The Point of No Return

Here's another one of my reading theories:  The Point of No Return.  It's that point in the book when you know that if you read any further, you have to stay up all night and finish.  Where that point comes is different for every book, but all good books have that point where you are forced to keep going until the very end.

This is more than just needing to know how the story ends.  Plenty of books end with an apathetic, whatever, I'll just read the last chapter and be done with it.  No, this is an outright sprint to absorb every last detail and discover the resolution as quickly as possible.  And, if it's the last book in a series, it only heightens the point of no return.  Really that whole last book is the point of no return.  I read Mockingjay in under 6 hours, with a short dinner break.  HP Book 7 took me nearly 12 hours, with a mac and cheese break.  And now I'm finishing up A Sweet Far Thing.

I have moved pretty steadily through this book despite the length, just over 800 pages.  And last night my goal was to get the 600 page marker.  I've mainly been reading in 50 and 100 page increments, so when I go to page 670 last night, I wondered if I should just finish it up.  The action had greatly increased, Gemma is starting to discover the truth, or variations of it, the previous few chapters had been a flurry of furious activity and the ending was drawing near.  But it was 11:00 pm, and I was getting tired.  So, I closed the book, went to bed and tried to sleep while battles were raged in my head between Pippa and her army of factory girls and fairies and centaurs and Hadjin.  

I feel like I was already at the point of no return with The Sweet Far Thing, but since it was so late, and I had to get up for work, I had to reel myself back in.  I know that tonight I'll sit down, run through these last few chapters and reach the conclusion.  Then it's off to the next book and this will all start again.

Happy Reading!