea of how other people interpret the book and creates a (virtual) discourse that will amplify your understanding of the book.

This is definitely an interesting theory; I also think it does essentially what Ryan Holiday intends it to do: increases your understanding of some written material. I found this was this case when reading On the Road earlier this year. I personally didn't find the book that much of a page turner; but its On the Road, the book that defined a generation (or whatever the back cover said). Reading the book, knowing how many people it had inspired or resonated with, became a much more rewarding experience. I had read quite a bit about Jack Kerouac, On the Road, and the whole Beat Generation thing before reading the book, something that made it much easier to appreciate the style and pacing of the writing.

I can't decide if knowing the ending or major themes of a book makes reading it any less enjoyable. Maybe Classics are more conducive to this type of pre-reading. Who knows. If I give this strategy another shot, I'll let you know.