Are books too long?

[@kellyhookedonbooks4394]

I died when that measuring tape came out 🤣

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Is it bad that my immediate reaction to your comment was “that’s what she said” 😂

[@kellyhookedonbooks4394]

@@CriminOllyBlog I set myself up for that one 🤷‍♀️😅

[@michaelk.vaughan8617]

I’m feeling inadequate regarding my multiple book holding ability right now.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

😂😂 sorry Michael

[@alpertroncp2198]

One of my favourite quotes is this: "I'm sorry for writing such a long letter - I didn't have the time to make it shorter." Concision is a challenge. The most challenging essays I've had to write while I've been working no on my masters in literature have been the 2000 word ones. 4000 is a breeze by comparison.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That’s a wonderful quote! I don’t have to write essays any more but I do need to do a certain amount of writing for my job and less is more is always the rule.

[@ShannonsChannel]

I love that quote!!

[@barbaraboethling596]

Here's a twist. I can only hold 4 or 5 smallish books in my left hand because I've developed arthritis in my thumb from countless hours of holding my heavy Kindle Fire to read ebooks! I have to prop it up on a pillow now. I think its true, though, many books could be edited. I'm of the opinion that if an author is a real talent, they should be able to wow me in fewer than 200 pages!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That is a twist! And an unhappy one! I suffer from arthritis in my big toes so I know how painful it is. You have my sympathy! Totally agree re editing. Brevity seems to be a lost art.

[@bookshelfbunny]

You made some great points here! I have a lot of hobbies and things I like to do in my free time, including reading, crafting, playing video games with my hubby, watching tv/movies, sewing, knitting...on it goes. And yeah, it's really tough to make time for all the things. I spend probably most of my free time reading also, but making time for other things is also important to me. I don't really choose books to read by the size of them typically, but rather by the story. If I want to read the story, then it doesn't really matter to me how long it is. However, shorter books are great for when I'm in a reading slump or when I just need a short literary fix. I do agree that some books are far too long. Books should only be as long as the story needs it to be.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you! Totally agree that shorter books are great for conquering a slump. The story tends to lead me too, as long as I think the size of the story feels like it justifies the size of the book!

[@ClaireKinmil]

I usually think about this as "if I were the editor of this book, how much would I cut?" And it's surprising to me to see the answer is usually "a lot" 😅

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! It does often seem to me that editing is a lost art!

[@ShannonsChannel]

Same!!

[@michellehood3523]

Big books all the way for me! My hands and eyes don't work as well as they once did so I now do most of my reading on Kindle and size and weight of a book isn't an issue. I am gradually collecting my favourite big uns on Kindle (a lot of Stephen Kings) but I will still keep the physical copies. My husband watches tons of telly that I have no interest in so I am able to read a lot without distraction. P.S. I only discovered you this morning and am loving your vids.. Not getting a lot of reading done today though....;)

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I find the kindle is definitely my preferred format when I read a big book nowadays. So much easier. I too am building up a collection of favourites on there (as well as new things), mostly when they crop up in one of their many deals! Thanks for your kind words about the channel! Really glad you’re enjoying it n

[@M-J]

Nice topic, Olly! Longer books with a true commitment (A Little Life) or with a buddy/group read (Moon Dance) - but shorter books are amazing! I schedule out all of my time and have about 3 hours set aside to read every day. - 📚MJ

[@CriminOllyBlog]

That’s a great way to think about it! Thanks MJ

[@troytradup]

I used to be a fan of enormous, complicated books (especially 19th century), but lately my attention span isn't even novella-length. I'm hoping I can fix that over time. In the meantime, I've gathered all the super short books I own and have them staring at me from my immediate TBR pile. Not being read, mind you, but they've been gathered. I also think my reading changed when I started Goodreads, and not for the better. I made a rule for Goodreads that I would "review" everything I read (rather than just rating it), and so now I feel I'm always reading for the review, rather than just the narrative. Entirely my own weird little neurosis, but it's there.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I have found that to be a problem in the past too. When I was more active on my blog I basically reviewed everything I read and it got to feel too much like work after a while. Just found one a week like I do on the channel works much better for me.

[@kevinjudge8406]

Great ballooning bollyx! That rant certainly went in a few interesting tangents! Is 192 pages a thing? The Omen is 192 pages and the sequel, Damien Omen 2, is exactly 192 pages also. You have raised a really important point that I have been thinking of commenting on for a while now: that I probably know only three people that I can talk about books and reading with. This is something I find absolutely remarkable and, to be honest, it is a bit depressing. I only started watching booktube videos a few months back and there is a bit of a sense of community with it. It does feel encouraging, but there is a pace of reading and a range of books that can be a bit overwhelming. If I can offer a bit of advice, at the start of the year I created a spreadsheet for books and authors I had read. I also added a column for pages, just out of interest, and I have found that this has made me think about the challenge of certain books differently. It can be quite encouraging as page numbers accumulate on a spreadsheet, especially for bigger volumes when you might flag. Finally, many of my last 10 books were library books which have been returned, however it made me think it would be really good if you had something to say about libraries. Many book tubers have commented recently about the distinction between book collecting and reading. They have also mentioned the accessibility and ease of ebook devices (and some cons), so it would be great to start a discussion about people's opinions and experiences of libraries. I am genuinely interested in this, and I really do not want to start my own book tube channel!!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ooh! I’m going to have to check all my Omen books now and see if they’re all 192 pages! I guess they should be 666 pages really, but they might drag a bit. I think the booktube community is great, but agree that the sheer volume of books can be a bit overwhelming. I’ve certainly bought way more books since I started watching it than I was before. I love the idea of a discussion about libraries! I already know what I’m doing for my video next Sunday, but may well do that the week after. Thanks as always for watching and commenting!

[@AnEruditeAdventure]

I love long books. But sometimes it’s just really nice to have a short book to sit down and read in a few days rather than a few weeks (I’m a slow reader). And that feeling of finishing a book or reading more than a few books/month can be really enjoyable. So yeah. It just depends. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Great video. -T

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thanks T. I’ve been thinking about it since I filmed this and I think mood is important. If I’m in the right frame of mind I really love long books.

[@parlabaneisback]

Books are very much like boxers - a good big 'un will always be better than a good little 'un. Most of my top ten books are over the 300-page mark.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Interesting! I think mine are probably fairly evenly split over different lengths

[@constancecampbell4610]

I am grateful to booktube as I have no one currently with whom I can discuss any kind of book or film. Even the local librarians seem averse to chitchat. 👍👍👍

[@CriminOllyBlog]

It’s a lovely place to hang out! You should join my Discord server too 😊

[@Priscilla_Bettis]

I read mostly ebooks now, so the size of the book doesn't matter as much. But still, it needs to be really appealing (the book description, the first page excerpt) for me to commit to a longer book.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think I’m much more likely to DNF a long book than a short one - I think longer ones have to work harder to justify themselves to me as a reader.

[@jenniferlovesbooks]

I tidied my bookshelves only yesterday but I did do the challenge! I managed to hold 8 books but a few of them were very short. What was interesting was that I had to go right back to the start of the year to pull enough books off my shelves and include the two I am currently reading. I typically prefer a medium length book but would generally go for short over long because a long book would need to be really good to keep my attention. I very rarely watch films or TV series - and when I lived by myself I never did - because I just spend the time thinking 'I'd rather be reading'. That is basically all I think to myself any time I'm not reading 😂

[@CriminOllyBlog]

8 is good going! I’m the same with TV. Or anything really! Reading is my natural state. 😂

[@jenniferlovesbooks]

@@CriminOllyBlog absolutely, me too! 😂

[@MichaelRomeoTalksBooks]

I rarely consider book length when choosing a book. Although I agree the experience of reading a long book vs. a short book is quite different my choice of next read usually depends on my mood for a type of story. Often with ebooks I will start a book without a sense of how long it will be. As to whether or not a book is too long I think that depends on the book. I recently read Stephen King's 11/22/63 and found it painfully drawn out. But I've read other books that are longer (see James A Michener) and been disappointed that there wasn't more story.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yes I think you’re right that the right length for a book depends a bunch of different factors. In my experience, King is always too long, but after a while that kind of becomes part of his appeal.

[@fiberartsyreads]

Great chat. I like reading a long book sometimes but also procrastinate on long books a lot. And yeah it depends…I will say I usually read shorter books. And I mostly read in my free time these days but also have fallen so behind on tv shows and movies I want to watch. I dont know how to make that work better in my life right now. 😂

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thanks, Crystal. I do find myself increasingly taking a wait and see approach with TV. I don’t want to invest 20 hours watching the first season of a show that then gets cancelled and leaves the story hanging.

[@AliceandtheGiantBookshelf]

I managed 5 and then my hand nearly fell off! Tiny hands and The Shining brought me down! Shame because books 6&7 were very small. I like reading lots of short books, but lately I’ve read quite a few long books and thought they were too long and some could have done with an edit or just could have been 100 pages shorter and much more enjoyable! 700 pagers stress me out. Agatha Christie writes a perfect length of mystery! I do enjoy being able to read a whole book in a day. I admire an author who can do in a smaller amount of pages what others take longer to achieve, but sometimes a book does need to be long to tell the story it has to tell.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Apologies for any hand strain! I suspect anyone who has read Stephen King recently will struggle with this challenge!

[@DDB168]

When it comes to fiction less is ALWAYS more I think. I much prefer reading many shorter books than one long one, mainly because it adds to the variety of what I'm reading. I think too many fiction writers have commercial intent in mind ie. will this book become a tv series or movie, hence they pad it out with needless scenes and characters. And yes totally agree, series are becoming predominant. Btw I could only hold 3. They were all recent booktube read alongs / doorstoppers: Watership Down, Shogun and SPQR.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Oooh that’s a great point about authors angling for a TV series or movie when they write a book! I think that definitely changes the way plots and characters are shaped. Great job managing to hold Shogun and any other book at all 😂

[@WilliamsLibrary]

What I would say from recent experience is that if you like reading very long books, it's something you enjoy on your own without commitments. So if you want to share your thoughts on books with others (Booktube) or if you buddy read, shorter books are better. Otherwise you will sound like a broken record and obsessed with just one tome. It's why I have no time for Bible students spending years note taking and preaching about just ONE tome. By the way, the longest book I've read is the Urantia Book which is 2087 pages long. The paper is very thin so it's not as thick as some Fantasy books on KZbin. It took me 1 year, 3 months and 13 days to read the Urantia Book. I had a very high interest that kept me coming back to the book.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I haven’t heard of the Urantia book but just looked it up and it sounds interesting!

[@mediumjohnsilver]

@@CriminOllyBlog Perhaps a reading of Martin Gardner’s book about The Book of Urantia would be a better place to start.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@mediumjohnsilver certainly shorter 😂

[@krisreviews]

I like big books and I cannot lie! I've always been a multi tasker so I love reading multiple chunky books at the same time 😁

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Nooooo that idea fills me with dread 😂

[@krisreviews]

@@CriminOllyBlog 🤣🤣🤣 I hear ya! I've just been that way for so long that I don't know how to stop lol

[@Zozette27]

As I mainly read eBooks and audiobooks I was unable to do the fitting in hand bit. I don’t think I would fit more than two and three books in my poor, old, arthritic and rather small hands. I tend to prefer books around 250 to 350 pages long. However do read/listen a few long books each year. I am currently listening to ‘The Terror’ by Dan Simmons which is about 900 pages, and earlier in the year I listened to ‘Assassin’s Fate’ by Robin Hobb (about 850 pages) and I hope to get to Don Quixote later this year (over 1000pages). I tend to listen to long books for only an hour or so per day so it usually takes me about a month to finish one. I love novellas as long as they aren’t what should have been a short story lengthened out, or the reverse - a story that should have been a novel.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I do think that novellas often fall into that trap. How is The Terror? I’m planning to read that in July. I read the first of the Hobb books and quite liked it big have never gone back to the series. Thanks as always for watching and commenting 😊

[@Zozette27]

@@CriminOllyBlog - I am only about 15% of the way through ‘The Terror’. Nothing really frightening has happened yet but it’s depiction of the crew of the two ships trapped in the Arctic has been excellent. I am going into the book with a bit of bias. I am a Tasmanian and Sir John Franklin, the leader of the expedition, was governor of Tasmania (when it was still Van Dieman’s Land). I, and many other Tasmanians, have a very poor opinion of Franklin and his wife, so I am hoping that he has a very grisly death in the book.

[@Zozette27]

@@CriminOllyBlog - I liked the Robin Hobb books enough to read all the 9 books about Fitzchivalry Farseer but not enough to read the rest of her books set in the Realms of the Elderlings world. I might get to them one day.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@Zozette27 oh fascinating! I didn’t know that. I am looking forward to reading it but think I’ll definitely need to be in the right mood.

[@uptown3636]

My most recent read was a three-volume edition of Europe: A History by Norman Davies, so I was able to hold only one book. Or is it three? The triune tome?!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I'd say that counts as three!

[@Mondasian]

Sometimes I can race through a really long book while a short one can take ages!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think it does depend a lot on the book!

[@AnneEWilliamson]

I've noticed length definitely depends on era and genre. For example, a fantasy will usually be a lot longer than a mystery. And a Victorian novel will probably be longer than a modern book. Especially reading a classic like War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy from the mid 1800s, it is very dense and hard to get into. While modern books are often easier for me to read. Personally, I like a balance in length. I definitely like picking up a short book to read it quick, but I also love delving into a super long book too. Like you said, it depends.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I do wonder with Victorian books if they were longer (as they seem to be), or if it’s just that the ones that have remained popular through the years are the longer ones.

[@AnneEWilliamson]

@@CriminOllyBlog Good point. Short stories were also very common during the Victorian era, so you may be right that only the popular ones were long.

[@Bookchara]

This was really great! I tend to be pretty intimidated by longer books but don't mind putting the time in when the story feels "worth it" in the end. I have been know to get frustrated with books that are longer than they need to be. Filler is annoying!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think there is a fine balance between a huge book feeling like a threat you don't want to face and a challenge you're excited by!

[@Bookchara]

@@CriminOllyBlog excellent point!

[@anotherbibliophilereads]

I was able to fit 9 books in my hand. War and Peace was the one that didn’t fit. If I exclude that, I got 10. However, I tend to read longer books and Kindle or digital, so it seems a bit unfair to focus on physical books. I haven’t watched a TV show in decades. I just don’t get into the short episodic format. No way would I commit to one of those 80+ hour mega shows that are so popular. Poor ROI, IMHO. So much else to do with my time. I may watch 2 or 3 movies per year and even then I’d be more tempted to non new releases.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I get what you mean about the digital books, but if you included those you could hold hundreds!

[@davidsigler9690]

Yes, some are too long and despite the idea that he of Stately Vaughn Manor and his opinion on "War And Peace."...it's too long! But I will make another effort to read it in the fear that Roger may visit me in the night....

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think this may be the year that I try it too!

[@davidsigler9690]

@@CriminOllyBlog I tried it once before....long time ago....but I will attempt again....I like Russian literature, mostly Chekhov....I prefer short stories....but I will try again.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@davidsigler9690 terribly, I don’t think I’ve read any Russian books apart from Roadside Picnic

[@davidsigler9690]

@@CriminOllyBlog Um, By Royal Degree of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 you are commanded to read more than one book of Russian Literature.....just saying.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@davidsigler9690 crikey. Given that it’s the jubilee soon I’d better do that!

[@savagereads]

I do love a good concise book. I know some books justify the length but there have been so many times that I have borrowed an ebook, looked at the length and decided to return it without reading based on the topic and length. Certain subjects don't seem worth the time spent to me.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think long books definitely need to justify themselves to the reader. If you want that much of my time, you’d better be good!

[@nostromo7854]

I love both long and shorter books, though I do tend to be more resentful of the time spent on it if a long book turns out to be disappointing.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I do think there is something about us expecting a bit more from a long book because we have to put more effort in

[@lisac1619]

I'm not going to attempt this because I just read The Bachman Books 😆 I recently read The Hellbound Heart too. I like to finish a few short books before committing to another mammoth one.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah that can be a good way to do it! Hope you liked The Hellbound Heart

[@soundsfromthewestcoast9939]

I managed 8! But that's an unusual case for me. I love massive books where I can immerse myself in a story / world, and those are the type of books I've naturally gravitated to for a number of years. I think though that reading such books (along with not being the quickest of readers) has meant that I don't get through that many individual books over the course say of a year. But this year I've made an effort to read a number of smaller books - I've enjoyed doing so, but it did mean a bit of a change in mindset. Unfortunately I've got back into reading fantasy over the last year, and there's a genre where not only are books very large, but are also part of multi-volume series. I'm currently about to start book 3 of Wheel of Time! I do always keep a book of short stories on the go at the same time as a novel for more bite-size reading matter too.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah I thought I was getting back into fantasy but then I remembered how huge the books are. I managed book one of The Wheel of Time but not sure I have the energy to continue 😂

[@CliffsDarkGems]

Loving your videos! I read "Swan Song" in three days but stopped reading "Duma Key" because it was just too wordy. I think it depends on how much you are totally immersed in the world that the author creates. "Something wicked this way comes" is a perfect example of a book that kicked me in the guts (pleasurably of course) and a shorter novel classic. I suppose it is all about whether the story grips you on the throat and refuses to let go!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you, Cliff! And yes totally agree. It will differ reader to reader and book to book. I love Swan Song and Something Wicked… too

[@fadista7063]

My last ten books measured 9 inches. Two chonks were The Faerie Queene and Look Homeward Angel. I didn't do the hand holding exercise as I have small hands so it seems meaningless to measure that way. So I was Partially Compliant 😁📚 If I had to choose I tend toward longer books. I can think of excellent shorter books I have read but longer books tend to bring more to the table...unless the publishing house has a star stable pony like Stephen King and they won't edit the author and it's just rambling through the weeds for pages and pages. For leisure time I much prefer books over tv/movies--I don't even own a tv. I occasionally stream a film or other programming over my tablet--I have to make my leisure time count so I like something that brings value.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

9 inches is a lot! I don’t blame you for not trying to hold them. I think unfortunately that more and more big authors get that treatment. Publishers are so eager for a bankable name I think they often do readers a disservice. Part of me loves the idea of not owning a TV, but I do love watching certain things.

[@fadista7063]

@@CriminOllyBlog yeah publishing, like so many things that shouldn't be, is about the bottom line instead of quality. I sometimes think we can find more interesting and better books with the indies. I remember in the bookstore we would look at the New York Times book review and it was the same authors over and over. It became like selling soap or paper towels lol.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@fadista7063 yes there’s a wealth of good stuff out there in the indie sector, the trick is finding it!

[@fadista7063]

@@CriminOllyBlog true--there is a lot to wade through out there!

[@latashahaynesreads]

I try to not pick up books over 400 pages. I’m horrible at committing too much time to a single story. I can’t even sit through most movies 😬

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I find it really hard to sit through a film unless I’m watching it with someone else. I just end up thinking that I’d rather be reading

[@DuncanMcCurdie]

Yes for books since the 80s. Most fiction doesn’t need to be longer than 200 pages.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I think that's the golden number. That and 100 minutes for movies.

[@DuncanMcCurdie]

@@CriminOllyBlog 2min 30sec pop songs. Ha!

[@ITCamefromthePage]

This is a personal attack as Wolves of the Calla is my next Audiobook LOL. I love SUPER LONG Audiobooks but reading super long books is something that doesn't happen easily for me anymore. But usually when I am diving into a long audiobook it's for health reasons, so I need a long distraction. It is funny my last two 5 star reads were on opposite sides of the spectrum. Nightwing which was about 250 and then Wizard and Glass which was well over 700 pages. It is very funny because I am not much of a TV guy but I absolutely LOVE movies. The serialization of Network Television normal has some padding that makes me less interested in finishing. I love the X-Files but I have been watching that show off and on for like 6 years. This year I have been reading a lot more than I have been watching movies, which is unusual, but I've been enjoying it. I play videogames mainly as background for a long audiobook. Tetris is great for keeping me focused on an audiobook for example.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

😂😂 sorry about that. I do think with TV in particular that an amount of padding has become common. That’s one thing I like about shows made for streaming services, they aren’t so tied to a particular episode or season length

[@ITCamefromthePage]

@@CriminOllyBlog 100%. There's always like a week or two a year where I suddenly become interested in TV again and plough through a streaming services catalogue which is much easier due to the shorter length.

[@cafecryptic]

My most recent read was Purge by Sofi Oksanen, 390 pages and absolutely amazing. I think books like this one that manage to hold the suspense from 1st to last page get fewer and fewer the longer the book gets. That being said, I do think it depends on the genre. I also think that the longer a book is, the shorter the chapters should be to facilitate the breaking up of one's reading time. I don't mind longer chapters in shorter books. But now that I'm thinking about it, I'm wondering about the balance between long books and a series of short books? Hmmm.... this sounds like a crazy rabbit hole.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I’m really a big fan of long series of short books. It gives you natural breaks in a way that long books don’t. Not heard of Purge, but it looks good!

[@TangibleReads]

I have started to notice books are so much longer theses days. I mean 600 pages is a commitment. I generally find about 300 pages at least can be cut from most of what I read

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah agreed, editors don't do that much anymore I think

[@mediumjohnsilver]

I held just the last six books in one hand. And indeed, I prefer to read multiple short books rather than one long book. The last ten books that I read were: - _The Hunger and Other Stories_ by Charles Beaumont (208 pages) - _The Shadow Volume 78:_ The Circle of Death & The Sledge-Hammer Crimes (128 pages) - _The Left Hand of Darkness_ by Ursula K. LeGuin (341 pages) - _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ by Oscar Wilde (253 pages) - _Dune Messiah_ by Frank Herbert (256 pages) - _Fahrenheit 451_ plus short stories (191 pages) - _Firestarter_ by Stephen King (371 pages) - _The Shadow Volume 79:_ Crime Circus & Noose of Death (128 pages) - _The Invention of Morel_ by Adolpho Bioy Casares (103 pages) - _Avengers Forever_ by Busiek, Stern, and Pacheco (288 pages) By far, the best book of the bunch is the 103 page _Invention of Morel._ I have not read a really long book since _Don Quixote_ in early 2021. (Please pardon the lengthy comment on the appeal of short books.😉 )

[@CriminOllyBlog]

The Invention of Morel sounds interesting, was just reading up on it. I am also very envious of your Shadow volumes. I need to read Dune again and move on in the series!

[@mediumjohnsilver]

@@CriminOllyBlog Fear not. I read _Dune Messiah,_ having never read _Dune._ The prologue brought me up to speed.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@mediumjohnsilver ah that’s useful to know!

[@CDubya.82]

Now now, ive been told its not about length or thickness 😜😅

[@trishbovell9042]

This maxim holds true for me with books as well as films. I’d rather watch a fantastic 3.5 hour movie than a 90 minute awful one.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Agree - wasting time on bad entertainment is always frustrating!

[@lesleyb26]

Totally depends on how much I am enjoying the book. Sometimes I feel sad when I get to the end of something I am enjoying and wish it was longer, other time I'm glad it's over 🤭

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! Hope you get more of the first than the second!

[@lesleyb26]

I watched your vlog about ditching a book after 50 pages if it's not enjoyable. I wish I could do that so yea sometimes I limp to the end but most of the time it's worth the read 📚 😊👍

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@lesleyb26 I think DNFing is really hard to do, but usually worth it!

[@W3TFART]

I’ve got a few hundred on my kobo and kindle

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! That’s cheating

[@W3TFART]

@@CriminOllyBlog but I can hold them both in my hand lol . Have you read the Game of thrones series ? Or just watching it ? I’m listening to the audio books at work and rewatching the series on dvd it seems so rushed watching it after listening to the books .

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@W3TFART I’ve read the first 4 and then paused. I figure I’ll reread them all whenever the series is finished!

[@CewyahAlt]

Don't even have 10 books, wow. I admire your willpower and attention span. :O Would've been cool trying to hold them all in one hand though. Have 2 Spanish dictionaries and a Philosophy book.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thank you!

[@CestKevvie]

YES Books are too long!!! I usually don't like to read books that are more than 300 pages. However, I do like *listening* to longer books, so most classic tomes I ingest as audiobooks. I can't pull out the last 10 physical books I read because they're all packed for my move 🙃 But since I read so few books physically, the stack would include House of Leaves, which I read last December 🌀 I really appreciate that no Christie (except maybe Death on the Nile) is longer than 350 pages. However, Mary Roberts Rinehart often gets longer with her mysteries, oftentimes more than 400 or 450 pages. I know mysteries *should* be shorter, but I believe Rinehart earns those extra pages, and her mysteries really benefit from the extra length.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

You’re not the first person to say that they like listening to rather than reading long books! Holding House of Leaves and pretty much any other book would be a struggle I think! Good luck with the move!

[@krc5210]

Will you be doing a review of Wasp Factory?

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yes. In fact it will be going up today (Thursday) 😊

[@bookssongsandothermagic]

(P.S. to my comment below - I just finished "Nothing but blackened teeth" and it was great to whizz through it in a few hours! - review to come!)

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Excellent! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@ShannonsChannel]

I do think a lot of books would be better with some hard editing. I've said before how Stephen King is hit or miss for me... I see you have Black House there - I read that in high school and liked it, but if I were to pick it up now I would be most likely wanting to get out my red pen and edit it down!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! Yeah I haven’t read that one yet. King is definitely someone whose work would benefit from a tougher editorial hand.

[@ShannonsChannel]

@@CriminOllyBlog Absolutely. I don't think it's a coincidence that his 1st published book was a novella... and many of his best works have been novellas (many of which were turned into movies). Once you get that famous and have that many fans, you can publish anything and it will sell... it's the same with music I think. Often an artist's best work is their debut album. You have to try so much harder and be so much better in the beginning.

[@Arven8]

I can't deal with books that run 800 pages anymore. I just don't have the time. I hear books like Count of Monte Cristo or Three Musketeers being recommended, and I go "nope," strictly based on length. Same with the SF/F epics Sanderson et al turn out -- I just can't be bothered to read all that. Not now. I'm in an "experimental" phase where I want to try a lot of new writers and genres. I can't do that if I'm strapped to a single book for a month. If I were more settled in my reading tastes/habits -- in less of an experimental phase -- then I might feel differently; I might be willing to commit to a single 800-1000 page book then. And in the past, I have (e.g., Lonesome Dove was a great read 5 years ago). But not now, and not for the foreseeable future. I like either short story collections or novels that run around 200 or 300 pages.

[@maxwellquipey1]

Books are 200 pages Movies are 2 hours Shows are 20 minutes

[@Kikilang60]

I just finished Lee Child's book "Make Me". I think he should've called the book "Mother's Rest" but Mr Grant knows exactly what he is doing. The last four books I read were Child's and their design are similar. The subjects and setting were completely different, but the structure and writing were clonish. Child's writing is more professional than the artist's. If his book is too long, it wasn't written for you. I've read books by artists that are too long. Editors are professionals who fix the work of artists. One of the most pressing dilemmas in publishing is the scarcity of professional editors.

[@Kikilang60]

Four books.

[@Kikilang60]

You might assume I like reading Lee Childs. He's okay, but I like shorter books No one lives forever. Still, I try to understand why an author is popular. Honestly? Childs is better than he appears. Most readers would never notice but skills bring the audience back. The main protagonist is Behemus with a mind like Sherlock Holmes. The character knows he cold-hearted sociopath but he is plagued with pity for petty-minded people. Most fans are unaware of this. For a fan, he beats up people. Not fun to read but interesting to figure out.

[@contrabandresearch8409]

Most books probably shouldn't be over 150 pages. I'm a very slow reader, so I really feel the long stretches of books where nothing happens, characters sit around talking, weird asides with their parents who pop into the story mostly just to be judgement crybabies, and absolutely painful sections where characters make coffee. You could say those are the real interesting parts of a story, but to me they are huge wastes of time.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah I think there’s definitely a fine balance between adding detail which gives colour to the story and characters and slowing the plot right down.

[@arekkrolak6320]

Many books are too long. I may not necessarily put Abominable in this rank, Dan Simmons uses his pages well :)

[@CriminOllyBlog]

He does, I still haven't read Abominable, but Drood and The Terror definitely justified their length

[@muskndusk]

I can't get the last ten physical books I read. Since about 2008 I've been reading only ebooks (starting with the Sony prs 505). I have reference books and art books which are physical, but I just dip into those. I remember the 1980s fashion for long blockbusters. If it wasn't long, it didn't sell. What about the Victorian thumpers - when literate people had time to read? So I don't think novels are longer now than they used to be. Les Mis and The Count of Monte Cristo are enormous, not to mention War and Peace etc etc. Many books in the Victorian era were published in weekly installments. The author had to be as good as facebook or any other modern media at making the reader need to purchase the next installment, to find out what happened - one reason why Dickens' books are so successful, especially after he was influenced by Wilkie Collins. Sorry, seem to be ranting!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

My first e-reader was a PRS-505 as well! Absolutely loved it and then I sold my soul to Amazon 😂 Very fair points about long books!

[@chrisgomes5048]

Definitely shorter books - especially horror. I prefer short story collections and anthologies. Until recently, I used to think Horror Novel was an oxymoron. I've enjoyed Stephen King's "mid-sized" novels and short story collections (e.g. Salem's Lot is my favorite SK novel) but I don't have the patience to read his epic-length novels (after reading IT I said "Never again"). On the other hand, some writers have succeeded in writing epic horror - e.g. Dan Simmons. I enjoy long books, but they tend to be non-fiction - e.g. Antony Beevor's Stalingrad or Apsley Cherry-Garrard's The Worst Journey In The World. Come to think of it, these aren't huge by most standards. I usually read several books at a time. One of them is usually long (over 600 pages) and I expect it to take 2 or 3 months to get through. The others are much shorter (or they are collections/anthologies where I can read a story in a single sitting). You make great points about about all of the things today that compete for our reading time - e.g. social media, tv ... etc. When I was in my 20s (before the internet) I was one of those annoying guys who would smuggly declare "I don't own a tv" and I probably read over 100 books/year. Today I use Goodreads as an accountability tool - I use the Reading Challenge to force myself to read a minimum number of books each year. That feels wrong though - a very corporate attitude towards reading: Not reading (strictly) for pleasure, but reading to maintain the appearance of being a "productive" reader. Before the Pandemic, I commuted to work on public transportation. I used to get a lot of reading done on the train. Now I don't get as much done as I would like. Nce topic! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Thanks Chris! I have that Stalingrad book on my Kindle, I must get to it some time. I think the longer form can work really well for non fiction - sometimes it is necessary to really immerse yourself in a topic.

[@JRCSalter]

I like big books and I cannot lie. Stephen King once compared short works to a kiss or a fling, while longer works, he compared to a marriage. Each one has their benefits, but I like the longer works because I want to get lost in the world. While shorter books can achieve this to an extent, longer books have the advantage, describing every detail of the world. This is especially relevant for fantasy or science fiction where worldbuilding is often essential. I can pick up a short book and be done with it fairly quickly, but not feel like I've experienced the story. It's like reading a wikipedia article; I get the story, but not the substance. Of course, this is not true in every case, and it depends on the story being told. If the story is almost entirely from one or two characters' POV, or only takes place over a few days, then I can get the same from the shorter work as the longer stuff (Mistborn Era Two is just as fleshed out as Era One, despite being significantly shorter). Big books just excite me. When I begin one, I feel like I'm about to embark on an epic journey, with loads of new things to discover, strange lands to walk through, and a massive host of new characters to meet. Once I've finished my current series, I'm going to start Malazan Book of the Fallen, a monumental task that I cannot wait to get to.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I do need to read Malazan at some point. Steve Donoghue did a response video on this and made the excellent point that when you read a long book you end up living with it for a while. There will be many days whilst you are reading it (but not when you're actually reading) when you can reflect on the events and characters. Long books are definitely a different kind of experience than short ones.

[@General_reader]

Two books

[@CriminOllyBlog]

They must have been big ones!

[@bookssongsandothermagic]

I think this is a great debate - something for a livestream? You haven't done that yet have you Olly? - such a complex subject...people like Stephen King are brilliant at world building and creating real life characters - which is usually why his books can be long....but then he's great at short stories....other authors like Shirley Jackson, HG Wells, Blake Crouch, Ursula Le Guin do the world building in a much shorter style and write great books while doing that...and people like Douglas Adams, Robert Sheckley and Yahtzee Croshaw have to stick to a short book to get the humour done right (I think). If a book is amazing, it still might feel amazing even if you would love it just as much 100 pages shorter....but that version doesn't exist. If I think about my favourite books - on average - 300 pages is a good number; I think you can do so much with 300 pages and still have that brisk pace. It would be interesting to think about which authors would lose their style or quality from taking out the idiosyncratic "padding". Maybe it's not padding if it's character work. Becky Chambers' books would be 50 pages long if you took the character building out of them. Hahaha

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! Good point re Becky Chambers! I agree that 300 pages seems a good lengthy from pretty much any type of book. I think with some authors though, like King, you know what you’re getting into. You know it’s going to be long, but you know why, so it’s kind of okay if that makes sense