I think they're a bit like commas on a larger scale; they give you a moment to breathe.
While I might not pay attention to what number chapter I'm on so much, I like them, because they're nice places to pause and put in a bookmark if necessary. And as far as formatting them, I basically think they should function to break up the story in a logical manner. Whether they're making a division between a tone change, or a skip forward (or hey, backward maybe) in time, or whatever they're doing, there should be some logic as to why the scenes in one chapter are grouped there. And maybe that ends up with chapters that are all around the same number of pages, or maybe a few are significantly shorter or longer. As long as there's a logical reason for breaking it off, then hey.
Personally, I like chapters, and I like them of sort of middling size. The ones in Naomi Novik's Temeraire books are too long for my tastes, for example, and the ones in your average Dan Brown book tend to be much too short. But it depends on what the tone and pacing of the book is, and whether or not it's fiction--I'm much more tolerant of longish chapters in non-fiction.
no subject
While I might not pay attention to what number chapter I'm on so much, I like them, because they're nice places to pause and put in a bookmark if necessary. And as far as formatting them, I basically think they should function to break up the story in a logical manner. Whether they're making a division between a tone change, or a skip forward (or hey, backward maybe) in time, or whatever they're doing, there should be some logic as to why the scenes in one chapter are grouped there. And maybe that ends up with chapters that are all around the same number of pages, or maybe a few are significantly shorter or longer. As long as there's a logical reason for breaking it off, then hey.
Personally, I like chapters, and I like them of sort of middling size. The ones in Naomi Novik's Temeraire books are too long for my tastes, for example, and the ones in your average Dan Brown book tend to be much too short. But it depends on what the tone and pacing of the book is, and whether or not it's fiction--I'm much more tolerant of longish chapters in non-fiction.