There has never felt like a better time to lose yourself in a mountain of a book. My last read was the 688-page A Brief History of Seven Killings, and I'm now reading the 1030-page Ducks, Newburyport. If you're also looking for a tome to occupy your mind and your spare time, here are my top 5 recommendations:



1. Ulysses (980 pages)
Don't let its reputation put you off. I absolutely loved Ulysses, and I don't think it matters in the slightest that I didn't understand all of it.



2. David Copperfield (974 pages)
I'm not the biggest fan of Charles Dickens, but I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed David Copperfield. If you're someone who loves book adaptations, there's also the 2019 film starring Dev Patel, which looks fantastic.



3. Don Quixote (961 pages)
I did have to persevere with Don Quixote near the end, but it is an absolute blast. The Edith Grossman translation comes highly recommended, and is very affordable.



4. The Sea, The Sea (608 pages)
In a list of well-known classics, The Sea, The Sea is a bit of a curveball. Iris Murdoch deserves to be better known, and The Sea, The Sea is Murdoch at her finest.



5. Moby-Dick or, the Whale (589 pages)
Worth reading if only so you get all the pop-culture references to it, Moby Dick is surprisingly readable for a book with so many digressions.