MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - I Don't Want to Know How Much of the Book Is Left

J. Strnad · 11-16-2010, 09:59 PM

For me, it's the contrast between real life and fiction.

Real life is messy and disorganized. You don't know how much of it you have and many things just seem to happen without any particular cause-and-effect. And you certainly can't be assured of a happy ending!

I go to fiction to give order to the chaos, to find a sense of structure that real life lacks, to see the good guys win and the bad guys lose. This is "fiction" to me.

So, I do like to know where I am in a book. It's comforting. If I wanted to be uncomfortable, I'd watch the news.

I recently read The #1 Ladies Detective Agency and it came to an abrupt halt about 15 pages before the anticipated end. The rest of the pages were promos for more books in the series and other books by that author. I hated that.

My book, Risen, includes five short stories after the novel ends. This is one reason I believe that a table of contents is important. The automatic formating of Amazon and Smashwords doesn't give me the control that I want, but I do have a standing offer to send an epub with a clickable table of contents to anyone who buys the "meatgrinder" version through Smashwords, B&N, Kobo, Sony, etc. I really believe that knowing where you are in a book is important to enough people that ebook publishers need to make the progress through the book transparent.

If someone can and wants to turn off the progress bar, that's great. I admire their spirit of adventure. But for most readers, I do believe that an accurate way to judge your progress through the book is essential.

11-16-2010, 09:59 PM	#40
J. Strnad Guru Posts: 915 Karma: 3537194 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Kobo, Kindle 3, Paperwhite	For me, it's the contrast between real life and fiction. Real life is messy and disorganized. You don't know how much of it you have and many things just seem to happen without any particular cause-and-effect. And you certainly can't be assured of a happy ending! I go to fiction to give order to the chaos, to find a sense of structure that real life lacks, to see the good guys win and the bad guys lose. This is "fiction" to me. So, I do like to know where I am in a book. It's comforting. If I wanted to be uncomfortable, I'd watch the news. I recently read The #1 Ladies Detective Agency and it came to an abrupt halt about 15 pages before the anticipated end. The rest of the pages were promos for more books in the series and other books by that author. I hated that. My book, Risen, includes five short stories after the novel ends. This is one reason I believe that a table of contents is important. The automatic formating of Amazon and Smashwords doesn't give me the control that I want, but I do have a standing offer to send an epub with a clickable table of contents to anyone who buys the "meatgrinder" version through Smashwords, B&N, Kobo, Sony, etc. I really believe that knowing where you are in a book is important to enough people that ebook publishers need to make the progress through the book transparent. If someone can and wants to turn off the progress bar, that's great. I admire their spirit of adventure. But for most readers, I do believe that an accurate way to judge your progress through the book is essential.