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Comment by tinkelenberg | Hacker News Reader

The key to enjoying novels is to read them in long enough sittings to get into the flow state. If you only read a couple pages at a time between doomscrolling sessions, it will feel like a chore. Anything would.

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There was a rule a fourth grade teacher of mine had that she used in her English class to try and get some of the less literate kids up to par. That rule was embodied by the name she gave it, "Thirty minutes thirty pages." She gave them thirty minutes to read thirty pages of a book. A minute a page. Considering most of them were choosing things like Goosebumps that were only a hundred and twenty pages or so it was an easy enough ask. But because she set it as a challenge so many of them went blasting beyond that. Many would finish half the book during that thirty minute reading period. The interesting thing I didn't pick up on until years later as an adult was that it was also slow enough that they could actually understand and remember what they were reading rather than just blasting through it. It left the slower readers with enough time and didn't make them feel like they were falling behind while encouraging them to learn how to read faster.

Many modern adult book series are six hundred pages or more for a single installment with about four hundred words a page versus the maybe hundred and fifty of a children's book like Goosebumps. Since it's three to four times the text that makes thirty pages thirty minutes actually viable as a self challenge even as an adult.

I consider myself a slow reader so I am interested in this pacing rule. Do you remember how the pacing was enforced? Were there like minute sandtimers or was it just kind of like a 30 minute timer and you either met the pace or didn't?

All classrooms had a clock in them at the school that was hooked up to the PA system so it was easy to time it. Once a week, usually Fridays barring any holidays or school events during her class, she would run the first fifteen minutes of the class going over what we were to do for the weekend which was usually homework, and then for the last thirty minutes we'd do the reading. We were required to bookmark where we left off and where we ended, and she'd actually watch us to make sure we were reading rather than just flipping pages.

If the novel is any good, you'll continue reading despite not setting away time and it will also be worthwhile to read in every minute of spare time you can get.

Just finished up my second re-read of an unfinished book that kinda ruined most entertainment for me by setting the bar too high. I now have to make the difficult decision to either be disappointed by another novel or to just read this one yet again.

Usually I find it a bit tough to finish books and I never re-read anything in my life before for entertainment.

So if it is a bit tough, probably the book is just not good enough for you.

Don't leave us hanging, brother! What's the book?

Not necessarily something everyone enjoys as much as I did. But I wish everyone to find a book that he enjoys as much as I did:

https://www.webnovel.com/book/reverend-insanity_799685840600...

I took a look at this over the weekend, and it's not really for me. Thanks for recommending it, though: I hope it hit with at least one other reader on here.

Reading in 5 min bursts in-between longer sessions can remain a valid strategy, but you have to carry the book with you everywhere for it to work out.

That's one part of it. The author needs to make it engaging as well so you get to flow state easier.

There is a good book "The science of storytelling" (Will Storr) which points out the techniques used by famous stories. Those techniques allow the reader to be more invested in the story.

Dungeon Crawler Carl for example uses some of the techniques (intentional or not).

> The key to enjoying novels is to read them in long enough sittings to get into the flow state

As a voracious reader, I both agree and disagree with this.

There are some books that simply take too long to come to the point. I'm reading an ARC of a dark academia that's highly rated. I'm 60% in and I haven't yet gotten interested in it. I read entire "Billy Summers" in 2 days by halting the previous book's read. So yeah, the onus is also on the author to make the book interesting

Full disclosure: I am not a tiktok or reel addict. I've read 65 books last year, currently on my 45th book of 2026. I love long books.

Flow is a state of privilege, too, yet (thru reading) one most easily cultivated. Take control of your time expenditure!

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