So, what are your longest reads? Has anyone else read I Know This Much is True?
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Neverending Story
Just out of curiosity, what's the longest book you've ever read? Other than Anna Karenina, of course. For me, it was I Know This Much is True by Wally Lamb, coming in at 912 pages. I picked it up just before a trip to Europe in college precisely for its length because I knew I had an eight-hour flight (my first ever) ahead of me. Little did I know I would spend that flight gripping my arm rests and staring at the seatbelt light, willing it to turn off and thus ensure my safety as Lloyd Dobler promised me it would in Say Anything. It never did and alas, nothing was read. Once we landed (safely) and began traveling by train, I allowed myself to relax a little and read. I could not put this book down once I started reading it. It's embarrassing to admit this, but my boyfriend had to bribe me with ice cream at times (ein Schokoladeneis!) to get me to stop reading and go sight-see. I think I finished it in about a week. However, as engrossing as this book apparently was, I remember very little about it; I wouldn't even feel comfortable recommending it to you. I suppose I liked it but I've never had any desire to revisit it. If nothing else, thinking about it today has renewed my hope that I will be able to finish Anna Karenina by next Tuesday.
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4 comments:
I started I Know this Much is True but only got about 20 pages in and had to stop when the brother cut off his hand in the library. It disturbed me so much that I've never wanted to go back.
It's ironic considering the longest book I ever read was It by Stephen King (1152 pages in hardcover). That was in 7th grade -- so it is just sad that I haven't finished an 800+ page book since then. Perhaps The Lord of the Rings trilogy should also count, since it is really just one long book with breaks, and I read all 3 at once. I also read the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy one summer (1168 pages altogether) in college when I was reading a lot of medieval historical lit. It was so good, but kind of depressing because all the sex and romance happens in the first half of the first book, then never really resumes. It's just a lot of guilt and confession after that.
Oh wait, speaking of historical sex and romance: I just remembered Mists of Avalon - 912 pages, which I also read in college. I would love to read that again. And our memorable book club selection, Outlander, is 896 pages.
More long books I aspire to read:
1. Middlemarch
2. The Stand
3. Bleak House
4. Cryptonomicon
5. Proust - his 7-volume, ~4000 page work is always referred to as just Proust, but the English translation of the title is A Remembrance of Things Past
6. Clarissa
7. Infinite Jest
8. The Woman in White
Has anyone read any of these? (My money's on Katie . . .)
My longest is probably Mists of Avalon too. I started re-reading it again this fall (about 1/2 through). Liz, I have read the first 30 pages of Cryptonomicon but it really wasn't for me. However, Ben loved it (he's a big Neal Stephenson fan).
Hi everyone! So, I've been thinking about this all week and I'm not sure what my longest book is- I've ready Gone with the Wind (960 pages), The LOTR trilogy all in one book, and of course, Shantaram. But the one that FELT the longest in recent memory was And the Band Played On- an epic about the AIDS epidemic. I had to read it for a grad school class, and resented my professor for expecting us to read it in a week. But, it was a great book.
Sonya,
Oh, And the Band Played On! That is a fascinating and completely enraging book. I read that on a break form college too - those college breaks sound so dreamy me to me now. I remember spending my first Christmas home parked in a recliner, getting through a stack of books at a rate of about one a day. What a perfect vacation!
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