To Read, Or Not to Read?

A few days before reading Fallen by Lauren Kate, I read in a couple different reviews saying that reading the synopsis of the book before-hand gives away too much of the book. So I very determinedly did not re-aquaint myself with the basis of the story before picking it up. And it made the story so much more interesting.

Whether you think the synopsis of a book gives away too much or not, it does still gives at least some away. It's supposed to, in order to draw a reader in. But when the author is writing the book, they're probably not thinking *Oh, the reader will already know this plot-point from the synopsis,* so they write the story from the view that the reader needs the explanation of what's going on.

I'm going to use Twilight as my example (please, no groaning), where the back of the book clearly states that Edward is a vampire. But half of the book is Bella figuring out what he is. If the reader already knows this right from the start, it takes some of the adventure out of figuring out the clues along-side the protaganist.

I'm not saying that you should stop reading the back or front flap of a book to see if it's the kind you woud like. Covers are revealing, but they don't tell you everything. However, if you read as many summaries of up-and-coming books in a week as I do, you're probably not going to remember all of them by the time they actually come out; you'll just remember that a particular book sounded good and that you wanted to read it.

This is why I think I've decided that I will no longer re-read the front flap of a book before I open it. It's so much more fun if you don't know what to expect.

Thoughts?