Slow books v. fast books

[avrelia]

I’ve recently finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman, and it was one of the slowest books for me – it took me a month to get into, and then several weeks to finish. Not because I didn’t like it – I like it, however, there were many books I loved more, and read even longer.

It got me thinking about the speed of the reading any given book. Some books I cannot put down and finish in a day, some take several weeks or months to finish. The language doesn’t make a difference (Russian or English), neither the quality of the book. Of course, I am less likely to finish “slow-reading” book if I consider it badly written or boring, but there was many books I would spent night reading, not being able to stop, only to wonder later why I got so engaged in such crap (as an example I would name Maggie Furey books which I didn’t like, yet couldn’t sleep till the finish – it happened long ago, I don’t remember them at all now, and don’t really want to.) Some books I loved I finished in a day, and some I was obsessed for a long time, savoring every page and fearing that it would end.


In fact, most books I love I read very fast, that’s why when I read something slow it catches my attention.

Examples of slow-reading books:

-Umberto Eco Foucault Pendulum
-Susanna Clarke Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel I spent last December happily obsessing over it, I planned for so long to post here about it that I forgot what I wanted to post exactly, and now I have to read it again. Oh chores!
-Max Frei Labyrinth – Russian fantasy book, the first in series, that was absolutely delicious in the beginning, and then I got tired of the same taste over and over again. Still, I love it.


Does anything like that happen to you as well?

Comments

[gobi-rex.livejournal.com]

Hee! You read Jonathan Strange and Mr.Norrell! It's definitely a slow-reading book: so much stuff to absorb and marvelous paragraphs to reread. I suspect it would be even better on second reading, with all the plot twists out of the way. And paying more attention to Vinculus and Childermas.

[avrelia.livejournal.com]

Yes, I was reading it through December, going very very slowly. Now I wonder whether to buy it and when (library is too-short time.)