[Suzerain of Sheol]

How long did it take you to read it, and as a corollary, did it need to be that long in your opinion?

I'm not positive, but I think Steven Erikson's The Bonehunters is the longest book I've ever read. Weighing in at 1,201 pages of fine print in paperback, it's pretty damned long. For comparison, I just sat it next to Martin's A Storm of Swords (another monstrosity) and it's half again as thick with the same dimensions. The book has to weigh close to two pounds.

Anyway, it took me probably a week and a half to read that the first time (I've read it three times). I tend to go really slow with Erikson, because his prose is so rich and rewarding and replete with foreshadowing.

And, in my opinion, it did need to be that long. The number of plotlines Erikson was juggling in that novel is incredible, and the way he weaves them in and out of each other is nothing short of marvelous. I think you could make a case for the book being split in half, as there's a massive climax in the middle, but the way it's structured, it works better, I think, as a cohesive whole.

What's kind of crazy about it is that the book actually feels fast-paced.

Anyway, let's hear about some other monstrous tomes, for good or ill.

[Nanka]

One of the books from the Twilight series? What do I think about it? More work to understand jokes from to laugh at. 8D

[Behemoth]

It would probably be The Stand by Stephen King, the long edition, unless the later Harry Potter books were longer. It probably doesn't need to be anywhere near that long, but whatever, the first few parts are completely awesome. I don't think the big good vs. evil parts are that interesting, but the plague/survival horror of the first sections are really awesome.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

That would be War and Peace for me, and whether the length is justified is hard to say. It's a very simple and easy read. Tolstoy doesn't beat around the bush or take any longer than he needs to when describing a particular thing, but there are a hell of a lot of particular things! Each chapter is very short, on average maybe about 2 to 3 'flips' and to the point, unless one is reading some of the philosophical bits, but even then it's hardly tedious reading. There are just a lot of details. If he stuck only to the figures of the Bolkonskis and the Rostovs, and then only certain figures of those families, then yes, the novel could be much shorter. However, to do so would entirely change the nature of the book.

[Ashurato]

War and Peace for me as well. Though I found The Count of Monte Cristo to be infinitely more enjoyable.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

*Googles word count* Yikes! 460,000 words. That's gargantuan. I think the book I mentioned above was only in the high 300k region.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Woops, forgot the time part. War and Peace took me a year to finish, mostly because I was reading in the 10 minutes increments in the morning before my ride showed up for work, and I took at least three breaks while reading it to read other books.

I've started my way into The Brothers Karamazov, but that's not quite as large I don't think.

[Fey]

Er, I dunno if it counts, it was all one book, but it was a lot of books inside. One Thanksgiving I read over half of The Complete Works of William Shakespear(mostly all the comedies, tragedies and a couple of the histories) in a 17 hour layover at DIA. I don't even want to think about how many pages this was.

[Ashurato]

I had to buy that book for my Shakespeare class in college. Needless to say, it was intense exercise just getting to class (as we had to bring it every class).

[Quiet Man Cometh]

My prof did the same thing with "The Riverside Chaucer." Although, in his defence, the paperback wasn't available outside of Europe.

[Fey]

I never took a class for it, mores the pity, but I knew I would have a wait and needed a biiiiiiig book. I tend to read very, very quickly(standard 250 page books take me about an hour), and nothing I had would be a single book, and last me through the night. My RA was more than happy to NOT take it home with her LOL

[Quiet Man Cometh]

Heh. I used to read pretty fast compared to other people I knew, but then college happened and reading quickly was no longer really an option when one needs to write a large paper on small passages.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I tend to read slowly, as in, I don't allow myself to spend much time reading each day, as I read really fast, especially light stuff that doesn't require a lot of thought. I used to run out of books to read constantly when I was younger, so I made it a habit to not spend hours locked in my room reading.

It's also why I prefer long books with rich prose, so I can savor them and have them last me a long time.

[Fey]

yeah, my retention quotient was bad, but then I learned to read for content...now I just enjoy rereading things to see what I may have missed the first million times. Also helped that my degree was in no way based on literature, otherwise I might have slaughtered the whole dorm.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

I'm reminded of trying to study for my Aging, Dying & Death class (great class *rolls eyes*). The textbook was... something else: black and white, not a single picture or graph, and packed with what had to be size 6 font, and I had 45 pages to cover in one night.

I confess, I was reduced to shouting the words to make any sense of them. My father thought I had lost my mind. If I never here the phrase "heterogeneous cross-section" again as long as I live, I'll be very happy.

Luckily, the teacher gave up on that abomination of the textbook halfway through the semester, owning up to her mistake and apologizing for wasting our money. Honestly, at that point, I would have paid more just to get rid of the thing.

[Fey]

LOL my fav text book was for Invertebrates. The teacher admitted it was a snore fest, but it was the best book on the field. And told us flat out, 'If you can't sleep, start reading chapter seven, you'll be out for a solid eight.' All in all I loved that class...even though I hated the actual animals.