What was the longest book you read?

[Azuremen]

His Dark Materials trilogy within one book. 1016 pages.

I need to get around to reading The Amber Spyglass, but I have so forgetting what happened in the previous two books that I would be at quite a loss these days.

Shogun is certainly at the top of the list, but I never keep much track of the page counts in books these days. Font size, page size, and such make it a some what irrelevant number. I am surprised no one has mentioned The Bible, in any version it has.

Other books you can add to the list that are rather large - The Grapes of Wraith, Moby Dick, Red Storm Rising (At least my version seemed massive when I read it).

The amount of "large" books I have read is huge though, with a variety of works by Tom Clancy, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Asimov, Herbert, Heinlein, and others of the genre.

 

[wfooshee]

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett is among the highest page counts. Awesome murder/politics/intrigue story set in 12th or 13th century England.

Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard. The lousy movie wasn't even close to the scope of this book, and the movie ended about halfway through the book. (Maybe they were hoping for a sequel.) The book had more politics, less "magic," and better technological consistency than the lousy movie.

I hated reading in high school, discovered recreational reading in college, and since then have always carried a book around to read during lunch or whenever. I've advanced to e-books on my Windows Mobile phone these days.

 

[UnoMOTO]

20000 Leagues Under the Sea, or maybe one of Mr. Kings books. I read often, but it's all about the magazines. I just don't have any real books on the back of the toilet.

 

[Driving Park]

Either the Iliad or The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I'm too lazy to go and see which one is longer, but I'm guessing the Iliad.

:-)

 

[Loon]

I've advanced to e-books on my Windows Mobile phone these days.

Care to elaborate on that a bit?

 

[Greycap]

A well known Finnish trilogy "Täällä Pohjantähden alla", translated directly as "Under the North Star". Some 1100+ pages, that's not so extraordinary. What is extraordinary is that I began reading in the morning and closed the book well before midnight.

 

[Kent]

Longest:
All six books of Lord Of the Rings as a single book.
Took about 3 weeks and did it during the trouble of Hurricane Katrina when I had no electricity (so I could only read by day).
Great stuff though. 👍

 

[ExigeEvan]

The Hungry Caterpillar.

 

[ceiling_fan]

The Hungry Caterpillar.

That's an incredible achievement!

 

[socomplayer2]

Honestly I have read nothing over 300 pages. I never read for fun but I do read for school reports.

 

[exigeracer]

I am not a big reader at all, but for a grade 8 book report, my high school librarian recomended the book Ender's Game. I devoured it a few times through in a matter of weeks. My parents were amazed. Over the next year, I finished the rest of the series, totaling 7 books. My parents were baffled. I think they were mostly 400-700 pages long. The original Ender book has become common grade 10 English class reading material, so I killed the comparative essays and papers when they assigned them.

I had totally forgotten about the series until last month, when I stumbled across the author's website. It turns out he had released a closing book to the series. I purchased it and read it in a day. Brought back memories of the old high school days for sure. I'm in the process of re-reading all of the books now.

 

[sn00pie]

I'm in the process of re-reading all of the books now.

If it doesn't interfere with your videogames and internet time. Then it's okay.

 

[exigeracer]

Haven't played videogames in ages.

 

[YSSMAN]

I'm surprised that no one has actually read the Bible. Maybe I'm more of an odd critter than I think, particularly when I don't care much for Christianity on the whole (thats why I list Jedi as my religion on FaceSpace).

Maybe our generation actually IS "morally bankrupt" as some have said...

 

[Kent]

I'm surprised that no one has actually read the Bible. Maybe I'm more of an odd critter than I think, particularly when I don't care much for Christianity on the whole (thats why I list Jedi as my religion on FaceSpace).

Maybe our generation actually IS "morally bankrupt" as some have said...

Are you kidding, if you're between 18 and 30 I'll count you as my gen (I'm 26) and let me tell you, our generation is morally in debt. I mean, have you ever watched MTV?
The generation after us is who I worry about... I'd say we are in debt like the average household in America (just enough debt to stress, not enough to ruin the lives of...) The gen behind us in debt like the government (no hope of ever getting back to even).

In any case, like I said, all 6 books of Lord Of the Rings. 👍

 

[Turbo Lag]

Alone... Like 25 pages. I've never finished any book that I've started within my lifetime. I hate reading.

Same here, although it isnt a very good thing I dont like many books, but i read most about 3/4 way and get bored and read something else.

 

[Wenders]

Not really sure what the longest book I have read is, the longest book in my cupboard that I can find is Tom Clancy, The bear and the dragon at 1100 pages but I am not sure if any others of the series are longer, I don't have them here. When I read Executive Orders that was hard back and has to be the heaviest book I have ever read, wasn't the easiest book to read in bed.

 

[zoxxy]

Haven't played videogames in ages.

Are you some kind of crazy person?

 

[Gil]

In pages, it was likely One of the Harry Potter books or something by Tom Clancy.

in "hard to read" terms, it was likely "The Scarlet Letter".

A lot of "classics" are either well written, horrible stories, or just horrible, but very detailed stories written by guys with only moderate talent. (Hawthorne comes to mind.)

There are however, classics that are indeed. (Hunter Thompson, William F. Buckley, Patrick F. McManus)

 

[GrumpEone]

Alone... Like 25 pages. I've never finished any book that I've started within my lifetime. I hate reading.

You hate reading, why then do you frequent a fourm?? lol
I know what you mean, I'm similar, I do not enjoy reading books either.

But I guess the longest book I have ever read is The Bible. (I guess if you wanted to be technical, it's more of a compilation of books.)

 

[Metar]

The Lord of the Rings 3 in 1 combination book.

That, +Silmarillion, in one. Though it didn't seem very long to me, despite biblical language in the Hebrew version. And I don't count it, being 4 separates in one package. Also in that category is the 1000-page 6-in-1 edition of the full Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Compared to others around me, I read epic amounts of classic books. Among them: Crime and Punishment (Which was bloody difficult to read), Name of the Rose, Catch 22, and a few others.

Also an excellent book was 'City' by Clifford Simak. Wasn't long - but it left a huge impression on me.

Currently wading through 'Andean Worlds' by Andrien Kenneth, though that's more of a history-book I need for a university-spec project - otherwise, I'd look for recommendations. Anyone?

 

[Jay]

I often read large factual education type books, I enjoy learning when I read. I really can't stand novels/story telling books, I rather just watch a movie.

Altough I did read the novel 'The Godfather' from front to back and I doubt I will ever read another novel again.

 

[wfooshee]

Care to elaborate on that a bit?

.lit files in Microsoft Reader. ReaderWorks software to make .lit files out of my own HTML or .DOC documents.

Um, any further discussion of my use of usenet groups in this context would violate the AUP.

It seems Microsoft has sort of given up on their .lit format. They don't support it on WM6, they say on their download page that the current release doesn't work on WM6, and they say they have no plans to support WM6 in the future.

Reader installed and worked great on my HTC 6800, though.

 

[exigeracer]

in "hard to read" terms, it was likely "The Scarlet Letter".

Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Holy crap, what an effort to get through.

 

[hellnback]

Not a reader at all...

Longest I guess is easily Lord of the Rings, so was soooo eager to read it before the first movie was released, I read it cover to cover in 11 days...

Otherwise like Azureman, "Red Storm Rising" by Tom Clancy was ~825+ pages, besides being a long read, it's also a brilliant one, I couldn't put it down 1st time and read it in 5 days, I've since read it another two times... more slowly of course...

 

[Legendary]

I read a huggggggggggggggggggeeeeeee book but i don't remember the name...something around 2000 pages. Think about it as reading the dictionary.

 

[Sage]

Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

AKA, Joyce’s This is the :censored:est book ever.

 

[F1GTR]

Don't forget Ulysses...

 

[Gil]

AKA, Joyce’s This is the :censored:est book ever.

This sounds like assigned reading.
In College, I had to read a book called "Tartuffe".
It wasn't a long story (thankfully), but I still feel how bad it sucks, and that was 20 years ago.

 

[Danny]

I read a huggggggggggggggggggeeeeeee book but i don't remember the name...something around 2000 pages. Think about it as reading the dictionary.

No, I just can't envision you reading a dictionary.