canadianspankee:
There were a few where the 'details' made me skip a paragraph here and there just to get back to the story.
I think this gives a saluatory lesson in writing. Whilst the author may have this level of detail in his head and feels that it is important to a full understanding of the plot, it ain't necessarily so. All readers are different, and whilst some of them are just in it for the action, others want more description.
It might be thought that one can't please both, but I think it is always better to leave a reader wanting more after a concisely written piece (they'll come back to your other stories) than to risk boring them with excessive detail (they might not). This is why trying to write to a parsimonious word limit is such good practice. With only a few words at one's disposal every one of the little rascals must pull their weight.
Having said that, sometimes a piece needs to be a bit more verbose, needs a bit of breathing space to allow a mood or ambience to be created, but that is not the same as burdening the reader with excess detail.