Found a trick to handle the slow middle chapters in a 900 page fantasy book

My book club picked 'The Bone Ships' last month and I was dragging through chapters 12-18. I started reading just the first and last paragraph of each slow chapter to keep the momentum going. Has anyone else tried skipping the fluff in a dense fantasy novel or does that ruin the whole experience?

2 comments

2 Comments

amy_sanchez1d ago

Nah I gotta disagree here. Skipping paragraphs in a 900 page book feels like you're missing what makes the world feel real, even if it drags a bit. The slow parts are usually there for a reason even if they're not super exciting.

dakota_taylor391d ago

Yeah but see that's what I wonder about @amy_sanchez... how do you know which parts are actually important and which ones are just filler the author could've cut? Because I've read some real doorstoppers where half the slow parts felt like the editor just gave up halfway through and left all the boring stuff in. If you skip a paragraph about the color of a wall for the fifth time, is that really missing something... or are you just saving your own time?