FM-PMS

[akk]

Chapter 18 now stands tall at above 9200 words and returned to solo.
I like it much better now and there's even a cautious "thumbs-up" after the first half of the chapter. However, the new scene that upped the word count by 1500 words is in the second half, so it may be better not to get excited yet.

Comments

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

Oh, I will definitely finish Clarke's book. I just want to make sure I have enough time on my hands to read it in an acceptable amount of time for full savoring of the excellent era display. Though I have to say, at 1002 pages it hardly deserves "enormous" as an adjective. "The Swarm" in its German original has the same page count and I gobbled it up within a week. But it was a week of vacation, which sadly is something far away while writing on a doctorate thesis, so Strange & Norrell have to wait a little longer for my attention. :)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

I'm curious as to what you consider an "enormous" book, then? Maybe Proust's "In Search of Lost Time", if you consider it all one single book?

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

I apologise if this last comment sounded a bit rude, it wasn't my intention! I consider over 1000 pages as a big book, considering the average novel doesn't exceed 600 pages. It's all a matter of reference, I suppose, and I'm genuinely curious as to what your reference is. :D

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

Don't worry. I didn't take your comment as rude. I was just astonished about a book being considered by its page count, because that was never a measure for me. A thrilling, compelling read of 5000 pages can still be way too short and a boring one of 50 pages can be an excruciatingly horrible experience to me, so... :-)
"Big" or "enormous" are adjectives I have a hard time defining for books. Now, if we go for "captivating", "fascinating" or "compelling" then page count is entirely insignificant (because it's always TOO LOW). ;)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

Frankly, I consider Proust a "heavy" book - as in, if I were so fond of it that I'd want to read it on my commuter train, I'd consider getting an ebook (it's lighter on the bag). ;) - but I can't really name a page count that would make a book intimidating to me.
However, a page count by content, probably is. There are books of mere 120 pages that I found excruciatingly boring to get through, either because the language was awful (or the plot absent). :)
As for truly long fav reads of mine...
- George R.R. Martin's "The Song of Ice and Fire"
- Cherryh's "Fortress" series (only 5 normal paperbacks, but a very rich language, not to be missed)
- Michael Baier's "Coruum" (3 books ~2700+ double-sized pages)
- Landau/Lifschitz's "Course of Theoretical Physics" (10 books ♥)
- many more novel series, actually, of which I'm happy that they come in separate volumes to be taken along on commuting. :)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

Oh, I definitely agree with you, quality should definitely come before quantity. And I also agree that sometimes a book feels longer (or shorter) than it actually is due to quality or content. It's just that physical length sometimes is an easier way to asses how long it will take to read that book, although definitely not accurate! ;)

And thank you for your list of recs--good, long stories are always a pleasure to read!

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

I posted a view book (and movie) recommendations over time, though sometimes in form of a meme. If you're interested:
http://akk.dreamwidth.org/tag/recommendation (books, movies, tv)
http://akk.dreamwidth.org/tag/book (books specifically)

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[killthwight.livejournal.com]

Thank you!! I'll check them out as soon as I can. ;)

And thanks for giving the heads-up about the open-ID. Yay, icons! XD

Re: 36o and Family Matters

[akk]

:) It's a cool feature that made moving to DW an easy choice - okay, that and importing whole journals _with_ comments & settings from other serives, crossposting to other services, and having a much bigger word count per post and reply, but let's not be nitpicky - I liked the opportunity for people to follow my stuff (and answer answerable (if that's a word)) without being forced to make an account just to do that. Most people have an open ID somewhere (even if Yahoo doesn't work yet).