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Please, mom, just one more chapter?
I have the new Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment. I haven't started it yet; maybe tonight or at the weekend. I'm looking forward to it, but at the same time, I know that reading it will be exhausting.
You see, Pratchett doesn't use chapter breaks.
That is, of course, his prerogative, but I really wish he would use them because I find that otherwise, reading his books is tiring. Chapter breaks give the reader a bit of a psychological break. It's a cue that you should maybe look up, take a breath, and see what time it is. It gives you some relief from tension. Without those chapter breaks, I feel somewhat anxious as I read and I read far longer than I mean too, simply because I'm waiting to get to the place where I can stop.
It's also quite fatiguing to read a book, even with chapter breaks, where all the action takes place during a single day or evening. When the POV character does not get to take a break and sleep and start a new day, I don't get that break either. The tension does not relax and I don't relax either.
Reading can be hard work.
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