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?

2 comments

2 Comments

verawhite1d ago

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

the_nathan1d 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?