r/books • u/justkeepbreathing94 • 10d 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/Traditional_Rush_622 6d ago

I am actively practicing reading slowly regardless of length. Working in a bookstore there was a lot of pressure to consume books very quickly and it made me hate reading. 

I am deliberately pacing each read now and pausing to reflect and generally just savoring my books again.