Quote:
Originally Posted by cvkemp
I really do not care what the size of the book is if I want to read it I do. I am a scanner I will read the first chapter or the lead in then I will read the last chapter of the book and scan the chapter in between, before read the whole book. It is something that I was taught to do in reading classes I got in school and college. It first lets me decide if I want to read it, then second it gives me some reference to how fast I can read it and get the information I need. As a computer engineer, and hardware engineer I needed information as fast as I could get it. And most of the time I did not have time to read the whole book or even chapter.
Now that I am retired I can take my time to read what I want to and what I enjoy reading. I my stress levels are so much better.
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I would NEVER read or skim the last chapter of a book early!! Anathema! Not with fiction, anyway. But I do hold with [100 minus your-age] as the number of pages at which one can decide to chuck a book. Actually, I don't usually pay attention to that, but decide in the first chapter or two. Or, if I've managed to read 5-6 chapters, but still don't really care about the lead characters, I might chuch the book.
Since I read several books per week, while working full time, I vary what I wish to read. In between my chosen series of books, I might pick up one of the freebies that I've downloaded. I like to see how long it is before I start. For books that I *know* I want, the length isn't important. But for total unknowns -- it can matter.
I'm a computer programmer too, and I read very fast. But I still like to know how long an unknown book is. The fact that amazon may be re-instating the dots tells me that a lot of people feel this way, and have complained.