Fiction vs. Non-Fiction (The “Last Page” Problem)

I’ve read a lot of non-fiction lately (Spook, Outliers, Here Comes Everybody). The best thing about non-fiction is that you don’t know exactly when the book will end, because footnotes and references take up a bunch of pages, the last chunk of the book. With a novel, you can see how many pages are left and instantly know how much time remains for the author to wrap up the story. Idea: novels should include 20 or 30 blank pages at the end, a random number of pages, just to keep the ending a surprise.

On the other hand, sometimes the Last Page Problem is a good thing. If you’re almost finished reading a novel, a post-apocalyptic suspense thriller about a mutated rabbit monster who eats everything, and it look like there’s no escape for the hero (the hero is a carrot or something), then the page limit could be a cool device that makes you sweat. You’d be thinking, “Wow this carrot only has 4 pages to get out of this mess! How will he do it?!” Also, you’d probably think, “it’s so crazy how this fictional novel predicts that after the nuclear war of 2034, all of humanity dies out and mutant carrots become super-smart and inherit the Earth!”

Then you’d look at the back cover and realize OH MY GOD THIS BOOK IS NON-FICTION!!?!?!?!