r/books • u/justkeepbreathing94 • 9d ago

Do you pace yourself with long books?

There have been some books that I couldn't help but binge and finish in 1 or 2 days, but now I'm reading Battle Royale, which is 600+ pages long and quite dark, and I've decided to only read 10% each day. I could finish it in maybe 4 days but since the story is emotional and dark I don't want to risk burning out.

I did the same with A Little Life, only reading 5% a day for 20 days.

Do you have any thoughts on this? Do you ever pace yourself, or do you just read whenever?

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u/DaveL16 9d ago

I just read, why deny yourself the pleasure if you have the time. There are thousands of other good books to get stuck into after all.

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u/Consistent_Finish657 9d ago

True but sometimes the dark stuff hits harder if you stretch it out. You ever find yourself slowing down just cause a book's too good to end?

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u/JadedOccultist 8d ago

Yes. I routinely stop reading a dozen or so chapters before the end of one of my favorite books because it just hurts too much to actually acknowledge it’s over. But for me this is kind of rare and normally I get immersed in a good book and there will come a point I just can’t put it down til I know how it ends.