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Written by Reading Someone you can bui… on 2024-12-31 at 19:15

Soo... page numbers are nothing when it comes to conveying word density in novels, especially the longer the novel.

I just finished Reamde. While I knew it was the most pages in a book I've ever read (1044), I didn't realize that it would take me three times as long as the novels at 500 pages that would take me two weeks to read.

Yes, I know I read slow, but Reamde is a DENSE motherfucker. A little too verbose for my taste in all honesty, but I'll still give the novel a 4-star-ish rating.

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Descendants

Written by Kaito on 2024-12-31 at 19:44

@brandon I'm glad you got to experience it 😊

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Written by Reading Someone you can bui… on 2024-12-31 at 21:41

@kai Ah I take it you've read it? Did you like it?

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Written by Kaito on 2024-12-31 at 22:14

@brandon I did like REAMDE. I was a Stephenson fan for a while. Unfortunately I think after a certain level of success, writers stop listening to their editors and the publishers don't care because they know the author's name is enough to sell a book.

I read Fall and it's frustrating because I think Stephenson's best book is in there amongst the 883 pages, but just perhaps not all of them, unless you really have a taste for Stephenson's digressions.

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Written by Reading Someone you can bui… on 2025-01-01 at 16:42

@kai Yeah I think that's the common gripe for many of the reviews of REAMDE. It's a great book but it didn't have to be that long :P

I did some stats searching and the book is in fact denser than most of the novels I read. Most of them are between 250-275 words/page. This one is 303 words/page. Not even Dune rivals that 😅

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Written by Kaito on 2025-01-01 at 20:50

@brandon see also the Harry Potter series. It's not that the books get objectively worse through the series, but it definitely goes from a lean first few books and a writer who cooperates with an editor to…something else. 😅

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