Intimidating Page Counts
I guess let's first ignore the font size and line spacing sizes. Let's just look at page count. At what count do you feel like a book becomes intimidating? Like you still want to read the book but you think, oh boy, this will take awhile to read! I feel like for me the closer to 500 pages we get, the more I think about how long it will take to finish.
Then when you look at Jennifer L. Armentrout's FBAA books and pretty much any SJM book these days, I think oh gawd! Those will take at least two weeks, for me! I'm a slow reader as it is! Then i also feel like with these two in particular, my expectations are set very very high as everyone loves and raves about these books. And I enjoy them too.
But again we get that, could this have been 100-200 pages shorter? I mean was ALL that description necessary? Did we have to focus SO much on mundane moments that feel like should've been on the cutting room floor?
Knowing that these 500+ page books will be filled with things like this, also adds to the intimidation for me! That's why I am SOOO behind on the FBAA series. I think I read the 4th book last year, so now I'm ready to flip back over to the prequel series for the second book I believe? And then because I read so slow these books take longer to consume and I'm almost exhausted afterwards and need some nice quicker reads that aren't as heavy. Both literally and figuratively! Lol. Like give me a nice paperback read for a book or two!
But yeah, I feel like when ANY book becomes over 500 pages I am just feel intimidated and maybe dragging my feet to read it right away. Like I still need to read the last CC book from SJM. I had meant to read it in December or so, but then I had flitted between reading Yarros' latest reads but then ended up finishing Bray's The Diviners series which were apart of the aforementioned intimidating reads as the second book was 600+ pages and I think the last two were 500+ but nearing that 600 marker! So yeah, after that I was like, something short, something light and fresh! But I went with a medium heavy fantasy series for another upcoming author signing that had the books at 400+ pages I believe. It wasn't until after I finished THOSE books that I went a nice easy going mystery series at just cresting the 300+ page mark! Nice, easy, light reads and then I even added on the one that will release next week to read ahead of the signing I plan to attend! Lol.
Adding in font size and line spacing size can make a huge difference too! If the book leans towards the smaller font and near non-existent line spacing but only checks in at mid 400+ page count, I can still be intimidated because I'm thinking wow, that is a LOT of words for one page! You throw that formatting in on the 500+ page and then I am really intimidated! Lol.
So I'm curious. Am I the only one that feels this way? I know with kindles/ereaders one can change the font and size...but that usually works against me in making a "lesser" page and it takes more "screen clicks" to make 1 real book page and my own pacing throws me off and it just gets worse! Like the last few ebooks I read I had to switch to my ipad as that was a bigger screen and felt more "book like" page when it came to the formatting.
Do page counts intimidate you? Or are you still ready to plunge into the book at a moment's notice? I feel like I need to be significantly ahead in my Goodreads challenge to allow time for spending on one very long book and then I am reluctant to do it again in the same calendar year! Lol.
