The Reading Vent & Rant Thread

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Just type that into search. The first two hits on Duck Duck Go assume it's based on Twilight. Certainly Bella is an abused doormat.

Sure did, the gods help us all, wasn't it Twifright Fan Fic?

Hitch

[ownedbycats]

I bought several books for Christmas and read them all in the span of a few hours. Oops?

[Renate]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I bought several books for Christmas and read them all in the span of a few hours. Oops?

You should buy books in a language that you don't know.
That will slow you down some.

[Witty Username]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I bought several books for Christmas and read them all in the span of a few hours. Oops?

You're going to need a bigger book.

[DNSB]

One friend of mine was complaining that the last 3 books they read were shorter than 40,000 words making them novellas rather than novels. One of them was the third in a series where the first book had 60,000 words, the second had 49,000 and the third had 39.000. The trilogy is now complete so no 4th book to look forward to.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

One friend of mine was complaining that the last 3 books they read were shorter than 40,000 words making them novellas rather than novels. One of them was the third in a series where the first book had 60,000 words, the second had 49,000 and the third had 39.000. The trilogy is now complete so no 4th book to look forward to.

There is most definitely a trend in some genres toward shorter. NO argument. The entire alternate-universe sci-fi/fantasy supernatural arena, that was first populated by the Anita Blakes and Harry Dresdens. Now those come out like popcorn from the popcorn machine, nearly 3-4-6 "novels" a year, all around ...oh, I'd say 40-45K words tops? They live and die on Kindle Unlimited where everybody seems to get hat they want. The readers get new short tales, and the author gets money, and KDP/Amazon gets traffic.

I admit I miss the longer reads! I remember at least a few occasions, in my life, when I was going thither and yon, or travelling or whatever and I literally bought books in the bookstore based on the sheer vastness of the spine! LOL.

Hitch

[maddz]

In a way, we're going back to Golden Age novel lengths. They were, what, 40-45K words? The 100K blockbusters from the 90s onwards seem to be going out of fashion. In some ways, I prefer the tighter writing in the shorter length works; too many longer works feel padded.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by maddz

In a way, we're going back to Golden Age novel lengths. They were, what, 40-45K words? The 100K blockbusters from the 90s onwards seem to be going out of fashion. In some ways, I prefer the tighter writing in the shorter length works; too many longer works feel padded.

If the story was fitted into the 40-45K words, I would be okay with that length. As it is, you are getting a 120-130K words book broken into 3 or more volumes in most cases.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by maddz

In a way, we're going back to Golden Age novel lengths. They were, what, 40-45K words? The 100K blockbusters from the 90s onwards seem to be going out of fashion. In some ways, I prefer the tighter writing in the shorter length works; too many longer works feel padded.

I don't mind a 200K novel, as long as it's not padded. Also I'd rather have a 35K that properly tells the story rather than one padded to 100K.
My advice to writers is ignore the word count.
My advice to publishers, judge a story on its merits, not size (that only affects paper print & distribution cost as Amazon ebook delivery charge is small), nor any other criteria (glances at the house full of random penguins and puffins).

I also don't like a single novel artificially broken into a trilogy. That's only acceptable for movies and radio-plays due to length if it's going to be 4 to 7 hours!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I also don't like a single novel artificially broken into a trilogy. That's only acceptable for movies and radio-plays due to length if it's going to be 4 to 7 hours!

It's inevitable once the word count exceeds a certain limit. How, for example, would you print "The Wheel of Time" with its 4.5 million words? In essence, it's all one long continous story. The same goes for many other fantasy behemoths (A Song of Ice and Fire, Stormlight Archive, Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and so on). There's just no way to release them on paper as single novels. Even The Lord of the Rings was barely possible to be released in one volume.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Hitch

There is most definitely a trend in some genres toward shorter. NO argument. The entire alternate-universe sci-fi/fantasy supernatural arena, that was first populated by the Anita Blakes and Harry Dresdens. Now those come out like popcorn from the popcorn machine, nearly 3-4-6 "novels" a year, all around ...oh, I'd say 40-45K words tops? They live and die on Kindle Unlimited where everybody seems to get hat they want. The readers get new short tales, and the author gets money, and KDP/Amazon gets traffic.

I admit I miss the longer reads! I remember at least a few occasions, in my life, when I was going thither and yon, or travelling or whatever and I literally bought books in the bookstore based on the sheer vastness of the spine! LOL.

Hitch

I remember when I was younger, picking up a long book and reading and find out I've read at least 1/2 by the time I stopped.

The problem with some series is that you get short stories published in a book with other short stories that you have no interest in and either you miss out on that short or you waste money on the book you mostly don't want. That really is annoying.

[Uncle Robin]

Basic gaffes in serious nonfiction histories are suprising and disappointing: Currently reading A History of Modern Lebanon by Fawwaz Traboulsi and this anachronism caught my eye

In 1924, the French mandatory authorities decided to settle Armenian refugees in Syria and Lebanon and naturalise them. In Lebanon, Emile Edde welcomed the decision as it increased the number of Christians in the country, as Muslim politicians opposed it. Two years later, High Commissioner de Jouvenel ordered the implementation of settlement and naturalisation. The United Nations supported his decision though it was implementing a project of settling Armenian refugees in Soviet Armenia. In 1929,

e.a.

If I read this correctly, the United Nations supported a decision made around 20 years before the United Nations existed.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

If I read this correctly, the United Nations supported a decision made around 20 years before the United Nations existed.

Heh. Fortunately, I never notice those mistakes, because I can never remember any dates. I have no memory for numbers at all.

[JSWolf]

What I find annoying is errors in the eBook that are not in the pBook and both were released on the same day.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

It's inevitable once the word count exceeds a certain limit. How, for example, would you print "The Wheel of Time" with its 4.5 million words?

Yes, there are outliers!
It should be 5 or 6 volumes. Massively padded. I have all of it but gave up about 1/2 way on book 11 or 12 or something.

I agree there are a few genuinely epic single stories that on print need split to separate volumes. I think Tolkien may have wanted LOTR as one book. You can get it as a single unwieldy paper pack (doesn't matter as eBook), but the 6 books (publisher or Tolkien?) are usually in three volumes. I have also a lovely Folio Soc. edition I was given (3 vols and matching Hobbit & Silmarillion), but I think if I read it again it will be as an ebook as I find the text a bit small now.