Play Book Tag discussion

Do you like long books or do you avoid them? Why?

What could induce you to read a long book?

What are some memorable long books which you have read?

How long does a book need to be before you consider it long?

Memorable long books
Don Quixote by Cervantes
Lonesome Dove by McMurtry
The Stand by King

I neither avoid nor seek out long books. Sometimes I just read one for whatever reason. And some books with fewer pages SEEM long. LOL!

I think of "long" books as being over 500 pages.

I love long books. I don't think I actively seek them out, but I am some how drawn to them. My currently reading shelf does not have a book under 400 pages on it, but like Tessa think of a long book as something over 500 pages.

Some of my most epic longs reads:

Steven Erikson' Books of The Malazan, a 10 book series and I don't think one of them was under a 1000 pages
The Outlander Series-of course :)
War and Remembrance
The Pillars of the Earth
The Sunne in Splendour
Into the Wilderness
Tigana

I have a lot more...but I will stop there

I'm a big Outlander fan - so bring on those long books! I just finished the second longest book in the series and am about to start on the longest (A Breath of Snow and Ashes).

And I have a very strong and fond memory of the weekend that I spent reading The Stand.

HOWEVER ... as I get older, I've somehow become a slower reader. So I generally prefer books that also have an audio version so that I can alternate between reading and listening and get through the book faster. Otherwise, it might sit on my TBR for a loooooong time before I get to it LOL.

It is for this reason that ...And Ladies of the Club (1,184 pages) has been gathering dust on my physical TBR for several years. But someday I'll get to it!

I absolutely read long books and in fact I have 2 categories of long books, mostly by page length: Books between 500 and 800 pages are just Big Reads - mean I am unlikely to be able to read it in 1 to 3 days - might need a little more time and won't need a palate cleanser or break usually when reading it. I read a fair number of these in the course of a year.

Long books -- doorstoppers and chunksters - those are over 800 pages. Those need COMMITMENT in capital letters to read - and to do so in some kind of more or less steady fashion, with probably a break here and there to read fast light (or challenge or book club) books. I read at least 1 of these a year, and often more than one. 2021 is a year of more than one.

I do seek out long books -- many of my bucket list reads are very long and I try to work down that list. I have several staring at me from the livingroom TBR Towers. But I'm also a mood reader so it has to fit my mood -- and my work schedule (does it need a lot of attention and reading daily? If so, I may wait to start it until vacation).

Right now I'm reading the nearly 1500 page A Suitable Boy. I am craving a break in work to just sit and go deep into it. Soon...

Notable past big and long reads I have loved:

A Brief History of Seven Killings
Hunger’s Brides: A Novel of the Baroque
A Song of Ice and Fire - all 5 volumes published so far - three of those volumes a second time. A re-read planned for 2022 with another PBT
All of Harry Potter - second reread with a third re-read starting soon -- but this time the British editions.
Tigana
Maia
The Lord of the Rings - more than once.
Middlemarch
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Anna Karenina
Gone with the Wind - twice in fact!

And the granddaddy of them all - Proust's In Search of Lost Time. That one was spread over 9 months.

I'm pretty sure I have some Dickens reads that qualified...especially non-mass market paperbacks that are normal size print.

Note: in these big series, the second reading has always been in one fell swoop over a period of 3 to 4 weeks. Not all volumes may be over 800 pages individually, but most are.

Doughgirl5562 wrote: "I'm a big Outlander fan - so bring on those long books! I just finished the second longest book in the series and am about to start on the longest (A Breath of Snow and Ashes).

And I have a very s..."
I loved And the Ladies of the Club when I read it.

If it’s a good book, I don’t mind the length. Anymore, though, I try to get the chunksters as ebooks- takes up less room in my bag.

I just finished what Theresa calls the granddaddy today, as a matter of fact- and I loved In Search of Lost Time. I spread it over seven months, and listened to it. I think that helped.

Others I’ve loved- pretty much any Dickens, Infinite Jest, Anna Karenina, Brothers Karamazov, Les Miserables, The Count of Monte Cristo, Lord of the Rings, Don Quixote, Midnight’s Children and The Stand, for a few.

Recent long books I’ve read are the Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringher and Gone with the Wind. Both were more than worth it. But I really avoid long books. It takes a lot out of me. And by long I mean really long.

Thanks for posting this PBT! Please keep posting like this:)

Do you like long books or do you avoid them? Why?
- Sometimes I like long books because it seems interesting to me:)
What could induce you to read a long book?
-It seems interesting to me and I enjoy it
What are some memorable long books which you have read?
-I think Ban This Book by Alan Gratz and Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks. I know it's not too long.
How long does a book need to be before you consider it long?
- I think 500 pages.
I really love these questions! :D

I'm not a big fan of long books (which I consider to be 500+ pages). It's rare that I'll enjoy a book that long on audio.

I just have too many monthly challenges. It gets hard to mix in those chunksters.

I have been reading the Outlander series, about 1/year since I started. But I tend to aim to read each one on my month of vacation time from work, so I have more time to put into it.

For many years, that has been during the summer, but work has changed the way they do vacation days, so the only way I could figure out how to take my entire month off all at once is to take December, which I am doing this year.

I used to choose long books intentionally.

I've always been an avid reader, but in my teen and early adult years I didn't have 1) a ride to the library or book store very often or 2) money to buy many books myself.

My Mom would buy me any book I wanted - but only one book at a time. So I developed an early preference for looong books so I'd have enough book to last until the next trip to the bookstore.

Some of these were newly released during those years, and I still count them among my favorite books:

The Far Pavilions (958 pages)
The Thorn Birds (692 pages)
The Stand (1152 pages)
Chesapeake (1024 pages)

I ended up reading a great deal more from each of these authors, but these books really stand out for me.

The original cover for Chesapeake showed a sunset over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with geese flying in the sky. I had an opportunity to visit the Chesapeake Bay area a few years ago and re-read that book in advance of my visit. At the end of the trip as I was driving west across the bridge, the sun was setting and the sky was the exact color from the book cover - and there were geese flying in the sky. It made me so happy to see that exact scene I got tears in my eyes.

I also re-read The Stand last year - that dark story even scarier in the midst of a pandemic.

These days I try to read at least one long book per year, but it has to have fantastic reviews. If its just long because it's long, then I can do without.

Do you like long books or do you avoid them? Why?
Yes, I tend to like them, since they provide plenty of time to develop the characters and storyline(s).

What could induce you to read a long book?
I will read a book of any length that I anticipate liking a lot based on reviews of people with similar taste. I also read long books if they are nominated for the Booker Prize or are on the Boxall List.

What are some memorable long books which you have read?
Shōgun
Centennial
The Winds of War
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
Alexander Hamilton
Conspiracy of Fools
The Goldfinch
A Fine Balance
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
The Young Lions
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Time of Our Singing
The Nix
A Fine Balance
I could go on and on!

How long does a book need to be before you consider it long?
Generally, over 600 pages.

I tend to take my time with a long book and have several shorter books going at the same time.

Sue wrote: "I used to choose long books intentionally.

I've always been an avid reader, but in my teen and early adult years I didn't have 1) a ride to the library or book store very often or 2) money to buy..."

I love your story about why you love long books.

Tracy wrote: " just finished what Theresa calls the granddaddy today, as a matter of fact- and I loved In Search of Lost Time. I spread it over seven months, and listened to it. I think that helped...."

CONGRATULATIONS! 🍾🥂🎉🎆✨🎇

I know exactly what an accomplishment that is! It was wonderful, wasn't? So many favorite sections amd moments, but my favorite may be the bee and the orchid...such an unexpected bit.

And how brilliant was that ending.

I have always liked long books, it seems like you get more for your money (or time). However, lately I have been doing a lot of challenges where it make sense to read shorter books. So I need to get back to the longer ones.

Some long books I've loved (I consider over 500 pages long)

The Night Circus
The Goldfinch
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Three Musketeers
and its sequel Twenty Years After
The Far Pavilions
Shadow of the Moon
The Game of Kings and the rest of the Lymond saga
Theft of Swords and the rest of that series
A Game of Thrones and the next 2 books, after that not so much
David Copperfield
Great Expectations
Our Mutual Friend
Tigana

All those mentioning a James Michener books in their lists...I definitely read and loved a whole bunch of those!

I have always liked long books, it seems like you get more for your money (or time). However, lately I have been doing a lot of challenges where it make sense to read shorter books. So I need to get back to the longer ones.

Some long books I've loved (I consider over 500 pages long)

The Night Circus
The Goldfinch
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
The Three Musketeers
and its sequel Twenty Years After
The Far Pavilions
Shadow of the Moon
The Game of Kings and the rest of the Lymond saga
A Place of Greater Safety
Lonesome Dove
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Tigana
Doomsday Book

Theresa wrote: "Tracy wrote: " just finished what Theresa calls the granddaddy today, as a matter of fact- and I loved In Search of Lost Time. I spread it over seven months, and listened to it. I think that helped..."

I think my favorite part was how unexpected one-liners and humor in general would pop up. And as I was reading the last part, I started to choke up. It was just a great experience.

For me, over 600 pages makes me raise an eyebrow, but I don't append that chunkster tag until it hits 800.

Most books I read are less that 500 pages, but I do love sinking in to an 800+ page book and just getting totally immersed. I only do it once or twice a year though.

Now that they have announced Outlander is coming back in early 2022 (February is my guess), I really want to get to An Echo in the Bone!

Do you like long books or do you avoid them? Why?
I enjoy long books. I like being able to become fully immersed in the world when there is enough time and length to fully engage with the characters and story.

Like Sue, I also went through a phase where I only read long books. Shorter books seemed to not be enough and end too quickly. I also traveled/ lived places without access to books other than the hard copies I carried from the US or bought and uploaded when I had Kindle - still pre-wireless so I had to leave the country to upload- and was also limited by budget so the bigger the better.

Now like Robin, I do lots of challenges that do disincentivize reading longer books. I still do but can make me more reluctant to pick them up.

What could induce you to read a long book?
Good reviews and recommendations from those I know. I also find that many books in fantasy series are quite long but I enjoy them so.

What are some memorable long books which you have read?
The Name of the Wind (The KIngkiller Chronicles)
The Stand and his The Dark Tower series
The Outlander series
Les Miserables
The Stormlight Archive
Don Quixote
The Lord of the Rings

How long does a book need to be before you consider it long?
Nowadays more than 500 pages.

I love long books. Some of my best friends are long books ;). I tend to reread my favorites. I've lost count of the number of times I've reread ( or listened to );

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
David Copperfield
The Outlander Series
Hawaii
Tigana

How long is long? Monthly tags and challenges have me thinking of reading in terms of time, like Californians think about about driving, not how many miles, but how long will it take to get there. I like to have both the text and the audio for a really long book. With these chunksters, I had both:

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Bleak House
11/22/63
A Promised Land
Troubled Blood

For some authors I go straight to the audio. I can't imagine the Outlander series without Davina Porter reading it. I've planned some long road trips around those books.

@Robin - add me to the Lymond fans! Read the entire Lymond chronicles too by Dorothy Dunnett.

Tracy wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Tracy wrote: " just finished what Theresa calls the granddaddy today, as a matter of fact- and I loved In Search of Lost Time. I spread it over seven months, and listened to it. I t..."

You describe it well. Proust had such a gift for inserting that wry comment or humorous depiction. Françoise, the asparagus and the kitchen maid...

I read it between September 2019 and June 2020 with a discussion group. We hit the section where Narrator and Albertine holed up in his family home in Paris....just as NYC went into pandemic lockdown, and we switched from in person to zoom monthly meetings. Seemed appropriate somehow.

I forgot to comment on how I pick long reads. Most I just find on my own when wandering bookstores and reading reviews in newspapers and magazines. Many are classics so just part of my general awareness.

A few were recommendations from friends who read...Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond series was repeatedly recommended by two separate friends, for example.

Most long reads I have found worth the time. A rare exception was Wolf Hall which almost became a DNF. I found the quality of the writing offensively bad, so much so that it suborned what was a great concept. Took me forever to read...I kept taking breaks to read other more fun reads. Felt like I was finishing a work or law school assignment.

Sue's story of picking long books when young to see her through trips to the library reminded me of my high school teen years. I grew up on a farm, 6 miles from nearest town and it was a small town. No bookstore in town then, only source of reading material was paperbacks sold on a rack at grocery store, school library (closed in summer), and public library. Only opportunity to get books from library (until I got my license) was when we went to town once a week for groceries, banking, and piano lessons. Library had a limit on how many books you could take out at one time, plus I was on a self-imposed summer reading kick to read classics that would be tested in my Junior Year on standardized testing - meaning a classic that was usually long. I frequently picked books to read simply because they were fat. I read Thomas Hardy (dislike to this day), Dickens, and such for my 'assigned' reading, then Michener and even The Godfather for fun.

Jgrace wrote: " Some of my best friends are long books ;)."

Love this!!

Do you like long books or do you avoid them? Why?
I like long books. If the language and story are good, there's more to love! I read a few each year, and have many, many more waiting patiently on my shelves - books by Dumas, Dunnett, Neal Stephenson, David Foster Wallace, Sir Thomas Malory, Doris Lessing, and more.

What could induce you to read a long book?
Sometimes my book club chooses long books. Sometimes it's a classic I want to read, or written by an author I love.

What are some memorable long books which you have read?
The Crimson Petal and the White
Barkskins
Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse: The Story of Leonard Peltier and the FBI's War on the American Indian Movement
Possession
Cutting for Stone
Brown Dog

How long does a book need to be before you consider it long?
More than 500 pages.

I read fantasy, so my definition of long is... skewed. I remember once reading a fantasy novel that was "only" 500 pages. That said, 1000+ pages is definitely long.

Do you like long books or do you avoid them? Why?
I used to just want to read a good book. Like Theresa in high school, I read many classics in preparation for college and I liked them. Dickens, Les Miserables, Faulkner and so many others.

After college my habits became much more plebeian, however a still just wanted a good book and size was not important. I love Michener and would read his books as soon as I could get my hands on them.

Later I became a fan of The Outlander series and blew through them ASAP

Ten years ago, in a December I read Matterhorn,11/22/63, Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia and Children of God(this is not technically long at p451.)

However, I find that now I am more intimidated by a books size and feel that the time it takes to read them interferes with my other reading. I seem to avoid them these days. I did read Wolf Hall this year. I also fear that my reading goals for goodreads tend to get in my way, although this year, I've far exceed those and still am not in a hurry to pick up a long book.

I am hoping to overcome my hesitation to reading long books.

What could induce you to read a long book?
If it is on my tbr and I have a great interest in it, I would read it.

What are some memorable long books which you have read?
The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter
Matterhorn
11/22/63,
Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia
The Poisonwood Bible
East of Eden
The Overstory
The Thorn Birds
...And Ladies of the Club
Penmarric


How long does a book need to be before you consider it long?
500 pages

I like them, although I have read very few since Covid started because of Poll Book Tally last year, etc. I have read a number of the ones listed here. I'd forgotten how long Shogun was until I checked it!

As for a list, I'd have to go digging, so may come back (but not necessarily) later :)

I love a good long book, but I find that most of them could've been cut down and they weren't.
The only thing that keeps me from a long book is if I have too much to read for that month.
I also try to stay around 400 for book clubs.
I have 1 book club that is no holds barred, literally anything goes, so for that one a big book is OK otherwise I find it is hard for other members to accept if it starts going over 400.

I started The Overstory last year but ran out of time and had to quit.
I will go back to it another time.

I have also read A Little Life and The Heart's Invisible Furies which are both relatively long... oh, and Black Leopard Red Wolf!

I consider 500 + page books to be long. Even 400 + page books can be a commitment. I'm a slower reader than many of you here and it takes me longer to read a book that size. My ideal length to read is 300 - 400 pages.

Like Meli, I find that many longer books could have benefited from better editing. (Perhaps, editors tread more delicately with clients who are well-known authors?)

That said, I have read four interesting books so far this year that are over 500 pages in length: Greenwood, A Girl Is a Body of Water, Horse Heaven and Nobody's Fool.

The editing need is especially significant in fantasy. It seems like authors think that to be taken seriously in that genre the book has to be a doorstopper. So there are lots of descriptions of banquets, rituals, etc. that aren't necessary.

Robin P wrote: "The editing need is especially significant in fantasy. It seems like authors think that to be taken seriously in that genre the book has to be a doorstopper. So there are lots of descriptions of ba..."

Ha, I think fantasy can blame grandaddy Tolkien for all that.

Oh yeah, fantasy definitely!
And I think you hit the nail on the head, Holly.
If you read Stephen King's earlier work it is concise.
Then he became the biggest name in horror and they just let him write until his heart's content with no editing.
I like his tangents but they are really a matter of personal taste. They aren't necessary.
Marlon James is also wild long-winded. I read A Brief History of Seven Killings this year and it was a damn chonker! But I loved every minute of it.

Also with fantasy, there seems to be a requirement that it be a series, each volume a chunkster....whether it deserves it or not. Heather Who Reads and I had a whole conversation about Patrick Rothfus and whether he was a one book wonder who felt pressured into a series when his first took off.

In my Feminerdy Book Club, we are always complaining that there are few non-series fantasies, that we all have enough series we have not caught up in.

Meli wrote: "Oh yeah, fantasy definitely!
And I think you hit the nail on the head, Holly.
If you read Stephen King's earlier work it is concise.
Then he became the biggest name in horror and they just let hi..."

Good point about famous authors getting less editing. Both the Hary Potter series and the Cormoran Strike series books get longer as they go on. Undoubtedly true of many writers.

Robin P wrote: "Meli wrote: "Oh yeah, fantasy definitely!
And I think you hit the nail on the head, Holly.
If you read Stephen King's earlier work it is concise.
Then he became the biggest name in horror and the..."

Books in connected series (like GRRM writes) or just featuring characters (like in cozy mystery series) have a way of growing as well as they are written - talk to any writer of fiction, especially genre fiction, and they talk about the characters that take over, or the plot lines that need more to them as they progress through the story. Or the author underestimates the complexity of the plot they propose.

As for Tolkein being the father of the long series ... that may be true but he also published it more or less at once in 3 volumes over a one year period. It started as a simple follow up for children after The Hobbit but grew in the writing much darker and more complex and for an adult audience.

An example of best laid plans, Monica Ferris wrote a series of cozy mysteries set in a needlework shop. Originally, the owner of the shop, the amateur sleuth, was also a stitcher. However, after getting into the book, that changed because the author is NOT a stitcher and could not therefore have a sleuth and main character who knew more than she did. Thus the series was changed that the murder victim was the shop owner stitcher sister, and the main character being a younger sister who inherits and decides to run the shop while solving her sister's murder. It led of course to a lot of additional background as the character had to learn to run a shop and stitch. Monica told that story to me over dinner years ago.

And of course, so many classics -- like those written by Dickens and even Trollope -- were initially serialized thus paid by the word....longer was better.

I do not think it was an issue back when the classics were published. They had more time on their hands to read (at least the people doing the reading did). We are in a rush-rush society now with so many things going on and lots of distractions that did not use to exist (internet, television, films, phones, etc.)

Joy D wrote: "I do not think it was an issue back when the classics were published. They had more time on their hands to read (at least the people doing the reading did). We are in a rush-rush society now with s..."

Which have also speeded up our attention spans.

Agreed. It seems everything needs to be "soundbite sized" these days.

Before the internet ruined my attention span, I loved long books.

The Mists of Avalon
The First Man in Rome series
Kushiel's Dart series

are some favorites. But now, if I can't get it on audio, I probably won't finish.

Theresa wrote: "And of course, so many classics -- like those written by Dickens and even Trollope -- were initially serialized thus paid by the word....longer was better."

Yes, and so were some of the French authors such as Alexandre Dumas. Also, due to how they were written sometimes one can find inconsistencies as one reads through because they were written and submitted over fairly lengthy periods.

But before radio and then TV, this would have been a good form of entertainment and I am sure there were families where serialized novels were read aloud every week.