Do you ever read a book in one day?

[belamyi]

Which were engineered to be page turners, complete with end of chapter cliff hangers.

Edward Stratemeyer (who created the characters, and the first Hardy Boys outlines) might not have been "literary"--but he knew how to create books that kids would read cover to cover.

When I was supposed to do it that way, I found that sort of books unappealing; today I find it RATHER impossible to read that way: I always may found something to reflect or turn back, even on the trashiest piece of writing.

 

[me203]

Another thought about the Hardy Boys...the books had fairly low word counts. The earliest are now public domain--yes, the series is that old--and I checked an e-book copy of the 1927 public domain edition of Secret of the Old Mill just now. My text editor indicates about 40,750 words. Later books, like the revised version of the Secret of the Old Mill (published in the 60s IIRC) would be shorter.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

Last time I read a proper book in a single day was probably when I was a student and had to read it. Since then, not that I can remember, since I tend to read for a few hours per day, doing 50-100 pages.

Case in point: my favourite ultra-short book of all time, El Reino de este Mundo by Alejo Carpentier. This is a booklet of about 130 pages that I've read at least five times. Written in Spanish by a Frenchman who emigrated to Cuba but, after fleeing political persecution, published it in Chile around 1942, it tells the story of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, but a French colony in the late 1700s) after the French Revolution freed all the slaves and some people led an independence movement that culminated in a dictatorial tyranny. It's one of those books I was compelled to read as a student, and I usually read those twice: once at the very beginning of the year and again shortly before the exam. That second reading was probably in a single day.

My professor called it the most beautiful book ever written and I more or less agree, with El Señor Presidente as a close second. Last time I reread El Reino de este Mundo was one evening and the following morning. I plan to read it yet again, but this time in French because that was both the native language of Carpentier and the lingua franca of everyone the book is about.

 

[belamyi]

I used to phantasize about the world depicted in the text they made us read of "El siglo de las luces", even aware back then already of how pedantic the perspective of the writing actually was.

 

[rareboy]

I went upstairs in my office today and looked at the several thousand books I have and remembered devouring so many of them when I was in in 20's. Never enough books. Never enough time.

And now, I don't even know who to saddle with the responsibility for all of them.

 

[belamyi]

I went upstairs in my office today and looked at the several thousand books I have and remembered devouring so many of them when I was in in 20's. Never enough books. Never enough time.

And now, I don't even know who to saddle with the responsibility for all of them.

 

[Kahaih]

/\ Oh, the European packrat in it's natural habitat, just as the invasive species would have appeared before it was introduced to the Americas.

​

 

[belamyi]

"Corporate wants you to find the difference between the two pictures"

Is it really that difficult to learn the right use of the fucking apostrophe? What's the use of all that reading? And how then dare Anglos lecture Asians on script adequacy when they can't get their own supposedly simple one minimally ight?
"It's not the script, it's the stupid ones, stupid!"

 

[Kahaih]

/\ Gboard is constantly changing that on me. It's a fight every time. It gets tedious.

 

[belamyi]

Oh, so it's ultimately always the stupid American corporations pretending to be great and "innovative".

 

[Kahaih]

/\ Have you ever tried the dictation software?

 

[belamyi]

Cod forbid.