Just realized reading the last chapter first actually helps me finish books now

I used to HATE when people did that, thought it was cheating or whatever. But I kept starting these dense nonfiction books about history and science and dropping them around page 80. Last month I picked up "The Ghost Map" about cholera in London and by chapter 3 I was lost in all the street names and doctors. So I skipped to the last chapter just to see how it ended. And suddenly I KNEW where the story was going, so I could actually focus on the details about the outbreak and the mapmaking. Finished it in 4 days. Tried it with a Barbara Tuchman book too and same thing. Has anyone else found that reading the conclusion first works better for certain kinds of books?

3 comments

3 Comments

verawhite1mo ago

Wait, does this work better for nonfiction than fiction or have you tried it with novels too...

the_nathan1mo ago

Thats a good question. I think it depends more on how you're reading than what you're reading honestly. This whole method taps into a bigger pattern where most people skim through life and never really pay attention to the details. Whether its a dense history book or a fantasy novel, taking it slow and actually thinking about the sentences changes everything. Have you tried applying that same deep focus to other things like conversations or movies?

blair5971mo ago

Sounds like you figured out what most people never do about how your own brain works best.