Before the Internet, books were written — and published — blindly, hopefully. Sometimes they sold, usually they did not, but no one had a clue what readers did when they opened them up. Did they skip or skim? Slow down or speed up when the end was in sight? Linger over the sex scenes? Before the internet, a writer would hang at the bookstore to overhear what the customers thought of his books. Then there was the ancient Greek painter who hid behind a curtain to hear what the shoemaker thought of his painting.
Some recent data analysis uncovers this mystery:
- The longer a mystery novel is, the more likely readers are to jump to the end to see who done it.
- People are more likely to finish biographies than business titles, but a chapter of a yoga book is all they need.
- They speed through romances faster than religious titles, and
- erotica fastest of all.
- a top book is “What Women Want,” promoted as a work that “brings you inside a woman’s head so you can learn how to blow her mind.” Everyone who starts it finishes it. On the other hand, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.’s “The Cycles of American History” blows no minds: fewer than 1 percent of the readers who start it get to the end.
- data shows that readers are 25 percent more likely to finish books that are broken up into shorter chapters. That is an inevitable consequence of people reading in short sessions during the day on an iPhone.
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