50 pages into a rather short novel may be substantial enough; 50 pages of War and Peace only scratch the surface. I wasn't hooked in the first 50 pages of W&P,

50 pages into a rather short novel may be substantial enough; 50 pages of War and Peace only scratch the surface. I wasn't hooked in the first 50 pages of W&P, but I came to enjoy the book immensely in a few hundred. I'm already saving plenty of time by picking what I read carefully.