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Sleightholme2 t1_j50y08q wrote

Reply to comment by entropynchaos in What is the point of spoiling the plot of a book in its preface?? by DontNotNotReadThis

It is very easy not to know the plot of every one of Christie's books. While some are well-known and have big adaptions (i.e. Murder On The Orient Express) there are plenty that are less read. She wrote 74 novels, plus short stories and plays. Most people will not know all of them. I have 30 in my house, but that still leaves plenty to go.

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entropynchaos t1_j51j4qo wrote

I am probably not the right audience (that is completely the wrong word; my brain feels like mush today). I had collected everything Christie wrote by the time I was 14. I was suuuper into mystery when I was 13-14, so I know I am more aware of her novels than most. But I was also thinking of adaptations in regular tv shows where a single episode will have been jumped off a plot (of many authors, not just Christie), and the fact that Christie, especially, is mentioned everywhere. There are recent French adaptations of her novels on prime right now.

I may just be more involved in reading about the books and authors I’m interested in than many? It would be atypical for me not to know at least the basic life history, novels published and when, and their plots of any author I pick up. I’ll typically look up even the authors and their publications of even the fluffiest fluff I read. I do this for tv shows, too, so I typically know if an individual episode is based on a book or short story or film, even if it’s one I’m not familiar with.

Edit to split a paragraph so it wasn’t just a wall of text.

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Sleightholme2 t1_j51l0gi wrote

I think you are more interested in reading about the book and author then many. I am the complete opposite, and prefer to know nothing about the author other than what they wrote.

As for general knowledge of Christe, I expect most people to have heard of her, and perhaps seen an adaption of some of her works, but that does not translate into having read all about all of them. As OP says, it would be fine having more information at the end rather than the front. For every reader is will be their first time once, and they would probably prefer to not be spoiled that time.

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