Do long books put you off reading?
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Re: Do long books put you off reading?
Only one way to find out.......
Seriously, I'm not put off by long books, it's inside what counts, I can either race through it, or discard it after 150 pages if I can't get into it.....then move on.
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If I have to carry it around and it weighs heavier than a brick, if I have to forgo good short stories and novellas for it, it jolly well be more than just good.
Thankfully, the latest Van Gogh biography fits the bill. Nevertheless more than half the reading is still done at home. I couldn't read it while commuting because it's simply too heavy to carry around.
On the other hand I have a very compressed and relatively light paperback copy of Brothers Karamazov, but it is still moving *very* slowly...
Generally yes...long books put me off reading for these reasons: the weight of the book, the amount of information (history, family saga etc.), langauge that is usually not concise(unlike Orwell, Yates, Hemingway -- sharp and to the point), and the difficulty of sustaining interest over every 50 pages or so.
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One could also ask the question: Are there books you wish were longer? I can think of several books that I wish never ended because of the beauty of the prose and/or the fascinating aspects of the premise. I can think of many books I've read that held me spellbound though they were very long and some shorter novels that seemed to drag on forever.
If a person chooses a book based upon how quickly one can get from one cover to the other I think that person is missing the whole point of reading.
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Agree with you completly it's what's between the cover that counts not how long it takes to get from cover to coverDATo wrote:I think Rest_In_Pieces put it well in stating that as long as the book sustains interest and isn't bloated with filler the length does not matter.
One could also ask the question: Are there books you wish were longer? I can think of several books that I wish never ended because of the beauty of the prose and/or the fascinating aspects of the premise. I can think of many books I've read that held me spellbound though they were very long and some shorter novels that seemed to drag on forever.
If a person chooses a book based upon how quickly one can get from one cover to the other I think that person is missing the whole point of reading.
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- DATo
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Greetings Fran ! It seems you have been a part of this forum for a long time. Nice to make your acquaintance! [:-)Fran wrote:Agree with you completly it's what's between the cover that counts not how long it takes to get from cover to coverDATo wrote: If a person chooses a book based upon how quickly one can get from one cover to the other I think that person is missing the whole point of reading.
Yes, it seems to me that the imperative of some readers is not the quality of the books they read but rather the quantity of the books they read. This reminds me of a quote:
"I took the Evelyn Wood speed reading course and read 'War And Peace' in 20 minutes ... it was about Russia." - Woody Allen
*LOL*
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Leonardo Noto
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oooh...that's on my reading list. Just finishing up a light-hearted freebie I got off Amazon, "50 Ways to Hex your Lover" and was going to start the Black Jewels series next. Didn't even realize it was going to be a long read (not something that I notice straight away when reading on an e-reader). Thanks kg, looking forward to it.kg211970 wrote:for me the Black Jewels Trilogy is a very very long book for me, since it's the first 1,200 page i've ever read, it's 3 books in one, and once i started reading, i couldn't stop, it's an amazing feeling to finish this book, if I can read that i can read anything