March 14, 2026

by Andrew Limbong, host of NPR's Book of the Day podcast

Hey newsletter readers! Strong opinions on whether it takes 100 pages to really know a book! Some of your emails below. As always, the inbox is bookoftheday@npr.org. And if you want to hear the latest author interviews from across NPR, subscribe to NPR’s Book of the Day podcast. Here’s this week’s letter!

Cormac vs. Claude?

I’ve got three interconnected things to throw at you today:

1. First, a correction! In last week’s newsletter, I erroneously attributed Silas Marner to T.S. Eliot and not George Eliot, in listing out Michael Silverblatt’s rules for reading. That was absolutely my mistake (Editor’s note: Well, and mine for not catching it, Andrew!), and thanks to all of you for writing in about it.

Cover of Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, and a baby's arm. Andrew Limbong/NPR

2. One of Silverblatt’s rules I wholeheartedly agreed with was about not being “ready” for certain books. It took 15 years and multiple attempts to finally get through Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. It actually wasn’t until the first time I went on parental leave that I was able to really read it and eventually love it. I’ve got fond memories of reading that book in the dumb hours of the morning with a fresh baby strapped to my chest. I said “first time” on leave because starting this week I’ll be on parental leave again! Which means this is the last you’ll be hearing from me for a bit. But there are a murderer’s row of colleagues here who have things to say about books and reading and publishing filling in for me while I’m gone!

3. Lastly, speaking of Blood Meridian, I, like everyone else on my social media feed, took The New York Times’ quiz pitting famous writers against A.I. and asking us to “choose the passage you like best.” But when you take the quiz itself, it asks you to select which one “reads better.” For my money, these are completely different things? Sure, the IKEA manual I have for the new kid's dresser “reads better” than Hamlet. It's simpler. It’s easier to follow (except for one section, with which I have a bone to pick). It also has no words.

And so, when the first question (spoilers for the quiz!) puts up a passage from McCarthy’s Blood Meridian versus one “written” by Claude, and then calls McCarthy’s writing “clunky” due to his “aversion to punctuation,” there seems to be a disconnect of goals.

This isn’t a shot at the Times quiz – I think it’s kind of a clever and illuminating way to highlight the questions: What are we talking about when we’re talking about human writing? What do we want out of “good” literature? Can the robots make it? Or is the best they can do (as of right now, at least) clean, legible, readable writing? Let us know what you think! We’ll be at bookoftheday@npr.org. Well, not me, but someone!

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TBR Pile

The new book Wake Now in the Fire by Jarrett Dapier and AJ Dungo is a graphic novel … about a graphic novel. It’s the fictional account of the moment in 2013 when Chicago Public Schools restricted access to Marjane Satrapi’s now-classic graphic memoir Persepolis. Critic Tahneer Oksman says Wake Now’s plot moves “seamlessly” between all the different types of students affected by the school pulling the book.

Book cover of 'Dopamine Kids' by Michaeleen Doucleff.

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

And as I embark on this next stage of parenthood, I’m glad to hear that in this modern age, it’s super easy and there’s nothing to worry about. Ha ha ha ha ha. The new book, Dopamine Kids, by science writer (and former NPR correspondent!) Michaeleen Doucleff, goes deep on what is actually going on in kids' brains when they get iPad-pilled. Check out this interview with Doucleff and, uh, wish me luck, I guess.

Mailbag!

Here’s what you all had to say about giving a book 100 pages in one sitting, and the other reading rules proposed by the late Michael Silverblatt.

Mary H. wrote: “I use the Nancy Pearl rule, and have since discovering it on NPR. It works for me, although I have been known to overrule that ‘book rule’ if I like the author. So, ‘If you're 50 years old or younger, give every book about 50 pages before you decide to commit yourself to reading it, or give up.’ Over 50? Subtract your age from 100 and use that as your guide.”

Gayle C. wrote: “To read 100 pages in one sitting is probably unrealistic for most people. I do understand that many books unfold slowly and therefore require time to build interest. I have a personal rule to read 25% before I allow myself to abandon it, but not in one sitting. (I also allow myself to read the last 25% in one sitting if I want to!)”

Lisa M. wrote: “I refuse to follow #3 – finish a book before starting a new one. I almost always have at least two on the go – a fiction and a nonfiction, and sometimes more. If I'm reading a big heavy book, I'll have a small paperback of a different genre to read on my commute; a popular library book that needs to be returned quickly will jump the queue etc. Maybe because I read them at different times of day and in different spaces I never seem to have a hard time settling back in.”

See you next week!

P.S., if a friend sent you this newsletter and you want to sign up, the place to do it is npr.org/newsletter/books. :)

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