The Readers Bill of Rights

[Dark Muse]

This is just something kind of fun I found on another site.

1. The right to not read

2. The right to skip pages

3. The right to not finish

4. The right to reread

5. The right to read anything

6. The right to escapism

7. The right to read anywhere

8. The right to browse

9. The right to read out loud

10. The right to not defend your tastes

[Zee.]

+ The right to read the last word and/or page of a book before you start it..

[Dark Muse]

Haha I personally would never do that, and I know there are some authors who are really against that, but yes I suppose one does have the right to such if they so wish.

[Zee.]

When I got the last harry potter i read the last word. :[

[papayahed]

Sometimes I'll read the last page.

[Homers_child]

Who reads the last page of books? That just ruins everything!

I do read the first couple pages of a book before I buy it, but that's only natural. It needs to hook me and I need to like the writer's style before I spend money on it. But reading the last page? Come on. :p

[MissScarlett]

Who reads the last page of books? That just ruins everything!

I'll admit, I sometimes do. It rarely spoils the book for me, but I know it does for many people.

[kiki1982]

I actually do, but I don't know why... Sometimes it seems to be because I am impatient to know how it ends ('how this is going to pan out') so I know that I don't have to be on edge about a character's decision because everything will be alright in the end. And sometimes it seems to be out of interest, which has nothing to do with what I am reading at that moment.

It is never out of boredom, I think. I guess, then I totally don't want to know how it ends because I could't give a damn...

I read the last page or even chapter of Pride and Prejudice and I knew the last words (and necessarily the end) of The Vicomte de Bragelonne... And the end of Tess.

My husband can't get it either. But it doesn't disturb me. One still doesn't know what happens in between, if that even matters at all...

I find that readers should have the right to be obsessed by a book, think about it and its philosophy without being seen as a nerd or sad person...:p

[Dark Muse]

I like being on edge when I read a book. I never want to know how it ends in advance. I like to be surprsied by the ending of a book. For me it is what is the point of finding how you got there if you already know where you ended up. How it happend becomes irrelevent, becasue the whole time I am reading nothing that happens will mean anything since I already know how it will turn out.

Yes I have been obcessed with a few books in my time

[andave_ya]

I find that readers should have the right to be obsessed by a book, think about it and its philosophy without being seen as a nerd or sad person...:p

:lol: splendid!

[bounty]

This is just something kind of fun I found on another site.

1. The right to not read

2. The right to skip pages

3. The right to not finish

4. The right to reread

5. The right to read anything

6. The right to escapism

7. The right to read anywhere

8. The right to browse

9. The right to read out loud

10. The right to not defend your tastes


dark muse---concerning #3 above---i thoroughly enjoyed the first three books i read in james fenimore cooper's leatherstocking series, last of the mohicans, the deerslayer, and the pathfinder. i also enjoyed another book by him, the spy, so i was soooo looking forward to the pioneers, in which natty bumppo, the hero of the leatherstocking books, is in his later years. but im 60ish pages in and after a so-so start, ive been thinking, this books is not at all what im hoping for. i peeked at the afterword and the author of the afterword made a point of saying its not like the other books in the series at all, and in fact, in order of cooper's writing, its the first in the series---the eventual main character hardly appears. this is all to say that, for the only the third time total, and the first time in many many years---i am going to claim, at least temporarily, my "right not to finish"....sigh...

[Dark Muse]

The right not to finnish is a hard one for me at times, but there have been a few moments when I had to give myself up to that right.

[higley]

Number 10 is the least defensible heh. Sometimes it's hard not to think "Seriously? You actually like that book?" You just have to accept that people have different tastes and I know that I definitely have my own literary quirks.

[Virgil]

Sometimes I'll read the last page.
Oh I do that all the time.

How about the right to cheat with with annotations and looking things up in books that explain the novel. :D

[kiki1982]

Hear, hear.

[PoeticPassions]

I only skip pages in non-fiction or textbooks.... I never ever read the last page ( I am with you Dark Muse, it spoils everything!)

I think one should also have the right to make notes within the book :) I know some think this is almost like some kind of vandalism or ruins the book, but I can't help but underline lines or make short little notes on passages that evoke strong emotion.

And I hate having to do #3, but sometimes it just happens...

[Zee.]

Although you may not endorse the reading of last words, last page or perhaps the last chapter, it is important that it remains a right! for that is the basis of rights, is it not? choice. :D

[PoeticPassions]

of course! :) on that same note, as Voltaire said,
"I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight to the death for you to say it."

[Dark Muse]

I think one should also have the write to make notes within the book :) I know some think this is almost like some kind of vandalism or ruins the book, but I can't help but underline lines or make short little notes on passages that evoke strong emotion.

Hehe yeah I use to think it was like blashampmy to write in a book. Like I was defacing something sacred but I have mostly through neccisity of school gotton over that. But still if I am going to write in a book it is usually always in pencil.

[prendrelemick]

Of course, with rights comes responsibility

1. Not keeping the light on till 2 am when your partner has work in the morning.

2. Not reading at meal times.

3. Not reading when its your turn to wash the dishes. (Or any household chore)

4. Not insisting that others "MUST" read the book you have just finished.

5. Never tell someone how a book ends when they are half way through.

6. Never read someone else's copy in the bath.

7. Don't rubbish a book you have never read.

[Dark Muse]

I have been known to do the last one. The thought of some books just make me roll my eyes even though I have never acutally read them.