Comments on Thickest Books Ever - page 2

Capsguy told status:
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jonathanNelson.jpg

I'm so told I am not even aware of it. That much mean I'm pretty told, or that I'm not at all.

Bettie, where I live, there is no winter, yesterday (first of March) it was 34 degrees celsius. Sounds like not a lot, but where I live, the humidity is pretty disgusting, I've been to the desert in Australia where it can easily go high 40's, low 50's, and I felt better there than when it was 35 degrees where I live. Just because of humidity difference.

of the*
It's 10am, but I was working until midnight, I'm going back to sleep :(

Capsguy told status:
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If you are really looking at the thickest books, only books over 1000 pages should be considered.

Yeahiknow3 wrote: "Capsguy wrote: "Bible doesn`t count as it is not really one book. If you count it because they are interrelated, I`ll just stick all the Goosebumps books together and count that."

Equivalent liter..."

The Bible is published as a single volume and so would count. If all the Goosebump books were collected together and published under one cover, I would argue you should count that.

Actually Debbie this group states that the text must be the 'original novel'
now, taking the bible as a 'novel' we must adhere to these rules.

the gospels were all written and 'published' at different times, the bible is a heavily altered text, with parts being removed and re-added on a large scale since it's conception.

I'm sorry Debbie but the bible does not meet the criteria for being one of the 'thickest' books ever, it is, rather, two separate books each made up of several different texts placed side by side. Much like a short story collection would not be counted in this list.

This is true. I'd forgotten about the "original" statement. Plus different folks argue about whether or not the Bible is a novel. And original form had each of the texts published as separate texts, not even two different books, except for the portion published as the Torah.

Debbie told status:
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Jaseeee_Hakas wrote: "Debbie told status:
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Leo Toldstoy [ X ]"

ha ha ha! LOVE IT!

Conor wrote: "This list needs some pruning. There's no reason some of these books should be on here. Example: The Stranger. It's only 129 pages and I found it a fun read. Other books on this list are close to 10..."

This also refers to it being novels. There are non-fiction works here, which are not novels. There are also collections of poetry and collections of plays. Which are not novels either.

Would there be support for removing the non-fiction, such as Rise and Fall of the Third Reich? (Definitely a long book and a good read, but certainly not a novel.)

I think either the non-fiction should be removed or the description should be revised to say "work" rather than "novel". I do think the compilations of poetry/plays, namely "The Riverside ..." (Shakespeare comes to mind) should be removed. They are not the original format of those works and would fit the definition of omnibus editions, which are excluded.

Vote on the list best fantasy books for pre-teens and children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:):):):):):):):)

HP 6 is definitely longer than HP 4...

Bettie wrote: "Dear capGUN, go bang on elsewhere.

You're 18 19 with a bullet
We've got our finger on the trigger, gonna pull it.

;O)"

LOL! Bettie, you are so entertaining.

So many of these books aren't over 500 pages. The Cat in the Hat? Seriously? Someone needs to go through these and weed out the ones that don't fit the criteria...

Proust's In Search of Lost Time easily wins. No competition really. It's about 4,500 pages. How did it only come in at 90?

Ulysses would be my second choice, as it's difficult enough to make it seem much larger than even War and Peace.

Vincent wrote: "Proust's In Search of Lost Time easily wins. No competition really. It's about 4,500 pages. How did it only come in at 90?


Ranking is determined by the number of people who vote for it as the thickest book. Its only a measure of the voting, not an accurate indicator of thickness.

I don't understand how any harry potter is on here...a kids' book could not possibly compete for the thickest book!

Swan Song by Robert McCammon, was a very, very thick book; I was almost hesitant to start it. WELL worth the read!

Kirby wrote: "I don't understand how any harry potter is on here...a kids' book could not possibly compete for the thickest book!"

What if the children's book was over 9000 pages?

well I'd be dang impressed by any kid who read it! perhaps even a little intimidated...

I love Harry Potter in the movies but I like it best in text.

*sigh* I can't spot Don Quixote anywhere...

David Copperfield, definitely. :P And Count of Monte Cristo.

Twilight doesn't belong on this list. The only reason they are "thick" is because of the thick paper and the HUGE print.

Daena wrote: "War and Peace IS long it's 1,475 (2006 paperback)"
I can't even imagine getting to like, page 1000 in the book and exclaiming happily "only 475 to go!" That is a lot of page.

Linda wrote: "This is sort of silly to vote on because it's not a matter of opinion (like best or worst). Check the number of pages: I have a feeling the Bible probably is the longest in reality, but I could be ..."

Very wrong, but not an unjustified statement. Usually people assume because of the double margined text that the Bible/Testaments would indeed be the longest recorded text in the world, however the Hindu scriptures is one such a collection of religious documents - I won't compare the Bible to any fiction for the sake of not getting into an argument - that is far longer than the Bible. This is going by word count as opposed to page count, but even then. And yes, it's a very silly thing to vote on. I just like answering people's posts if I know something that they're unsure of, thus here I am :p

Kate wrote: "Seriously, A Suitable Boy is 1100 pages long. Its a riveting book, but the hardback also doubles as a deadly weapon!"

A Suitable Boy is on my shelf, still unread. I haven't gotten around to it yet because of the size of it. Great to hear it is such a good book, now all I need to do is pluck up enough courage to start on it ;-).

There are books on this list that aren't even half the size of the 500 pages mentioned in the description though...

I added The complete books of Geoffrey Chaucer but then realized it would qualify as an omnibus. As an omnibus is not allowed, I removed the book again.

I don't really understand this list. War and Peace is much longer than the Harry Potter novels (not to mention "bland," which is how I would expect this list to be ranked when comparing it to other lists), and yet it's ranked lower.

Is it just "favorite think books?"

I didn't think the Harry Potter novels were exactly thick....

270 Candide is definitely a very short book- that is part of its charms!

If Harry Potter is put on a list it always ends ends up being No. 1. If this list is counted on both length and difficulty then all YA should be taken off, as YA is by it's very definition not a tough read. And no YA books are going to be the longest books, just a fact.

Additionally The Time Traveler's Wife is not that long.

A lot of these books really aren't even that long...

Why is a 700 page book ranked higher than a 1000 page book?

If I remember right, Tale of Genji should be the longest. I have an ancient Grimm's Fairy Tales that might give it a run for its money but I doubt it. I'm thinking that in college they said it was 2 or 3 thousand pages...anyone know? I can only find books of excerpts from it so I have never seen it in person.

This is where my fantasy novel, Silver Rose, is going to show up! :D

It's around 700 pages right now....

Peter wrote: "Why is a 700 page book ranked higher than a 1000 page book?"

I assume because more people have read it, and therefore voted for it.

Hp wrote: "Seriously? Breaking Dawn?

Gosh."

Son casi 900 páginas.

Removed for not meeting the criteria (come on people, READ before you add!):
Little Women
Dracula
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
To Kill a Mockingbird
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
On the Road
The Silmarillion
Dubliners
Eugene Onegin
The Romance of Tristan and Iseult
Catch-22
The Forsyte Saga (not a single novel, but more than one book)
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 1: The Middle Ages through the Restoration & the Eighteenth Century (not a novel)
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume 2: The Romantic Period through the Twentieth Century (again, not a novel)
The Inferno
Bring Up the Bodies
The Hobbit
The Chronicles of Narnia (seven books, not a single novel)
Kristin Lavransdatter (a trilogy, not a single novel)

I noticed some people really seem to have a hard time understanding the term 'novel' (while the description clearly says "Original novel").

I've left them on this list, but if you don't count the introduction, Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Great Expectations don't meet the criteria either, of course...

I LOVE big, fat novels and think if it's under 300 pages, it's hardly worth bothering with.

However.... is Jane Eyre really over 500 pages? I've got to check my copy!

Terelyn wrote: ".... is Jane Eyre really over 500 pages?"

It all depends on the copy you pick. Mine isn't :-).

Is someone vetting this list? because I saw one picture book by Dr. Seuss and a few children's books (the Septimus Heap books) and YA books that definitely don't meet the criteria.

Melliott wrote: "Is someone vetting this list? because I saw one picture book by Dr. Seuss and a few children's books (the Septimus Heap books) and YA books that definitely don't meet the criteria."

Let me know where they are (number in the list) and I'll have a look for you.

Why isn't more Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan books up here? I mean some of them are over a thousand pages!

I don't know if anyone already posted it, but Wikipedia has a list of the longest novels in terms of wordcount: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

It's a little tricky to deal with some of the really long older stuff, because they would have been published in multiple volumes which nowadays would be considered books 1, 2, 3, etc. of a series. (The 10-volume Malazan Book of the Fallen series has over 3 million words total, for comparison.) The Wikipedia page says that Zettels Traum (1.1 million words) is the longest novel ever published in one volume.

@Keith
Lovely list on Wikipedia :-) But you're right, it is tricky. I noticed J.J. Voskuil's Het Bureau on the list for example, which was published as seven separate books. Voskuil's books aren't old, by the way, as the first book of Het Bureau was published in 1996...

There sure are a lot of books here that fall outside the description; poetry, biography, other nonfiction. Also, doesn't #11, the LOTR trilogy, count as an omnibus?