Books are steadily increasing in size: the average number of pages has grown by 25% over the last 15 years. A study of more than 2500 books appearing on New York Times bestseller reveals that the average length has increased from 320 pages in 1999 to 400 pages in 2014. According to James Finlayson, who carried out the survey, there ’s a “relatively consistent pattern of grow th year on year ”. For Finlayson, much of this shift can be explained by the industry ’s shift towards digital. He says “When you pick up a large book in a shop, you can sometimes be intimidated, but if you have a big book on a Kindle （eBook ）, that’s not a consideration. ”