I just added a book to my Amazon wish list, and then noticed it's 624 pages long! :blink:

I get intimidated by very long books, and even if they sound interesting I may never choose to read them. (HP is the exception.)

Another deterrent for me is font size. If it's really small, I won't read the book, unless I can find the same book in a different size with different font.

I also have issues with really old books. I went through 3 copies of The Color Purple before I finally read it. It took a newer copy with large font to get me to read it.

Anyone else have issues like this? :huh:

Yeah I don't like small font either. I will buy an extremely long book but I have a hard time starting it, lately I don't even want to read a book thats more than 300 pages long. :lol: Too much work.
I won't say cover art or title will stop me from buying a book but I have bought books based only on the title or cover art.
I'm sure theres more since obsessors like us tend to have many book buying/choosing/reading quirks.

If its long, there is no way I'll read it... HP being the only exception so far.

And I do tend to judge books by their covers.. I know, I'm bad :whip: Sometimes if the cover is really crappy like an old book and the cover just looks well, stupid, then I will more than likely not read the book.


On the other note, something that'll make me more likely to read the book is making a movie of it. Take the Lord of the Rings for example, I tried to read the Hobbit, and didn't like it very much, and the Lord of the rings is a long ass book. But the movies looked REALLY good, so I decided to read the book first, and turns out now its my favorite book! And after reading the Lord of the Rings, I did try to go back and read the Hobbit, but still didn't make it very far.

I also did the same thing with the Bridge to Terabitha... I liked the book a lot more than the movie.

Another thing that will keep me from reading a book is if it is not all one story. Like those books that have 3 stories in them. I don't know why, but I end up reading part of one of the stories and just chunking the book. I have made it all the way thru one story in one of the books one time, but that was it. I have no real idea why, but I just can't stand those. There is an exception to that rule tho... if it is a book of like say fairy tales then I'll read 'em, but the anthologies I never make it thru. Now if they are true short stories, like 10 -20 pages, I'll make it thru them and enjoy reading it.. but for some reason those ones with 3 in a book I just can't do. To me it seams like they are trying to take a novel and edit it so that it fits into 1/3 of a novel. I did get the book Naughty Fairy Tales from A to Z from my May Day Partner, and I'm dying to read it... I'm a bit too worried to read it at work.. may not look too good, but as soon as I get home, I'm gonna start reading that one!!!

I tend to do that too. I'll buy a book just because of the cover art, or the title because I think its something I'll like. Sometimes it ends up being something I really can't stand.

:ditto:

:lol:

I can tell you guys aren't avid fantasy readers.

624 pages doesn't make me blink. It takes probably 1000 or so to do that.

And 300 is positively short.

When I was your age, Kel and NMZ, those things never bothered me. Now, though, I cannot read most mass market paperbacks without using a hand-held magnifier. Far too much trouble unless the book is hard-to-find and I'm very eager to read it. My attention span is shorter than it was when I was 25, so I don't like to read books much over 300 pages, either.

I still don't mind older books with crumbling dust jackets or yellow pages, though! :lol:

I love anthologies of short stories, but can't read them one after the other in the same day. I have to put the book down and wait at least overnight to read the next story. Same with most nonfiction: a chapter a day, and that's it.

Though I prefer books with 300 - 400 or so pages, I will read longer ones. I tend to put them off longer though. I've found myself putting those on my bedside table now and starting out by reading a couple of pages each night until it really grabs my attention.

One of my big peeves with books now is using larger than normal print, double spacing lines and leaving entire pages blank when a chapter ends to justify selling the book at a higher price. A perfect example of this for me is Laurell K. Hamilton's Micah. This was obviously a short story and should have been in an anthology. But heaven forbid, LKH actually publish anything other than an excerpt of an upcoming hardback in an anthology so they were guilty of all the three things I mentioned in order to justify selling it as a stand alone paperback for $8. :angry2:

I'm also guilty of being seduced or swayed by cover art. :blush:

As for the Lord of the Rings - I managed to get through Fellowship, but I don't think I made it halfway through Two Towers. I loved the movies, but the books are just too detailed for me and tend to bog down. I realize when they were written they didn't have tv and movies were no where near what we have now. Tolkien had to paint a vivid picture of his fantasy world, but :blink: . I may finished them one of these days.

Tolkein didn't give a crap about the world. Okay... not entirely true... but the world wasn't his main goal, nor was the story.

Tolkein was a linguist.

He wrote those books so he would have a world for the languages he created.

That's why they're so dry.

Ditto for me on the cover art!!


I tried to read The Hobbit, but couldn't get into it. I didn't make any effort to read the rest of the Tolkiens, even though I loved all three films. :shrug:

I was using the word "world" in a way a too generalized way but was meaning to incorporate that as well. Just basically he didn't have the media technology then that we have now, thus he had to be much more descriptive and detailed. I've read enough of the LotR to realize they would have lost something without the languages he created.

I've noticed that about a most fantasy novels/series. They tend to have their own terms and languages - Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, Melaine Rawn - Dragon Prince & Dragon Star trilogies, Jennifer Robinson's Cheysuli Chronicles and Sword Dancer series - just to name a few. But that's all part of inventing a fantasy world.

600 pages wouldn't put me off, but I've got a couple here that are over 1000 and I can't face picking them up at the minute!

I agree on the small font though - I find it off-putting even though my eyes are fine! It just takes more concentration!

Old books don't bother me, as long as they don't feel dusty. I can't bear it when the pages feel all old and musty, if you know what I mean!

I can't think of anything other than not liking a certain genre that would be put me off reading it. :erm:

Hmmm... well, I'm not intimidated by a books length, but I definitely have to be in the mood for a longer read... I find they often sit longer on TBR, just because I don't want to start them until I feel I can dedicate the time to really immerse myself in them, and those kinds of blocks of time are rare these days, you know?

A few years ago I had a massive biography sitting on TBR that I decided to pull off just because it was by far the longest thing I had, and forced myself to plow through... it was interesting, I'm glad I read it, but yeah, definitely have to be in the mood for a longer book like that.

Font size doesn't normally bother me, although I had a nonfiction book a few years back that I really struggled with because it was written in teeny-tiny print and there wasn't much space between lines either... ick!

Cover art can be a huge influence, great cover art can cause me to pick up a book I would never have read otherwise, awful cover art can keep me from taking a chance on a book.

As far as book vs. movie, I realized recently that I have much better luck with watching the movie first and then reading the book! :lol: The book then enriches my enjoyment of the movie. And, there are some movies that I enjoy, but don't want to bother with the book! Like LOTR... enjoyed the movies, but have no desire to try the books again.

I agree with cheesy, there are some genres I have little desire to read.

But the main thing with me is that I just have to balance my selections - meaning, if I read a long book, then I feel like my next read should be short. If I read a book with small font, I want to give me eyes a break by then reading something with a larger font, etc. I even find I like to alternate the genres I like, so for example, I won't usually read two cozy mysteries in a row. I guess variety is the spice of reading! (for me) ;)

good topic. length of the novel is a biggie with me; 300 pages is waaaaay too much for me when it comes to romance and chick lit (need it short or not at all), and I generally won't pick non-genre stuff that is super-long either. I'm more likely to pick up a long (400+) book if I'm familiar with the author or maybe got a recommendation because of another book I read.

(A side-note because people are mentioning the Hobbit: I never would have read the Hobbit except that when I was in 11th grade I "mentored" in a 9th grade remedial class. The teacher and I read the book aloud to the students while they followed along in their own copies; I read the narration and the teacher read all the dialogue (he did fantastic voices!) It was so much fun to experience the book that way and I'm glad I was able to enjoy it.)

I'm the opposite of nmz when it comes to books and movies; if I've seen a movie, I'm pretty much never going to read the book. I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies just fine, but I'm never going to dedicate that much time to reading the books. And I feel bad about it, too. :blush:

I thought liking the genre was a given. Even with extra pretty cover art, if it's not a genre I like, I'm not going to read it.

Now I have read books and not like them, but still kept them because I liked the cover art. Is that weird or what? :unsure:

:ditto2: :rofl:


Although I do find myself reading fewer of them lately because while the length doesn't put me off in general, owing an 800 page book as a TBR is an intimidating thought. I'm very unlikely to offer those in a swap or bb if I haven't already read them, and since so many of the books I read are owed TBRs.... :rolleyes:

It's only the really small print that bothers me, but I've run into a couple books where I had that problem too. Actually, large print books annoy me -- as in, the kind specially printed for people who don't see well.

Books with super-short chapters that then start each new chapter on a fresh page bug the heck out of me too. It's just not good when my first impression of a book is "what a waste of paper!" because if they'd reformated it, it'd be 2/3 the length! :blink: :lol: (So for those of you who don't like long books, you might want to note that all James Patterson's stuff tends to be only 2/3 as long as the page number misleads you to believe. What a waste of paper! :P ) So yeah, I'd agree with Casey that novellas which get sold as full-price novels by increasing font size and spacing are pretty peevish too!

Here's what I like in a book:

-- old books (yes even musty ones) as long as I can read the text.
-- books by a certain short list of authors
-- short chapters
-- books that aren't aimed at me (a 30s something white middleclass female)

Here's what I hate in a book:

-- stupid sounding pen names.
-- books aimed at me
-- books with no chapters (most of Terry Pratchett, unfortunately)
-- books that everyone else are reading

I assume you don't mean while being thrown at you :rofl:

Was I the only one that immediately thought that :shrug:

Uhm...yeah, I think so! :lol:

Silly Patti! :bash: