I often have these periods of ramping up and cognitive inertia when I start new books. For instance I'm like 20% through Memories of Ice and I only just hit the point where I'm fully locked in. It took most of MOI: Book 1 to get going for me.
Sometimes it's early and fast (Jade City, Empire in Black and Gold, Expanse), and sometimes it's waaaay late (Tigana, Gunslinger, God Emperor of Dune). But almost always at least the first 10-15% of the book, I'm twiddling my mental thumbs wondering if this is gonna be worth my time (mostly yes). It often feels like a chore or homework... until i hit a point of self-sustaining enjoyment.
Does this happen to anyone else? How long does it usually take for you to get "bought in" to the books you read?
I think it all has to do with how quickly the author can convince you to either care about a character or care about the plot. Some authors meander with world building early on and it can make that hook a little harder to set, at least for me. More prose oriented readers probably enjoy it though?
Well, that the plot starts slow doesn’t mean that the prose is good.
I mean yeah some books just aren’t, like, good
My brain does this cool thing where it doesn’t lock in until the last 10% of most books. Honestly it’s impressive that reading is this much of a consistent habit for me despite that.
No lock-in until last 10% is godlike willpower. 🫡
Having style is, I think, one of the most important things that most authors fail to consider when it comes to hooking readers. I am a delver of the bottom of the barrel when it comes to slop. I read 3 to 5 books a week usually. And over the several thousand titles I've picked up, dropped, finished, or somewhere in between over the last few years, the thing that most consistently predicts whether I finish something is simply having a vivid imagery and style.
For example, I recently binged Shadow Slave. All 2,758 chapters, nearly 5 million words. Is it good? Ehhh, a bit? It's got loads of word salad, it's not deep by any means, characterization is pretty basic, prose is serviceable. But I stuck it out because the author has an extremely strong sense of aesthetic style and presents a lot of vivid and striking imagery throughout. In particular, he hits you with a very strong image immediately out the gate.
On the other hand, I just bounce off most of what you see posted on this subreddit. Can't read Sanderson at all. I just don't like the style.
I've come to believe that simply having a strong sense of style is a lot more important than being original or unique. It goes for other mediums too. John Wick. Deep? No. Original? No. Style? In spades.
I want to shoot any author who apes Dungeons and Dragons out of a cannon directly into the Sun.
Fair point about style. That's definitely something that affects how quickly I overcome my initial reading inertia. You've got some yourself:
...made me laugh out loud-- loudly.
Still, style seems but one factor of reading inertia. It sounds like you took to Shadow Slave immediately with that strong imagery at the beginning. But is that usually your experience or do you normally have to work through a bit of churn in your books to be invested enough to sustain reading momentum?
To me this only happens when starting a new series, not when starting a new book. That's why I hate switching series, always binge entire series in one go, and love super long series XD
The speed at which I get immersed in a book varies greatly. For Wheel of Time and Fourth Wing it took fewer than 10 pages (No idea how I got hooked by them so quickly, but I did). For Throne of Glass it was probably around 50-100 pages. For Cradle it took around 150-200 pages. For Malazan it took around 400 pages. On average I'd say it takes around 100-150 pages for me to get interested in a story.
I definitely have this and it has gotten worse as I've gotten older. Partly it is just age I am sure, but also I think it is because I used to browse books out of a library and see a beautiful cover with something intriguing and then read the back blurb that would suggest a moment I'd want to see... now, though, covers are just sort of typography and marketing is a random trope list plus a comparison to some other book I may or may not have read. I have no "appetizer" but unlike a meal where you know with the first bite if it is good, a book requires an investment and under the current model, for a large part of the reading, I don't really know what I am reading for.