Longest Book You've Ever Read

AmayaHayate · Very bored Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 152

Or, should I say, can you handle novels 1,000 pages or bigger, with 420 words a page?

I ask that because I'm writing a saga (which happens to have no particular genre, but it does have a strong fantasy/sci-fi overlay), and the first "novel" had to be split into a trilogy because it was so huge. The first third exceeds 1,100 pages already, but it's strong with action and suspense from beginning, to the end. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, as I've been told. I can't cut it much shorter as every chapter and sub-chapter has strong intention to the plot, but I also can't exceed 1,600 pages in any of the following novels because the book would be hard to hold comfortably.

As long as the book is a strong read, would you be interested, or can you handle a large novel like that?

If you've read any really big novels, please tell what they were. I like to count the words on pages, note the physical book size, and know the page numbers to get an idea of how big I should be aiming for.

London · Moderator Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 6474

The books of George R. R. Martin are about that length.. I checked two on Amazon, one is 800~ and one is 1200~. And he's working on like.. book 5 of the series... I'm unsure of how many words are on a page but the print is tiny and he uses tons of description, so I'm sure he fits the bill. I don't know what the hardcovers looked like, but the softcovers had about the same length/width dimensions as regular softcovers.. it was just like an inch thicker, lol. As most outrageously long stories are, it's in the genre of high fantasy. His books, though they were really long, didn't feel.. like they dragged, ya know? I actually bought the first three at once, and as soon as I finished one I would just move on to the next one..

The Lord of the Rings, you know, isn't really a trilogy, as trilogies are three [i]stand alone[/i] books that are related. LOTR is just one really really long book split into three books. In one edition where they stuck all three parts into one book the dimensions are:
# Paperback: 1216 pages
# Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.7 x 1.2 inches
The story itself is a bit shorter than that. If you've ever read LOTR you'll notice that at the end of the ROTK there's a rather lengthy appendix with things like translations, summaries, explanations, and family trees.

The Winds of the Forelands series by David B. Coe has a pretty good length to each book, I think. They're about 600 pages long, and he's published five of them so far. Average length/width numbers for paperbacks, just thicker than usual.

The length of the book isn't ever an issue for me as long as (1) the book is well written, and (2) it's purely fantasy/scifi. Mysteries, thrillers, westerns, romances, etc, should definitely not be that long.
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thedudedisturbed · Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:00 pm Post subject:

I don't know if action and suspense from beginning to end is such a good idea. It may just be reading, but people need lulls in the action every now and then, especially for a 1000+ page book. You may think your keeping me on the edge of my seat, but i get bored from the same situation carrying on and on getting worse and worse. it gets a bit frustrating. I don't know how it goes with other people, but even if its a good book, I REALLY don't want to stay up all night reading, and good books usually make me do that, because i have little self control in that respect.

but yes, if its a damn strong read, i can handle a 1000+ page book.
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Allester · Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 6:09 pm Post subject:

Vol. 2 of the Complete Sherlock Holmes. It's made of many different stories but it's still one book with over 1,000 pages.
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AmayaHayate · Very bored Joined: 30 May 2006 Posts: 152

[quote="thedudedisturbed"]I don't know if action and suspense from beginning to end is such a good idea. It may just be reading, but people need lulls in the action every now and then, especially for a 1000+ page book. You may think your keeping me on the edge of my seat, but i get bored from the same situation carrying on and on getting worse and worse. it gets a bit frustrating. I don't know how it goes with other people, but even if its a good book, I REALLY don't want to stay up all night reading, and good books usually make me do that, because i have little self control in that respect.

but yes, if its a damn strong read, i can handle a 1000+ page book.[/quote]

Well, what I meant by action and suspense from beginning to end means there's never a dull moment in the great majority of the story, otherwise you'd be falling asleep or it'd just otherwise be the author's rambling.

Thanks for the input, though!

Tarlrulesher · Member Joined: 01 Feb 2008 Posts: 57

harry potter
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Morpher · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:49 pm Post subject:

Ink Heart
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princezuko101 · Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:52 pm Post subject:

i have never read that big of a book, i only read manga though, very rarly that i dont........arent harry potter books like that big?
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London · Moderator Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 6474

Harry potter books have thick paper, gigantic words, and lots of dialogue.
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aquaeevee · Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:16 am Post subject:

you may want to take a look at The Ultimate Hitchikers Guide and the Wheel of Time saga a book so insanely long they had to chop it into 13-15 parts already and still no end in sight
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London · Moderator Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 6474

The 5 books in one versions of Hitchhiker's makes the series look long, but each book by itself is regular novel sized.

I've been reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Each volume is 500+ pages long, there's 11 of them, and he's still going.
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aquaeevee · Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2008 1:55 pm Post subject:

actually theres 6 in my copy, but 1 is a mini story, young zaphod plays it safe
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HerculesRockefeller · Joined: 30 Sep 2006 Posts: 3143

Dark Tower, 4,200 pages, ect
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hakutheblindedsoul · Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 4:03 pm Post subject:

Sword of Truth series. Waaay over 1,000 pages. It got so long winded though, that I stopped after, like, the 5th book. Each are about 800-1000 pages, I think...
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Ick1 · Very bored Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Posts: 231

The longest book I've ever read was 800 something pages. It was called The Legends. I didn't like it though... Confused

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