past perfect or passive past perfect continous or past continous after "after"

Hi,
I think many experts have said something like that the use of past perfect in the subordinate clause is not needed to make the context clear, thus the use isn't necessary. How about the passive perfect continous?

After he had read the novel, the got up to play chess. -- the underlined tense can be a past, i think.

But this passive perfect continous?
After he had been reading the novel for some time, he got up to play chess

The concept that I expounded applies only if the subordordinate clause contains a past perfect? Can this work?

Before he got up to paly volleyball, he was reading a novel for two hours.