Socratic Seminar: Spoiled Endings

For those of you who are unaware, Socratic Seminars are defined as "collaborative, intellectual dialogue facilitated with open-ended questions about a text." I use these in my classroom to get my students engaged in the text we are reading/discussing. It works much better than just having them stare at me for 45 minutes.

I was talking with one of my girlfriends the other day about books. One of the things I brought up with my inability to read a book if I know the ending. And I don't mean in terms of rereading a book - I can reread a book with ease. I'm talking about when I know the ending/twist of a book I haven't read yet.

For instance, The Fault in Our Stars. I'd had the book on my TBR for a while, but it was the hype with the movie that made me want to pick it up sooner rather than later. However, while reading through blog posts a few weeks ago, I came across a major spoiler. I mean, major major. And if you've read the book, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

And I wasn't looking for it. I wasn't. The spoiler wasn't labeled. A huge pet peeve of mine. There was zero warning. Nothing. I don't understand how people can just post things like that. I've come across most spoilers in Top Ten Tuesdays. And it's not Top Ten Tuesdays fault. It's the people who feel the need to go into depth on certain topics. For instance, Top Ten Books that Brought on the Feels - or whatever.  (I love participating in TTT and do so pretty much weekly, so I am in now way blaming this wonderful meme. I'm blaming the people who don't know when enough is enough.)

The blogger give the books, which is fine, some go into detail, which is fine. But some go into too much detail, which is not okay. Example: "I balled my eyes out when XXX died!" "I ugly sobbed when XXX happened." "I couldn't believe that XXX was the bad guy/girl the whole time!" or "I hugged my book when XXX and XXX got together - hooray for my ship!" (this example applies mostly to love triangles)

Anyway, that's what happened to me with The Fault in Our Stars. I don't know if it was a TTT or just a random post - I'm thinking it was a random post - but I was so, so mad. I finally got my copy in from the library last week and I just stared at it. I wanted to read it, but did I still want to after I knew the ending?

This is where the conversation with my girlfriend came into play. I told her my situation and asked her I should read it or just see the movie - I know, a cardinal sin of readers everywhere. But something about the book had lost its novelty. I just didn't have the drive to read it that I did before. She told me that she enjoyed it, but if I wasn't feeling it to not worry and just read something I was chomping at the bit to read. She made sense. Why force myself to read something I'm feeling "meh" about?

Like I said, I love rereading books but something about having the ending ruined a book I haven't read yet is such a turn off. Has this happened to anyone else? Have you been excited to read a book, only to come across a major spoiler and then just shrug it off and not read it? Or has coming across a spoiler done nothing to change your mind about a book on your TBR pile?