Brevity
I know food inside packaging is shrinking as manufacturers try to convince us that the current round of price rises isn't as bad as we know it to be. But surely that shouldn't apply to books as well?
"Brevity is the soul of wit," says Polonius in Shakespeare's Hamlet (an ironic point for a character who was somewhat verbose). Perhaps I'm just stumbling across particularly clever literature, but if a book length of 70 pages or so is gripping then, a little like the chocolates in the box on the supermarket shelf, I want more.
Conversely if the writing is awful then you might think I've been relieved of the chore of turning too many pages. Since resolving not to stick with disappointing novels, whether it's a novella or trilogy I can, of course, just as easily ditch both at an early point.
No, my complaint here is that for some curious reason the books I have been reading this year are much shorter than I had expected. I suppose that comes from taking recommendations, searching for and then borrowing them from our county digital library. That way, it is only when I come to open the book online I discover how short it is. Had I gone into the library building to borrow a physical copy, I might have been prepared.
According to Goodreads the average length of my reading material last year was 328 pages compared to only 82 pages, according to my count, so far in 2023. That's quite a drop!
To my way of thinking half of last year's Booker Prize shortlist were short reads. Perhaps Polonius was right and brevity really is a showcase for ability.
Or maybe it's not that books are becoming shorter but rather readers' attention spans. Are authors now deliberately reducing the size of their fiction because we the consumer actually prefer less? In fact have you noticed that even when a book has a decent number of pages, it is often because the font and lines are both well spaced, unlike some of those old Penguin paperbacks on my shelves from 40 or 50 years ago.
"War and Peace," is still on those shelves but despite the time retirement can offer, I confess re-reading two volumes does seem a trifle ambitious for this stage of my life. Yet, if not now, when?
Has anybody else noticed this apparent contraction in the number of words in a book or am I basing a hypothesis on too small a sample for there to be any validity in my contention?
Comments
My shelf picks are getting shorter as well, I’ll look at a book on the library shelf and think ‘too long’ ‘oh there’s something shorter, I’ll try that instead’. Not because I’m not interested in the story, just a can’t be bothered with a long read.