When you read a novel, do you prefer Chapter Titles?

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This applies to a typical fictitious work.

Personally, I prefer to go without them, because sometimes they reveal plot points early or tell you the subject of the chapter so it's less of a surprise/intriguing (Horcruxes in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is a good example). Without the chapter title the book kinda feels more unified in it's structure (or at least to me).

I find chapter titles distracting. I like breaks between chapters, or breaks in a novel in general because I don't like setting down a book until I've read an entire portion of it. The problem with chapter titles is that they aren't part of the body of text and it's disruptive. I'm reading the text, then there's a random phrase that isn't a sentence, or really part of the story, and then I'm reading the story again.

I had a problem with chapter titles when I was a kid. I used to think that the chapter titles were individual stories, so I ended up reading books out of order for a long time until someone explained that novels are read from front to back.

I agree that chapter titles take away some of the intrigue.

I like non-fiction with titles.

I don't like chapter titles, they usually take away the surprise.

I don't have any particular preference. I don't mind them. They don't have to be formulaic or hint at what's about to happen, and there's been some more contemporary fiction writers who have a done a good job with interesting title chapters. I doubt people would be able to guess what's coming up with someone like David Mitchell who uses deceptively minimalist chapter and section titles for his very creative and elaborate plots. In something more "conventional" like Harry Potters series, that's long and complex, with several subplot and storylines going on at once, I think they help the reader, especially a younger one, make the mental transistion when the story shifts from one focus to another. That would a good functional example of chapter titles. There are good ways to use them, artistically and functionally, but it's hardly a necessity for a good book.

My favorite way of introducing a chapter or providing a pause between chapters was the way
Frank Herbert put little "mini-stories" or "parallel narratives" between chapters of his "Dune" novels.
Sometimes it undermined suspense, but it also expanded the plot and characterization. It also created
a lot more depth and detail to his settings and their background.

It depends on the execution--some ones are spoilerish, but some just HINT at what's to come, just enough to whet you apetite and make you go, "Mmmm, I want to find out what THAT's about!" I don't like not knowing ANYTHING about what I'm about to read--I like little clues to keep me interested. This could be because I'm rarely interested in the moment, and tend to be more interested in the past or future.

The world is moving in your direction. A hundred years ago very descriptive chapter titles were followed by an oultline of the chapter. That form is now used in motors repair manuals.

Few read, most books were school books, and they followed the same format, pre-digested information.

First the outline was dropped, the chapter titles were still expected, and they hung around beyond their usefulness.

Chapters do mark breaks, books are a collection of related short stories, but I like the use of quotes, wisdom saying, to lead into a chapter. They marked the change points in the plot line with something larger than the chapter, or the book, a hint of universal truth.

It depends on the story, the reader, all one chapter in comics, books for little kids, books to be read in a sitting.

Chapters are a chance to tell the story from different points of view, the range gives more potential for any one reader to connect, while showing the story through other eyes.

I think titles are a leftover from education, "Before you can write a story you must write an outline."

I jump in, start anywhere, the story grows like The Blob, and when I figure out what I wrote, I look for begining and end, then sort the sub-stories into chapters, move them about, then re-write from the beginning, I use chapter titles and outlines to remind me what to cover, but it is a writers tool, not a readers.

All books should be who done its, leave them hanging till the last page, nothing worse than being predictable. There is your story, then loose ends that fire the readers imagination, is it this or that?

What works in books works in chapters, make the reader want to find out how it ends.

I think that is a No.

If the book is purely sequential story-telling, then I don't need chapter headings.

But if it's one of them new-fangled novels that leaps around in space and time and characters (3 of whom are named John, Don, and Ron) - I need chapter headings. I know it's amateurish of me, but if Don just finished delivering the State of the Union Address at the end of a chapter, then I want to be told immediately if the infant on the following page is also Don - or his grandfather.

I ain't bovvered