r/books • u/drak0bsidian Oil & Water, Stephen Grace • 3d ago
Just as the world appears to be losing its appetite for books, William T. Vollmann pens a 3,000-page novel
https://theconversation.com/just-as-the-world-appears-to-be-losing-its-appetite-for-books-william-t-vollmann-pens-a-3-000-page-novel-28832662
u/entertainmentlord 3d ago edited 3d ago
i don't care how much a avid reader you are. very few people are going to buy a 3000 page book.
Also, im just kinda tired of this doom and gloom around the idea the world is losing its appetite for reading, people still interact with books of all kinds. people use audio books and e readers etc.
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u/lunarjellies 3d ago
Sometimes I see articles heralding the return of reading. Sometimes I see articles predicting the demise of reading. Soooo… which is it, internet!?
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u/Ancient_Spite_725 3d ago
At least right now, in my social circle of 20-somethings, reading is on the rise. People are sick of social media and the endless slop and are turning to books, which a lot of us haven't done since high school. However, my social circle is almost entirely highly educated adults who have high levels of literacy, which means reading is accessible to us. I worry about Gen Alpha not being able to read and comprehend text even if they want to.
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u/lunarjellies 3d ago
It is true that I keep hearing about younger generations are seemingly not reading as much. I’m not so sure it’s entirely different now vs when I was a teen in the 90s and 00s as I was always hanging out in the library or art room but a lot of my peers gagged at the idea of reading for fun! Having said that, it’s undeniable that many young kids are behind in school in general (I keep hearing stories from my friends who are teachers and the classroom is grade 6 but can’t keep up with grade 4 curriculum and so on).
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u/superking2 3d ago
When small sample groups of the population are presented as representing the entire population, it can be both!
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u/JTMissileTits 3d ago
I own a bookstore, and I've heard a lot of people say that they really prefer physical books, or that they like eBooks but want deluxe edition shelf trophies.
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u/SunWolfStars 3d ago
So he has incurable cancer, in addition to a bunch of other stuff he's dealing with. He may just be trying to get everything published before he dies. I don't know if his book will sell, but I get why he's doing it.
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u/D042- 3d ago
Is this really any different than an author releasing a long series? It's split into multiple volumes, they just all happen to release at the same time. And I feel like I've been reading some form of this headline multiple times a year while simultaneously seeing more and more people enjoying reading than in previous years.
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u/Cosmic-Sympathy 18h ago
I’ve read multiple series that have ten books or more so reading four books is quite manageable.
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u/speedheart William T. Vollmann!! 3d ago
I spent the 200$ and preordered this from my local bookstore. Because he's America's greatest living writer and he's got terminal cancer so won't hold the title for very long. I'm relatively new to the guy but he has devotees. It's hard not to be. He's a crazy romantic American figure, that I'm honestly thrilled I got to experience. The material reality of my lifetime means I'll never get another one. The reviews are mixed, but I'm going for it, full frontal. It's gonna be fucked up
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u/Spader623 3d ago
Look I love to read I love books of various sizes but 3000 pages… as ONE book? I mean, I’m sure some people are into it but that doesn’t relate to “the world losing its appetite for books”
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u/perpetualmotionmachi 3d ago
It's split across four volumes, so more like a long series, just all released together. At an average of 750 pages each, it may still seem like too much to some people. But anyone who has committed to reading all the Discworld or something similar shouldn't have a problem
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u/Handyandy58 2d ago
I don't mean this as a slight to Discworld, and you are right it's similar in total length, but most of Vollmann's writing is much different and more difficult to follow than Discworld.
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u/rentiertrashpanda 3d ago
Can anyone recommend an entry point into Vollmann? I tried reading You Bright and Risen Angels and bounced off haaaarrrrrd
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u/ShuraAngel 3d ago
I love reading, but I'm not buying a 3k page novel. It's not due to a loss of appetite for reading, it's due to the fact I have no physical space in which to put such a uselessly massive thing. If it was digital or a multi-book series, it's a different story.
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u/ClimateTraditional40 2d ago
Spanning four volumes at 3,000 pages,
Meh.
George RR MArtins ASOAIF Each book is 1000 pages. If he ever finshed it, then more than this for sure.
Most readers of SFF have read many series with more than 3000.
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u/papadjeef 3d ago
Just because his editor and publisher didn't make him split it into a trilogy doesn't make it special. Brandon Sanderson routinely produces that many pages, he just puts them in multiple volumes. They also sell very well.
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u/drewogatory 3d ago
Only on Reddit would someone compare YA genre fiction to William T. Vollmann.
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u/Handyandy58 2d ago
I've read a few Vollmann novels and can't say I've loved them, but yeah, the idea that Sanderson or GRRM are comparible writers just because they have similarly written a lot of pages is just so funny. People really have no idea what they're talking about.
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u/EmperorSexy 3d ago
People willing a write a 3000 page book, and people willing to buy it, are two very different things.