sondy, great point about what is on the cover/book.

kaethe, thanks! and I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets “i may want to read that book, so i won’t read anything about it”

doret, then I will continue with my “spoiler” warnings. Let me know if when I do that I need to leave some more “space” before I go on.

katie, terrific observation about whether or not the book is plot driven in terms of whether spoilers matter. I find myself caring more about not being spoiled with books like HP & rushing to read it before spoilering can happen.

But sometimes – at least in the case of much of the contemporary children’s and YA fiction I read – a book is mostly about the character, and I’m reading the book, essentially, to spend time with that character. In those cases, knowing the ending doesn’t matter, because the destination isn’t important. The journey alongside that character is what makes the story.

But personal preferences aside, my blog is spoiler-free. I don’t want to be that annoying person who inadvertently ruins something for someone. I want my visitors to feel comfortable reading what I post. So basically if the publisher hasn’t revealed it in its own summary of the book, I keep it under wraps as well.

And I love the Spoil Me This title, its reminds me of the original Batman, which I loved.

A book I just read by Angela Cerrito has on the cover: Ryan was dead. I am a murderer. So it’s not a spoiler to tell that Ryan dies. But the whole book is about finding out what happened, so I’d better not tell too much about that.

With the Queen’s Thief series, telling about any later book is almost always a spoiler for the earlier books, so it’s very awkward.

I guess it’s a judgment call as to how much of the enjoyment of the book involves finding out the particular thing you’re referring to. Anything that’s obvious at the start is fair game, but things that happen 47 pages in? Well, that’s a judgment call.