are books meant to be read in one sitting or multiple if multiple,

Usually they're not meant to be either. I think if they're plays, which are generally short and are intended to be viewed in a few hours, you would be better off reading it in one sitting. If you want to read a lengthy work you should try to read it across many sittings so as to better absorb information.

Across as many sittings as is convenient.

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what if the ideal situation has you actually going back some number of pages on all subsequent sittings

If you can't read it in one sitting then it's either a bad book that can't hold your interest so you should not be wasting your time with it, or you're too retarded for it and should not be frustrating yourself trying to read it.

The chapters are the number of sittings and tell you where to stop and start again, dingus.

>>8858833
author is dead, decide yourself

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I just realized this is pretty much a subbie only problem

Both and neither, to be honest.

/lit/izens usually think that "the less time you take to read a book, the better you retain information from earlier on." But that's not really true: you need only imagine getting bombarded with information and being forced to differentiate the beginning and ending. Still, there's some truth: taking an inordinately long time to read something (e.g. a 200-300 page book over the course of 6-12 months) will hurt your comprehension and appreciation of it, no matter what.

Re-reading is ideal, and if not that, then taking notes and reflecting on what you've read is the next best thing. No matter how long that takes, that will allow you to "close the loop" of a book, linking the last parts to everything preceding them, as best as possible.

>>8858833
Varies, make up your own mind.

>>8858833

Novellas can be read in one sitting if you have enough time. Longer novels are meant to be read in as many sittings as you have time for, for as long as it takes before you have to go to the bathroom/eat/drink/sleep/etc.

>>8858859
What about if I don't have time? I can read 200-300 page books in a sitting but after that I need to break it down into 2 or 3 days maybe a week if I'm busy that week.