Reading Chapters

[Vincent Holland-Keen]

Okay, it's very tangentially crime fiction, but last night I was reading the Complete Judge Dredd Case Files (volume 5) and I found myself afflicted by the 'just one more story' syndrome, because, I decided, each instalment was only six pages long.

I guess (though I don't know) that most people chunk their reading to end a session at a chapter break. If that's the case, how do differing chapter lengths change how you read a book? If you only have bite-size time slots to consume story, do you go for books with short chapters? Does that book with long, meandering chapters breed a degree of resentment that you have to commit half an hour to get to the next rest-stop?

Or do all these chapters get in the way? One of my favourite writers - Terry Pratchett - foregos them altogether in most of his books, something Tom Paulin of the infamously pretentious BBC2 art show 'The Late Review' once criticised him for.

Naturally, if it's a great story, you get lost in it and probably don't notice trivialities like how many chapters there are - this is more about those times these things do come to your attention.

[Donna Moore]

I'm easy-osy and don't REALLY mind either way, but I have to say that I do have a fondness for short chapters - not TOO short - otherwise that gets too choppy. But that may be because I tend to like ensemble caper type books and there's a new chapter for each change of POV. I like it because you really want to find out more about what is happening with person A, but a paragraph into the next chapter and you're engrossed in the story of person B. t keeps me on my toes and keeps me reading. I probably read more at one sitting if the book has short chapters because although I think "Well, I have 5 minutes I've got time to read a chapter", when I've finished that chapter it's always "I'll just read one more." Of course, with all that thinking to myself going on it's amazing I have any time to read at all.

I also like chapter headings, epigrams at the beginning of chapters, etc. I remember a Reginald Hill book - EXIT LINES - that had someone's final words at the start of the chapter and I really liked that. Duane Swierczynski's THE BLONDE, for example, takes place over one wild night, and his chapters have the time ticking away. He does it in a number of different ways and, since it's important to know what time it is in the book it works really well.

It all depends on the book - some books work better with few chapter breaks. I do like some way of knowing where I am because I'm crap at remembering to put a bookmark in.

[Sandra Ruttan]

Honestly, I never even looked at that when picking books to read... but I have started to develop a bit of an aversion to super-short chapters. In all honesty, it often feels like a way of lengthening the book artificially and I can't help thinking (suppose it's my career background) that there's an assumption everyone's ADD or conditioned by tv to have a short attention span.

Plenty of the authors I read use breaks within chapters, and that suits me just fine as a stopping point (these are generally used when a bit of time has passed or pov has changed) if I need to stop before the end of a chapter. Otherwise, given the option, I like to sink my teeth into something and get lost in it.

(And as someone who did layout and design work in her day, I understand the merits of white space, but some of these books that have repeated chapters only a few pages long waste so much paper I feel a bit ripped off to pay more for trees that didn't need to die.)

[Angie]

When this question came up before, I started paying attention to my reading habits. Truth is, I generally prefer shorter chapters. I have no idea why, but I do start getting antsy if the chapters are too long. While I loved Charlie Huston's CAUGHT STEALING, the 25+ page sections (he didn't use chapter breaks) made me a little crazy and I ended up taking a long time to get through the book. Maybe it's the long stretches of intense pacing/action? I dunno. It's just one of those preference things, but it won't stop me from finishing a book that's otherwise captured my attention.

[norby]

I've never paid attention to chapter length when I pick a book and usually I can't remember if an author uses short chapters or not. The only book I remember chapter length on is The Ruins by Scott Smith, because it had no chapters. I completely panicked. I had nowhere 'natural' to stop for the evening. With chapters it is easier to have a stopping point. If the chapters are short though, it's much easier to convince yourself to read just a few more, then go to bed. I've had way to many late nights that way.

[Pepper Smith]

Really short chapters bother me. I sometimes wonder why they bother calling them chapters at all, rather than interludes or something.

If my reading time is limited, I do like having reasonable length chapters, or breaks within chapters, for natural pausing places. If I have all day to read, it doesn't particularly matter where I stop, because I can always carry the book down the hall to the bathroom with me, or read while the food's cooking, or whatever.