Overheard a librarian say most book club picks are too long these days

I was at the library last Saturday picking up my hold on a 500-page novel and heard her tell another patron that modern fiction is averaging 120 pages more than it did in 1990. She said she sees way more unfinished books returned than before, and it made me wonder if we're choosing doorstoppers just to seem impressive. Has your book club ever skipped a longer pick because nobody had the time to finish it?

2 comments

2 Comments

rowanbennett28d ago

Your book club ever actually track how many pages people read versus just saying they'll "get to it"? That 120 page jump sounds about right. Librarians see the returns, they know what's collecting dust.

the_miles28d ago

Oh man, @rowanbennett you're spot on. In my group we finally just did a quick show of hands each meeting and asked who actually finished. Turns out half the people were just nodding along. We switched to a monthly check-in text thread where everyone posts a one-sentence reaction to whatever they did read, even if it was just the first chapter. It took the pressure off and suddenly people started actually finishing books more often.