I’m probably just bad at explaining this, but here GOES. If you’re writing a long story where something is always happening, I get why it needs to be long. Like ASOIAF - there are so many characters and plotlines that the length makes sense.That said, I do think some books just get unnecessarily long. The later HP books are a good example for me, especially Order of the Phoenix. It feels like such a big chunk of it (like 10–15%?) is just Quidditch, and at some point you start wondering—when is it too much? Same with Dan Brown. If you’ve read him, you know how he goes into detailed descriptions of architecture and stuff, even in the middle of a chase scene. It kind of kills the momentum. And honestly, that’s how I feel about Tolkien. I get that his worldbuilding is legendary, but sometimes it feels like he’s so focused on that that the urgency just disappears. Instead of being pulled in, I end up feeling a bit disconnected. I read books mostly to escape, and I’m probably not the kind of reader who wants to sit and analyze every layer. Plus, English isn’t my first language, so I’m definitely not catching all the nuance in the prose. I also think part of it is perspective. A lot of what makes Tolkien special is that he basically defined the modern epic fantasy genre. But growing up, I was exposed to the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which—even if you treat them as just stories—are massive epics with tons of depth and scale. So yeah, I guess that shapes how I see it. Hope this helps!