That conversation about pacing in book club actually shifted my whole reading approach

I had a chat with my friend Marissa after our last book club meeting about The House in the Cerulean Sea. She said she felt like I was always rushing through the first 100 pages to get to "the good part" and missing all the setup that makes the ending hit harder. At first I was like whatever, I just read fast. But then I thought about how I rate books lower when they start slow and she's right, I'm literally skipping the part where the author builds the world. So I tried slowing down on the next book we picked, A Psalm for the Wild-Built, and actually sat with the beginning instead of speed-reading. It was a totally different experience. Has anyone else realized they had a bad reading habit that a friend called them out on?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.andrew1mo ago

That Marissa sounds like a good friend to have. I got called out once for always reading the last chapter first to see if I'd like the ending before I committed to the book. My buddy Dave caught me doing it with a thriller and was like, what the hell is wrong with you. Took me a while to break that habit but it did change how I experience those payoff moments at the end. Now I just trust the author to take me somewhere.

adam_thompson531mo ago

Wait do you seriously read the last chapter first with thrillers? Thats wild man. I feel like that would totally ruin any twist or surprise the author worked so hard to set up.