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You're right, of course, Dennis. Patience can pay off big time.
Most folks, though, need to become involved very early in story and/or characters and/or style or a book's a no-finisher. Consider, for instance, how Lord of the Rings was treated in cinema (a not entirely unsuccessful medium) to set and maintain pace for a mass audience.
I'm by no means criticising your admirable approach (in fact, I envy it), just pointing out that patience is a rare virtue today, even among those who practice the leisurely art of reading words on a page.
And I must confess that I do have infinite patience with books of an earlier era with fewer entertainment options to distract and whose authors did not have to measure up to today's keen competition for our snatched leisure time.
Even now, there are happy exceptions to the on-your-marks-get-set-go big sellers that move at a gentler pace. They win literary prizes and earn rave reviews. They also tend to have smaller readerships, though.
Cheers and happy reading. Neil
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