Mohsin Hamid says readers nowadays expect details and description to be compressed from an epic eight hundred pages into about two hundred pages.
A commenter points out that many “famous” long books, began life as a serial story in a newspaper. In fact, they were originally written in bite-size chunks so today’s readers haven’t changed all that much.
I still like to read long novels for the wealth of characters and detail they offer, but I must confess mostly I read shorter books simply because of the time factor. Long books for me are for vacations. Shorter books are for everyday life.
What do you think?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2013/apr/08/reading-21st-century-mohsin-hamid-fiction
Helen Woodall
helen.woodall@gmail.com
Helen is available to line edit and/ or content edit fiction and non-fiction. Rates on application.
4 comments:
I read very, very fast so a shortie is a lunch read... :-)
That's the beauty of an e-reader. You can have half a dozen books on it then if you get left waiting in line and finish that short book there's always another to read.
Helen
Another fast reader here. For me, a 'long' book is one that's likely to put my back out if I carry it around with me (in paper copy, that is!).
Thanks for another great post!
Deborah
Ah yes Deborah. Those are the kind of books I like to take on airplane trips. Nothing is worse than finishing your book with several hours of the flight still to go.
Helen
Post a Comment