38 replies to this topic

[Visiting Chieftone]

Atlas Shurgged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
It, The Stand and Under the Dome by Stephen King

The Twilight series... Harry Potter books... The Lord of the Rings series... Dark Tower series... The Narnia series (in one book, it was great!). I understand that these books may or may not be of "quality" but I sure do love good, long stories.   Then IB came... no more reading of whatever I want.  

[Maddyy]

Jane Eyre. And Harry Potter. Both of which I really enjoyed, although Jane Eyre took me about a month to get through my freshman year. And not quite as long, but I read the Grapes of Wrath sophomore year and totally fell in love with Steinbeck.

I think long books are only an accomplishment if you both read it and enjoy it. If you're reading it just to say you read a super long book, then what's the point? At least, that's how it seems to me.

[Daedalus]

Meh, in response to all the "long books aren't that meaningful" platitudes, this was never meant to be a particularly meaningful exercise. Sort of like comparing penis lengths - of course it's nice, but in the end using it frequently is what counts...

The point is, reading a dead boring book can be an achievement. But if you see the end of the tunnel before you even enter (i.e. Shelley's A Defence of Poetry) it's a little bit easier than reading a Victorian three-decker or some modern Leviathan that is even vaster and seems contrived to send you to sleep. You know? Reading long Harry Potter books is probably not an achievement (for example, we can reasonably assume that all the actors in HP7 have read the book, which automatically consigns it to ignominy), whereas slogging through something like "A History of the Diverse Meanings and Usages of the Number Seven Through the Course of both Western, Eastern and Somewhere-in-Between History" would be an accomplishment worthy of several bottles of vodka and throwing up on a charmless Wednesday evening.

One who speaks from personal experience.

[genepeer]

Lord of the Rings...1000+ pages with super small font. It would be close to 2000 pages if it had a normal font. It's a great book but I've got to admit, it has plenty of BOOOORING stretches (like the beginning or Part 2 of The Two Towers: Frodo and Sam's part). I tried reading it again a few months back; I couldn't get past Part 2 of the Two Towers. No reason for torturing myself again.

[AndreaRuiz]

Anna Karenina and that bitch is long and boring. The worst part of all is that while reading it, I had in my mind that Stiva was beatiful and that casanova type, but in the movie I saw (before ending the book) he was OLD, FAT, UGLY! Levine was okay, although I imagined him much more handsome. Wronsky was a fetus. He was disgusting, and I had him in my mind at least decent. Kitty was very childish, and I thought her a bit more mature.

I read it until the sixth part. After that movie, I couldn't finish it without being repulsed by the image of the characters, so I read summaries and some classmates passed me the questions and answers and managed to get at the end of the cycle a 6 in Spanish SL (I read that for Spanish)

[Jaydon]

I've read the Bible. It's one of the longest non-fictional books (not including dictionaries) ever. It tops 2000 pages.

[ad astra.]

I think the longest fiction book I've read is Brisingr by Christopher Paolini. Not too sure, but that's the only one that comes to mind.

The longest non-fiction book I've "read" is... the dictionary. (And not one of those miniature ones!) Haven't quite finished that one, yet.

[Eizhowa]

Can't believe so many has read something longer than Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix. I feel very young now.

[Arrowhead]

The Complete Works of Shakespeare with literary commentary. That is what I call long.

[sarahlouise]

Arrowhead, on Aug 08, 2011 - 10:49, said:

The Complete Works of Shakespeare with literary commentary. That is what I call long.

Wow. That's impressive.

Did you read them all at once? Or did you read one play, then read something else, then read another play?

[Arrowhead]

sarahlouise said:

Wow. That's impressive.

Did you read them all at once? Or did you read one play, then read something else, then read another play?

It took me two weeks to get through the entire thing. But I broke it up with breaks, so I'd read a play, do something, read another play, do something else, and so on and so forth. It was an interesting obsession though, at the time.

[C.James]

Jaydon, on Mar 01, 2011 - 01:30, said:

I've read the Bible. It's one of the longest non-fictional books (not including dictionaries) ever. It tops 2000 pages.

Exodus might be the worst. But technically it is a collection of books, histories, poetry, etc. so I`m not sure if it is one book.

[daxx]

Either Anna Karenina or The Brothers Karamazov, I believe they were both around 800 pages.

[Maks123456]

It by Stephen King. A book that was worth reading! Loved it!

[milk]

i usually choose to read shorter books over longer ones because i love when authors create something powerful in a small space as opposed to a large one... anyway, longer books are usually slower and more boring and i tend to lose interest. the longest i've ever read was probably hp & the order of the phoenix haha

[Yllat]

Crausaders - Henryk Sienkiewicz

[vira.may]

Probably Anna Karenina.

What books are over 2000 pages long?!

[StSilver]

Two of Tolstoy's works, War and Peace, and Anna Karenina, and I while the former was brilliant, I honestly found the latter extremely dull. Just my opinion though. I did also read an english translation of Alexandre Pere Dumas' The Vicompte of Bragelonne, but I'm not sure if that counts, as it was in three volumes. Although it's just one in the original French version.

[Wide Eyed Wanderer]

War and Peace - The longest book I left halfway

Other long books I've read - Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, and Fall of Giants  (All by Ken Follett)