10-16-2004, 07:15 AM | #1 |
Is papyrophobic!
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Rant: Are Books Too Long?
This guy is arguing that many books are just way too long. To support his critique he mentions:
- Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time - Tad Williams’ Otherland - Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn - Rowland's Harry Potter - Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle These are all books I personally love! (Well except for Wheel of Time that I eventually stopped reading.) Is this guy insane? What about character development? What about the pure joy of knowing that there is just another novel building on top of a wonderful story? What is wrong about a long book if it is well written and not boring? Perhaps this guy should go back to Kindergarten and read Mickey Mouse books for a change. |
10-16-2004, 09:55 AM | #2 |
Technology Mercenary
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As I've been saying for a few years now... this new "Gimme Generation", a generation of people bred on "instant gratification", knows no bounds.
They want access to everything, within seconds, without any excuses. Pathetic. |
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10-16-2004, 09:56 PM | #3 |
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No way! I love long books. If they're enjoyable, I pour through them for hours, and only sleep and eat. A few years ago when I read the 4th Harry Potter, I read it in about 20 hours. Of course around 6 or 7 of that was sleeping.
I just couldn't put the damn thing down! |
10-19-2004, 03:49 PM | #4 |
Nameless Being
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Are books too Long
If the book is a great one - then it cannot be too long. All the Harry Potter ones seem to finish too soon even the Order of the Phoenix! However even though Bill Clinton's Book is mainly interesting it definitely goes on fat too long. So I suppose it depends on how well the bookis written - IMHO Bill Clinton's book is not well written, but that is not necessarily a bad thing - but not written well enough to keep you enthralled.
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10-19-2004, 04:05 PM | #5 | |
fiQQer than the rest
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10-09-2006, 03:47 PM | #6 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Yes, Virginia, books CAN be too long.
I've read a few books in the last few years that I honestly felt were padded with a lot of unneccessary character material that did not advance the story, nor make the characters or action more interesting or understandable. For this reason, I never finished Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series (got through Red Mars, skimmed Green Mars, lost interest 100 pages into Blue Mars. Sorry, Kim.), and I have a few other books that, once I finished, could barely remember what-all I'd read. Obviously, you want detail, you want character development, you want background, you don't want any holes. But there is such a thing as too much exposition, too many character details or historical anecdotes, that do not advance the story. I may enjoy a Star Trek novel about Picard battling a Norsican, but I don't need to be interrupted by a half-chapter on how he first learned to pick out his favorite saddle and take care of it with Sythian leather balm. Unless, of course, the balm reacts unfavorably with the Norsican's skin when Picard drops the saddle on his head... Novels don't have to be long to be good. Brevity and concise writing can be as entertaining as exposition. Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 10-09-2006 at 03:55 PM. |
10-09-2006, 05:11 PM | #7 |
Detective
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Agree with hacker Chaos and Steve.
One can always subscribe to executive book synopsis services if reading is not enjoyable. |
10-09-2006, 05:13 PM | #8 |
just kinda geeky
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It's a definite skill that most writers don't utilize enough, knowing how to scale back on the stream-of-consciousness the call their "inspiration" and boil it down to only the necessary words in the correct order.
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10-09-2006, 05:28 PM | #9 | |
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10-10-2006, 03:21 AM | #10 | |
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Quote:
I've also put this down to publisher demand -- for some reason they find it simpler to sell voluminous books, and won't ask for literary liposuction. A bit like the insistence in Victorian times that all novels should come in three volumes -- or the libraries (or perhaps it was the customers) wouldn't even consider buying them. Looks like we're back at the 3-volume novel size, but all in one cover. |
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10-10-2006, 03:45 AM | #11 | |
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Wheel should have concluded a few books back Goodkind should also wrap up the Sword of truth series pretty soon as they have also been going just a touch too long. on the other hand Trudi Canavans books are all too short excellent writing style and content but I want to read more. Robin Hobb seems to judge the length of her series to perfection. In conclusion my post has gone on too long and no longer even holds my own interest so I shall quit before even making a valid point. |
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10-10-2006, 05:08 AM | #12 |
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When a piece of fiction is generally good, I don't mind a long text (on the contrary, I get sad when a book approaches its end).
But I do everything to avoid bloated non-fiction, including reference books. The more lengthy they are, the more wordy they tend to be, and the harder it becomes to absorb the essence of the content. |
10-10-2006, 09:20 AM | #13 |
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NO! I think that the length of a book is dependent upon the story told. Whether a reader thinks a book is too long is dependent upon the skill of a storyteller. I read Kushiel's Dart when it first came out and was enthralled. That sucker was 900 pages long (?) but I didn't regret a moment spent with it.
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10-10-2006, 10:37 AM | #14 | |
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I love long books as long as there is enough story to keep it going (see: the opposite of WoT). |
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10-10-2006, 10:28 PM | #15 |
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I don't remember which it was, but one publisher I contacted a year ago would only accept novels of "between 300,000 and 600,000 words." I thought that was simply outrageous. And as editors don't seem to be paring books down much, you have to believe publishers are selling books by the word.
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