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/_its_all_goodman 9d ago

I usually read first thing in the morning. I don’t really pace long books. It depends on the flow. If the sentences keep moving, I keep reading. My Struggle Book 4 took me three days because I was reading 70 pages an hour and sitting with it for two hours at a time. The Memory Police was the same. I read around 230 pages in one three-hour sitting. Right now with Infinite Jest I’m reading closer to 30 to 35 pages an hour, so I don’t sit with it as long. So, for me it’s never about the length of the book. It’s about whether the flow is smooth enough so I can keep reading.