It appears that Atlas Shrugged is also the longest book I've ever read. It's a useful book to read, regardless of your political leanings, simply because so many people have read it that some of the terms and characters have become a sort of political and economic shorthand. I was surprised to find that Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow wasn't on the longest list. It certainly takes a long time to read. As for The Stand, the only thing I took from that book was a tremendous sense of disappointment at the ending. I can honestly only remember little scraps and pieces, but not the overall story or more than two or three of the characters (Randall Flagg, the old black woman with the chickens, and the crazy guy who ended the book). That would pretty much be my book report on 500,000 words.
I tried The Stand, unabridged edition, once. I got about 300 pages in before heaving a big sigh and muttering, "Life's too short." I pitched it into my roomie's bookshelf, which is where it now sits, persistently unfinished. I was so BORED. I kept thinking, "Okay, King must be getting close to starting the story by now..." But he didn't. It seemed like the whole thing was a bunch of scenes intended to set something up that King just refused to get to. I'd read Misery, which I kind of liked, and "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", which I loved, so I knew King could really write when he wanted to. But in The Stand, it seemed he just didn't want to.
The Bible is the longest book I have ever read and it took me quite a long time since I wasn't just reading for reading's sake but for the purpose of proper understanding.
Okay, it's either Jane Eyre or one of the Warriors super editions (I don't know which one, but all the super editions are really long). Both were worth reading. I probably won't ever read the Warriors series again just because it's too long and sort of juvenile for me now. I would definitely read Jane Eyre again, but not for a while. I just read it a couple months ago.
I've read a 661,000 word Harry potter fan fiction that only covers his first year, twice. It's not perfect but it is really good and well written. If you want something new from the potter world and don't mind someone messing with the format a bit then I recommend it. Especially if you're a hyper rational nerd. You can read it here http://www.hpmor.com/ and there's ebook and audiobook versions available if you Google. Cryptonomicon mentioned earlier itt is my favourite ever book, I read it every couple of years or so and it never loses its brilliance. Enjoyed this review I found of it by a girl on goodreads (which turned out to be a lot longer than I remembered so just copy pasted in a bit of it). "I am FINIIIIIISHED! I thought it didn't have an ending! I thought Neal Stephenson kept sneaking to my house and inserting more pages in the back while I was asleep! I thought he would never be appeased until I begged him to stop with a deck of cards, morse code and a wide variety of pleading looks! This is a massive boy book. A MASSIVE boy book. It's got overwhelmingly male characters, and they do really boy things, like coding, and shooting things, and drawing logarithmic graphs about the last time they masturbated. I kept being surprised that I could open this book and it didn't immediately smell overpoweringly of old canvas and sweat. And I say this in the most endearing way, generally speaking - the characters in this book have no idea, none at all!, that I am not One Of Them, so I got to romp about with the best of them, messing about with submarines and mid-nineties hacker politics."
Think I made it through 8 as well but the consensus I heard was that book 10 is good but book 9 sucks and I could never bring myself to read a boring 1200 page book just to get to a good one.
I read a lot more when I was young. I don’t have the time for longer ones now but in grade school and high school I read some big ones. The Stand: Complete and uncut was one I remember fondly. I also read Alaska and Hawaii. Both were epics which spanned millions of years in time so warranted their length. Michener’s writing was slow but gripping.
Does a trilogy count? When I read lord of the rings it came in a single volume and I didn't know it was a trilogy. Read the whole thing in one day. (and night)
The secret teachings of all ages by Manly P. Hall. It's an occult book, so it's garbage. At the time though it was beyond fascinating but there's a sinister aura about it that really just put me off to say the very least. I was young in my faith and it made me question a lot of things and just generally confused me. One time I came into the camper I was staying at and there was this wasp on the book. Frozen. Like not moving. It was winter then so it makes sense it wouldn't be moving I suppose but I didn't know how it got in during winter. Didn't even know wasps were out and about in December. It kinda freaked me out though. Like an omen or something. That the book would end up stinging me.
This reminds me of what Woody Allen once said: "I took a speed-reading course. I read War and Peace in an hour. It's about Russia."
No clue how this breaks down, but I've read War and Peace, All the Harry Potter books except for the last one. The Stand by Stephen King and Swan Song by Robert Mccammon and Foucualt's Pendulum is pretty long. Can't think of any others atm. -SIN
I think War and Peace is probably the longest single book I've read. Series is probably first 4 out of 6 of the Asian saga by Wilbur Smith or the Potato Factory series by Bryce Courtenay. Whoever read all of the Wheel of Time series has us all beat I'd say.
I'm currently collecting Wheel of Time books. I caught more than half of them at book sale at really low prices, but I don't have the first, so I haven't started them. They're some heavy books. I have reasons why I didn't like the last book. I read about thirty pages in and quit. But it's more of personal issue with it. I got to invested in how I would've ended the series and it kind of ruined it for me, sad to say. -SIN
I bought a couple on sale myself. I started the first but figure I should go back to it when I'm ready to pay it enough attention to get through the entire series. It's very descriptive so a lot to absorb. I feel ya, I stopped reading some series when I didn't like the direction the plot was going mainly when my favourite characters lost completely and it appeared I'd have to wait for their descendents to get the w. I'm probably ready to go back and finish them now that I've been working on not turning away from the screen when a character I like is about to get his/her cards pulled.
Folks who have read War and Peace: Is it worth it? I'm kinda thinking of getting a copy. One of my bookshelves needs ballast.
From what I recall it was definitely worthy of the classic novel category in fact it was the first novel I read that truly made me fall in love with the art of storytelling. I was stunned by the authors skill in evoking emotion and attention to minor details in the human condition that we casually disregard. However, I never want to read it again. I don't remember why now, but I do have a vague recollection of the emotion I felt when I made that declaration.
Been reading Dune recently, about 3/4 of the way through. Think that'll take the cake once I'm finished.
War and Peace is damn good. That said, you do feel the book is long-winded at times. But I enjoyed it. -SIN
