Do You consider the length of a book when you choose it?

I prefer shorter books to longer ones and recently had a discussion with someone who agreed with me. ‘It’s very much onto the next one,’ Pauline Reid, Book Reviewer said.

Others say that length doesn’t matter if the story is good. That’s true to a point. If you read purely for pleasure, then it really is a moot point.

This used to be me. These days, I review every book I read. I also create a graphic and share it on social media. As Pauline said, it’s very much onto the next one, and she, like me always has a book list on the go. Also, as a professional reader, I’m occasionally asked to review a story that doesn’t appeal to me. If I don’t like the writing style, for whatever reason, as I’ve agreed, I don’t have a choice. Luckily those days are few and far between now that I’m more confident in saying no.

I’m more comfortable with a reading length of 200 – 300 pages. Because I get my books from an author’s newsletters or from Facebook posts, I’ve already selected something before I’ve finished my current one. I enjoy reading and don’t like being stuck with the same book for more than a week.

I’ve recently discovered an author who writes novellas. Her stories are typically around 120 pages long. The first series I read was four books, and they could easily have been two. Then, on the other hand, another author had a two-book series and the page count was between 500 and 600. They could easily have been split into four books.

Over the years styles change for both the reader and writer. There is more choice and scope than ever before. It means we readers can choose not only the genre but the length. Nowadays we travel more and have the choice of a good shorter story or take a longer book when we go away on holiday, so it is a win, win, all round.

How do you select your books? Do you care what length they are?

Join me this time next month when I chat about how we readers chose our books before the advent of social media, Amazon, and the Ereader. If you want to tell me how you selected yours, just pop your reply in the comment box below, and I’ll include it.