The Reading Habit Most Book Lovers Never Try

Why Short Fiction Might Be the Best Thing You Read All Year

Last year I read over 150 books.

A few years ago, I read zero. That’s right. A big fat goose egg. Not one book, cover to cover, for twelve straight months, despite the fact that I am a person who’s whole identity revolves around books. Writing them. Talking about them. Trying to tell the world about them. Trying to get my kids to read them. You get the picture.

If you’ve ever googled “how to get out of a reading slump” or gone looking for short books to read, quick reads, or novellas you can finish in a night, I’m right there with you.

So here’s the real question, the one this whole post is actually about: why would a two-hour novella be the best thing you read all year, instead of some 900-page fantasy epic with its own family tree and a map behind the front cover? Isn’t the big one supposed to be the impressive one? The one that will give you the escape you’re looking for in a book?

Hang on. I’ll get there. First, my dirty little secret for climbing out of that reading-zero hole every single time: I stop trying to read a doorstop and pick up something short instead.

Image for blog post "What Actually Counts as a Book: A reader's guide to story length."

Novel vs Novella vs Novelette vs Short Story vs Flash Fiction: A Reader’s Glossary

What’s the actual difference between a novel, novella, novelette, short story, and flash fiction? How long is each one? And, perhaps more importantly, does reading a novella or novelette actually count as reading a book?

I’ll give you the definitions. You can tell me what you think.

Somewhere along the way, we decided books only come in one size. Big. Chunky. The kind that leaves a dent in your nightstand and a crick in your neck if you read them lying down.

That’s a lie, and I’m here to correct the record.

Short fiction comes in four distinct flavors, plus the novel you already know, and most readers can’t actually tell you the difference between any of them. You’ve probably heard “novella” tossed around. You’ve maybe never heard “novelette” in your life, unless you were at that party with me. So let’s fix that, because knowing the difference between a novella and a novelette isn’t just trivia. It changes what you should expect to feel by the last page, and, more importantly for people like me, it changes your year-end reading stats.

4 Things Readers Do (And Why Your Brain is Probably to Blame)

Why do readers buy books they never read, stay up too late, cry over fictional characters, and reread favorites? A scientist explains reader psychology.

I wasn’t supposed to be near the books. I had a list. I had a plan.

But the books were right across the aisle.

Then I saw her. A woman, mid-thirties, two small children buckled into the cart, a box of goldfish crackers being slowly destroyed by the younger one. She was standing in front of the book display with the focused calm of someone defusing a bomb.

She already had two books in the cart. She picked up three more. Didn’t hesitate. Didn’t calculate. Just added them with the quiet confidence of a woman who has made peace with her choices.

She was not going to read all five of those books. I knew this because I am her. I went home with one more book I didn’t need and couldn’t stop thinking about why we do this.

Here’s the thing about being a pharmacist who writes fantasy romance: I’m wired to ask why. So when I kept noticing my own reader habits and couldn’t explain them, I did what any analytically-minded introvert would do. I started investigating. And then, because I figured I wasn’t the only one, I started writing it up to share.

That became a little side project called A Scientist Explains Readers. Four issues in (over on Substack), and here’s what I’ve found on us: