What are you reading in 2025?

[Ralif Redhammer]

But a long book doesnt need to justify its lenght?

I definitely prefer shorter works to longer. Not that I don't think the world of certain long-form works. But for me, a book really needs to work to justify its page count once it creeps over 300 pages. Plenty of books do, but I can't count the number of books that I think would've been better off shaving 50-100 pages, or divided into smaller books. Heck, I would posit that if A Song of Ice and Fire had been released as a longer series of 200-400 page books, GRRM wouldn't be stuck these past 14 years.

 

[Parmandur]

I definitely prefer shorter works to longer. Not that I don't think the world of certain long-form works. But for me, a book really needs to work to justify its page count once it creeps over 300 pages. Plenty of books do, but I can't count the number of books that I think would've been better off shaving 50-100 pages, or divided into smaller books. Heck, I would posit that if A Song of Ice and Fire had been released as a longer series of 200-400 page books, GRRM wouldn't be stuck these past 14 years.

I have literally never felt like I wanted any book to be shorter...? Whereas I am frequently left wanting more. Sometimes from the longer books!

 

[gnarlygninja]

I strongly preferred books that were long when I was younger, but this has been a huge shift over the past decade, and now a book needs to be very good for me to bother with it over a certain length. As a result fantasy, which was once my favorite genre, has largely been abandoned since the genre seems reluctant to move past the doorstopper which is always part of a series of equally long books. The realization hit me when I read Joe Abercrombie's Age of Madness earlier this year, which I hated so much it made me question my memory of his earlier work. The length was a big part of that, I frequently kept finding myself wondering why parts were even in the book and then realizing there were hundreds of pages left. I feel the same way about video games, some genres have a similar obsession with how many hours you can sink into them, and movies. I'm no stranger to the feeling of getting to the end of a book and being sad it's over, but I don't think I'd enjoy most books I felt that way toward if they had overstayed their welcome.

 

[Autumnal]

That helps, but she did have non-People stories like "Something Bright". I need to really see if there's a digital edition of The Anything Box.

There’s a matching volume, Believing, with all of her non-People stories.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I have literally never felt like I wanted any book to be shorter...? Whereas I am frequently left wanting more. Sometimes from the longer books!

Tastes vary, and that's okay. There are plenty of books that left me wanting more, but to my mind that feeling is okay. When I was a teenager, I had the opportunity to talk to Clive Barker at a signing. I asked him if there was ever going to be a sequel to Imajica, a book I desperately wanted to see more of the world of, despite its 800+ page count. When he replied no, as a kid I was disappointed. But as I've gotten older, I understand that not every story has to tell everything.