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Cormac McCarthy, author of The Road, on the future length of the book

The Road From his Wall Street Journal interview, on the question if a 1,000-page book is too much?

“For modern readers, yeah. People apparently only read mystery stories of any length. With mysteries, the longer the better and people will read any damn thing. But the indulgent, 800-page books that were written a hundred years ago are just not going to be written anymore and people need to get used to that. If you think you’re going to write something like “The Brothers Karamazov” or “Moby-Dick,” go ahead. Nobody will read it. I don’t care how good it is, or how smart the readers are. Their intentions, their brains are different.”

What do you think? Are books getting shorter? If so, do they have to be? Are our brains and intentions demanding it?

Read the full (interesting and rare) interview at the Wall Street Journal. Photo of cover by Lissalou66.

2 Comments

  1. With the price of books going up (no disrespect to authors), I want to get my money’s worth. Sure a thin chick lit book is just for fun, but I need substance. Give me at least 300-400 pgs at least. And yes I will read a giant book (planning on re-reading Gone with the Wind soon). I think it’s great more people read–but I hope authors don’t pander to the Oprah book club demographic.

    (and hee, I just got a copy of The Road yesterday!)

  2. If it’s a good book, one that I like, I want it to be as long as it possibly can be and still be interesting. (An exception to this is Breaking Dawn)

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