I was looking at my shelves, as I often do, and was once again reminded of the sad pile of long books I’ve collected over the years and still haven’t read. It’s not them, it’s me! It’s my goal-oriented brain, corrupted by empty notions of productivity, starving for entertainment and a sense of accomplishment that feels immediate and urgent and quick quick quick.
Big books stay the longest on my shelves, unread and unloved. I aim to treat all my children equally, but 300 pages seems to be my favorite length and those books know it, too. They skip the line and grab my attention much faster than any long title ever could, no matter how fascinating the blurb or how glowing the reviews.
The reason I tend to avoid longer titles is because they’re generally more likely to put me in a reading slump. Part of my brain looks them up and down and wonders “why would you need this many pages to tell a story?”. Maybe the writing is verbose, the descriptions self-indulgent. Maybe there are way too many characters or a plot that runs in circles; either way, it never looks too promising. I definitely judge a book by its size, and it’s funny how 600 pages can seem exciting when I first buy the book but daunting as soon as we both get home.
I know from talking to other readers that many people avoid long books because they’re not great for yearly reading goals. If you’re behind on your challenge, or have set an ambitious number of titles to read in a year, picking up a long book won’t be the best move to get you closer to that number.
Personally, challenges don’t affect me in that sense because I always set mine to a number I know I’ll reach within the first three months of the year (I don’t need any more stress in my life), but I notice how they impact the choices people often make when it comes to the books they read. You can see that from the amount of content there is out there recommending “short books to meet your yearly goal”, and all the memes making fun of how readers turn to novellas and graphic novels in December. It would be interesting to see if there is a correlation between the yearly reading challenge phenomenon and the rise in short book sales, if there has indeed been one.
This isn’t to say that yearly reading challenges are necessarily a bad thing, or the direct enemy of long books; those challenges played a vital role in getting me back into reading years ago, and I know they do the same for other people. If your reading challenge is important to you, but you still want to read long books more often, maybe you can lower your overall goal slightly and give yourself time to focus on those longer reads during the final months of the year.
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Whatever your reason for avoiding long books, I get it. And this post is nothing more than a reminder that they are there, indeed, gathering dust on our shelves, probably much more deserving of our attention than we give them credit for. It is absolutely okay to let books marinate, but don’t give up on them. I, for one, am glad I didn’t give up on Betty.
Betty is a good example of a long (not even that long; 480 pages) book that I’d been avoiding like the plague since 2020. I finally picked it up this year because my peers on Instagram practically begged me to give it a chance, and I ended up enjoying it immensely. But it took me four years to even consider it, and it would still be there, unread, had it not been for that extra push. In the recent past I’ve also read Pachinko, Bloodmarked, and I’m about to reread The Secret History with my book club in September.
But back to Betty. It wasn’t an easy read by any means - not only was it long, but the themes alone were heart-wrenching; I had to take a couple of breaks -, but I finished it with such a pure sense of accomplishment. I felt like I had invested my time with Betty, I had devoted my full attention to a story. And it’s not that I don’t give the same attention to shorter reads; I do! But this is the good, or bad, thing about long books: they’ll keep you with them for quite some time. They will require focus, dedication and constant nurturing, in the hopes of giving you what most readers want in return: immersion.
Most long books will demand more of you. They will stay in your life longer, occupy more mental space, maybe require annotating, discussing, pondering. Depending on the kind of reader you are, or the mood you’re in, that can be an incredible thing to experience. For me, I know I’m not always in the mood for something long and complex. However, sometimes I am. And in those instances, I want to feel free, perhaps even encouraged, to pick up something that might look a little intimidating.
Right now, these are a few of the longest books on my shelves. I’m sharing them here in the hopes that I can once again be peer-pressured into giving one of these the chance it deserves.
But peer-pressured or not, I plan to read some of my longest books this year. The colder seasons are ideal for this, and now that summer trips are coming to an end and I will finally be reunited with my shelves for a couple of months at least, I can give those heavy copies my full attention.
If you, too, have shelves full of long unread books, this is a little nudge to pick them up, read their first pages, and see if something catches your eye. Give that chonky book on your shelf a chance to surprise you, to take you on a journey, to absolutely make your year in a way that will leave you recommending it left and right to everyone you know (shoutout to A Little Life; if you read A Little Life, you can absolutely get through those other long books on your TBR, I don’t even wanna hear it).
Some things you can do to get excited about reading a longer book:
If you have a hard time sticking to one book and finishing it, prioritize a title that is fast-paced and plot-driven (fantasy books are often great options);
Break the process into parts - you can reward yourself with a little treat every time you finish one of them;
Highlight it, annotate it, get creative. Turn it into a fun, interactive experience;
Read it with a friend! Plan monthly/weekly discussions with them.
Thank you for reading! Are there any long books marinating on your shelves? 💬
I used to pick the chonkiest books as a kid because I felt like I got my moneys worth and I kinda still feel the same - like why am I paying $18 for a Claire Keegan and also War and Peace?? 😂 someone wrote that they always pick a big boy to read during the week between Christmas and new years and I thought that was just genius - I read Stephen Kings The Stand last year it was wonderful 🖤
Totally with you on that! “Our Share of Night” was the book that finally cured my fear of long reads—devoured it in a weekend like it was a snack, not a 600+ page commitment. It’s worth checking out!