In todays busy/media bombarded times how many pages should a novel have?

Answer 1

As many pages as it takes to tell the story - BUT not a single wasted sentence or word. Every single word has to serve a purpose, every single paragraph must be interesting. You cannot waste the reader's time with even one single page of uninteresting writing. A book can be 1,000 or more pages long or fewer than 100, but in either case every page must hold the reader's attention and keep him/her interested. That has always been true; it is possibly even more true because now the reader has so many distractions competing for his/her attention.

Answer 2

Most novels that I have read, not including Stephen King's, are in the 300's to maybe 425. I have read longer ones, as well as a few under 300 pages. But the majority of novels that I have read are in the neighborhood of 300-425.

And I read A LOT. I'll get 10 books from the library on Sunday and be complaining by Thursday that I have nothing to read.

Answer 3

However many it takes to get the story told.
To Kill A Mockingbird and Love Story were very short novels and told their story yet Gone With The Wind was longer that both of those together and took that many pages to tell the story

Answer 4

Well, it depends greatly on the writer and his/her subject matter.
I have read books that have been 200 pages long and books that are over a thousand pages long. There have been books that I hated to finish because there was no more of the character I had come to love, (reading wise) and some that I put down done after reading the first page.

Answer 5

For the casual reader, I suppose 300-200 is enough. But to the serious redears which I would like to identify myself with, I prefer those 500-1000+-page novels.

Answer 6

A novel should have as many pages as it takes to tell the story.

Answer 7

I prefer longer books,so about 500 pages+

Answer 8

400-500 pages is about right. Stuff the media, read a good book...
try www.letterfrompoitou.co.uk

Answer 9

All of them.