Tracy Durnell:

Some ideas warrant 300 pages. A very few justify 600. But many 100-page ideas are bloated into the 300-page form factor — from my understanding (which may well be wrong), because Americans want to feel like we’ve gotten our money’s worth? Perhaps this desire for brevity makes me sound unfocused, but the seeming depth of a 300-pager is often illusory. I suspect I’m not the only one who’d like more 100-page ideas without the padding.

‘Idea’ and self-help type books could certainly really benefit from being shorter. I read plenty of them, and after about 150 pages I get the rough idea and don’t finish the second half. There’s often a keen sense that the idea has been dragged out to hit a page limit.

I do understand the money thing. I’ll be honest, I’ve seen many short 100 page books and not purchased them when they were £12. Would I have bought the same book if it was 300-400 pages? Maybe.

So it’s a tough one. But I do certainly wish more books were shorter.

I also liked Tracy Durnell’s My Reading Philosophy in 17 Guidelines.