I don't have much to say today... I've spent the whole week reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. I have a few pages left from The Last Olympian which is the last book of the series. If my muse helps me, I'll spend the week-end writing one or many posts about the books :D
In the meantime, I don't want to neglect my blog... So I thought I'd start a discussion :D
The question is simple: Do you read excerpts or not? And why or when?
(I'm talking about both online excerpts and the ones you can find at the end of books.)
Surprisingly, I'm not usually an excerpt reader. Strange no, for a girl who can't help herself from reading the ending of a book? :P My main reason for not reading excerpt is because reading a few pages of a book that is going to come in 6 months or a year... that's pure torture!! LOL. I know that once I'll read the excerpt, I'll want to know more... and more... and it'll be eating at me :P Also, reading excerpts can sometime hike up the expectations that I have with a book... and too high expectations, that's never good - you're only setting yourself up for even bigger disappointments.
With the internet, I know that a lot of authors and publishers are posting many chapters excerpts. For example, starting from this month I believe, Ms Kelley Armstrong is posting one chapter/month of The Reckoning, the last book in her YA Darkest Powers trilogy, till the release date. That means 4 or 5 chapters will be circulating on the internet. For some reasons though, I'm not tempted. Having so much of the book out already, I guess I'm afraid that it will ruin my experience when I'll get the actual book.
I know that many read excerpts before making a decision when they decide to try a new author. They want to find out about the writing style before embarking... and that's really wise. However, it doesn't work that way for me. Enjoying the back blurb, recommendations from blogland or even the cover are enough criteria for me :)
Of course, I'll cave from time to time and will read an excerpt. When that happens, it's usually the excerpt at the end of the book that will give an insight about the author's future work. The latest excerpt I've read was Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews at the end of Magic Strikes. Although, if my memory is correct, I've read the excerpt on my re-read of the book LOL. Do I regret it? No. The excerpt was great... but it's made waiting for the book really difficult... I mean, I was already looking forward for it, but now even more ^_^; It made me want to look for spoilers and any tidbits I could find about it... And it's especially hard since Magic Bleeds will only come out end of May/beginning of June and usually, this series has a release date of March ^_^;;Also, I found out that excerpts at the end of books are not set in stone... For example, I remember reading the excerpt for Broken by Kelley Armstrong and the story was actually changed! :D
As for online excerpt. It's funny, because I do visit authors' websites to find out more about blurbs, next releases and all the possible information... but I'll rarely click on excerpt. Weird no?
All right, your turn now :) Are you an excerpt reader?
