Picking Back Up, Take 2

What I was saying before I zoned out and hit Send was, when I'm reading a book, I can go on faith that "day in the life" approach will add up to something by the end, assuming the characters are interesting and the author writes well. In an article, I want to be clued in sooner. Seems counterintuitive, now that I put this down in black and white. That is, an article ends more quickly than a book, so the point will be apparently more quickly--but I, in truth, I want the point faster because I know the form is so much shorter than a book.

(I'm sorry I made you wait so long to finish a thought that now seems convoluted anyway.)