new endings

I may be the only person who does this. Does anybody else do this? Actually, even I don't do it anymore. But when I was younger, when I picked up a book to find out if I thought I would like to read it or not I would of course read the beginning paragraph - but then I would flip to the back and read the ending one as well.

I'm not sure why I did it. I think I wanted to know not only if the book seemed interesting but if it ended up in a good place. I found that the last couple of paragraphs seldom gave away any specific information about the plot, but would give you a good idea of whether or not the good guys won or somebody died or if the ending was just generally a downer.

I really don't do that anymore. I've written a downer ending or two myself so I think I can face up to them at this point. But what I do like to do now, after perusing the shiny, engaging opening paragraph, is flip to a couple of places in media res and see how it's holding up. The idea being, the author naturally puts her best foot forward on the first page, but do we then settle into a by-the-numbers thriller? A cheesy romance? Is the dialogue clunky and awkward? Descriptive prose, especially, while much in evidence at the beginning may be all but vanished a couple chapters on.

Also, I think a lot of books tend to have one Big Idea that sets them apart, but once you get past that they're pretty much the same as every other book in their genre. The best authors, though, keep the ideas coming and you can flip to any part of the book and find something interesting. Or at least that's what I'd like.