What to read…what to read? I have been wanting to start a new book, but one of the books I have on my TBR feels like a hunk of steak in my hands. This book is 800+ pages, thiccc with 3 c’s. It’s large enough to send even the Illyrian warrior’s biggest fan into a sweat, maybe I will put that one back for now.
However, I can say some of my favorite series have been the most intimidating books I hold. Maybe I am so intimidated because I am ADHD and the commitment of a big book feels like I am going to marry a story for 2 months, and in the end might make my accidental DNF list. Let’s talk about it.
What makes a large book feel intimidating?
Weight
There are a few factors to this, however, I think the biggest factor to this is the weight of a book. You will be holding this book in your hand for hours to read. It can get very hard to get comfortable while reading a bigger book. Hard covers add more weight, and paperbacks take more effort to hold open (Especially if you’re protective of your book’s spine).
The effort of a big paperback can also be told by how much they “flop”. The flopper the book, the easier it will be to hold open. Hard covers are also dependent on the actual dimensional size of the book, The taller the book, the heavier it will likely be (Intimidating). These are noticeable factors of a thicc book.
Multiple Thicc Book Series
This has been a factor that has made me put back books for many years. I think a popular example of this is Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive. We have, at the time of this post, five books that average over 1000 pages. The first book’s audiobook is 45 hours long alone, the series is intimidating and huge, and incomplete, which it will remain for a few more years because there is said to be around 10 books planned. This makes the series very intimidating to start.
It can feel like you are marrying a series for months if not years. If you are a fast reader or a slow reader is another aspect to consider when choosing a series like this. If you can listen to the audiobook at 2x speed, it will cut the time in half but that’s still 27 hours of audiobook and it’s absolutely audiobook reader dependent.
Now I am not ripping on The Way of Kings, it’s as popular as it is for a reason. It is a dedicated work of epic fantasy with characters that are relatable and have an aspect of mental health issues. There is so much to unpack in the series that is made for another day. I mainly chose this series to focus on because it is visually a lot to look at in all of its editions if you are interested in starting it. This being said, looking at this series on a shelf is a lot to unpack and can make it feel scary to start.
How can we get around this?
Different Book Formats
The easy answer is an e-reader. Unfortunately this is not everybody’s cup of tea. I read on all formats: e-reader, physical, and audiobook, and the easiest way to feel less intimidated by a large book and get around the intimidating factors is using an e-reader. You are not looking at the size of the book, you can adjust the font to be an easier to read, and you can turn off the page counter if that’s something you would watch (me, I am one of those people).
The other answer is listening at greater than 1x speed on audiobook if you are comfortable with doing so. You can get audiobooks through library apps like Libby, and there’s options like Audible to make the experience more affordable than buying the physical book.
Not to mention, a copy on an e-reader is likely half the price of the physical book due to printing and paper costs so it is the “more affordable option” IF you already have the e-reader.
If you are a physical book person, my answer would be to utilize pillows to get comfortable(or see if a book comes in a type that is easier for you to read different editions if that applies). It is really nice to snuggle up with a book, and you can use pillows across your lap to hold up a book. You can also use blankets to create the barrier between sharp edges of a book.
Reading at a table can also be an option if you are okay with that position. It is important to play around with positions to be able to get comfortable in the book. Eventually, the story will likely put you in a chokehold to where you will soon forget that your wrists probably hurt.
Why it is worth it to read a thicc book
Some of my favorite series are thicc books. I have been through wild adventures with these books and I end up forgetting the size of the book while I am reading because I am so grasped by the world I am in that it doesn’t even matter in the end. I can throw out a few series names, however, I will leave that to my Series Review page to give you ideas on which series I am a big fan of.
The satisfaction of holding the massive amount of books, especially thicc ones like Sanderson’s series, and saying I have read all of this is so satisfying. It is a real life achievement that you as a reader should be proud of, especially if the book series is not a 5 star series for you.
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