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Originally Posted by Yapyap
I've noticed that I'm finding it much harder to start long books these days - and that I do get restless if I don't finish a book within a day or two.
It's almost as if I see every book as a goal these days, and that goal is to get to the end of it, preferably not taking too long to get there. Which really isn't what it should be - surely the goal is to enjoy what I read...
It troubles me. Usually, once I get going and actually enjoy the book, once I've got into it, I'm quite fine with enjoying the process and the progress, no matter how long it takes, and towards the end of a good book (regardless of length) I often find myself wishing there was more to go, but starting long books - keeping my attention on the book without grabbing my iPad to play something, or get to the computer, or distract myself in some other way, is a lot more difficult than it used to be.
Some people say kids these days have shorter attention spans - I'm not sure it's just kids; I have a feeling that the last decade of information barrage and overwhelming amount of available distractions affects quite a few adults, too.
I think I need to make a conscious effort of including more 500+ page books in my reading again, because it's obviously something where I need to get back into the habit. At least this year has so far already included two ~1000 page books in my reading list, after quite some time, I believe, so it's a step in that direction.
I do prefer 300-500 page books in general, but I used to be perfectly happy with longer works as well (I've never been a short story or novella reader, though) and I don't like the idea of ending up rejecting books that I might enjoy just because they look uncomfortably long.
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I wonder if you have the same problem I do, that of finding it hard to quit anything I start. I've read far too many books where I've reached the end wondering why I bothered to finish it. That 'waste of time' is worse on longer books so I can see it leading to a reluctance to start one unless you're sure you'll enjoy it. For myself it led to being more willing to quit on longer books. There are several series that I've started, gotten 2-3 books into, decided I didn't enjoy it any more & simply gave away the remaining books. (That's one thing I definitely do now is give away books that I don't intend to re-read. Except ebooks. Since there's no used ebook market I simply archive them, for now. I'll get rid of them when a market develops.)