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Do you give yourself a time limit for finishing a novel


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I never set a limit for a number of reasons - firstly, books are all different - and they're also different to what you expect when you start them - so it's impossible to know at the outset how long a book should take you. And a book taking a long time doesn't mean it's a bad book. Often the best books are the ones that take the most effort and thought - and therefore require a closer, more patient, slower reading.

 

But, also, it's impossible to determine outside factors, too, which allow you reading time. Clearly, for example, I read far, far more when I'm on holiday - particularly on long train and plane journeys - than when I'm cycling to and from work, working and not having much spare time at home on weekdays.

 

But then, I never quite understood the obsession with just reading your way through a huge number of books. I'd rather read, and appreciate, in depth 10 or 20 really good, but perhaps dense, books, than churn my way through a book a day of fluff without bothering to actually stop and think much at all.

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If I don't finish a novel in a couple weeks, I will start reading something else and will usually never go back without starting over.

 

A man more or less of my own heart. :lol:

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If I don't finish a novel in a couple weeks, I will start reading something else and will usually never go back without starting over.

 

I must admit i don't like to leave big gaps between picking the book up, and if i do i will as you say, start from the beginning. But i do take as much time as i need on a book. I have had some i have 'lived in' and hardly put down until i've finished it, and others i pick up and read a little and then i put it down for a while in favor of knitting/card making or watching a film, so it takes me a longer. It depends on the book and on what other things are going on in my life. I make sure i spend some family time with my husband as a couple so i have to prioritize and even if i really want to pick up the book, i resist for the sake of more important things.

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I can't afford to set time limits because work means they would never be adhered to. I just try to read as much as possible & hope that I enjoy far more than I don't.

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No time limit for me either. :lol: Some weeks I do just about nothing but read during the days, and some weeks I don't even get to pick up a book. A time limit just wouldn't work for me.

Plus, I have to think I'm a bit like Kell... I think if I set a limit for myself, I'd end up avoiding it just because I don't like being bossed, even by myself. :lol:

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If I gave myself a time limit I'd never manage to finish anything, ever - what with life, the universe and everything I don't have much time to read and when I manage to find some I find it impossible to concentrate. I know this is a reflection on my state of mind rather than the quality of the book, hence it would be unfair for me to abandon the book for something that's not its fault.

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  • 1 month later...

I never set a time limit for reading - most of the time I finish reading a novel fairly quickly - 2/3 days. Sometimes it takes longer if its a complex or really dense novel. The worst case scenario has been 'Being and Nothingness' by Sartre, but thats a special case as I want to be able to read 'The Rebel' by Camus and compare, so I have to go through the torment of Sartre, as the almighty row that erupted between Camus and Sartre rests on the 2 books.

Edited by Nollaig
Grammar.
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I never set a time limit for reading - most of the time I finish reading a novel fairly quickly - 2/3 days. Sometimes it takes longer if its a complex or really dense novel. The worst case scenario has been 'Being and Nothingness' by Sartre
which isn't a novel, so your record is intact :D!
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