This doesn't seem correct to me. This seems exactly opposite of "correct" and feels more like, "This is what I like so therefore it must be 'right'."

Walk into a bookstore or browse an online bookstore. Find the most popular/stocked books. What are they: big, small, in-between? This can't be hard to find out for yourself.

If you truly care about making something that "the people want", then do your research and find out what "the market" is buying; don't just depend on one guy's answer on HN to control how you write/steer your book.

And David - I mean no disrespect by this. I'm not trying to single you out; I feel the same way as you about books I want today. However I do disagree that "people" prefer small books.