It has been fun to look back through my book logs and remember some of the great books I've read over the years. I've also noticed a trend: the books I'm reading are getting shorter. At least there are fewer really, really long books I am picking up.
Here are five really long books I'v read:
And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer weighs in at over 1000 pages. This isn't a fast, action plot book, either. This book focuses on the members of a book club as they grow and change through the years. I read this in my twenties, so maybe I should try to find time to re-read it now that I'm at a different point in my life.
Roots by Alex Haley - I remember reading this book in the span of one weekend while I was in high school. I've never seen the movie and was disappointed by Haley's novel, Queen, but Roots remains one of my favorites nearly three decades since I read it.
The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough - I love a good saga and this one set in the Australian outback. I spent plenty of time in eighth grade reading this one while everyone else was round robin reading our science textbook.
I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb - an Oprah Book Club selection from 1998, this story centers around twin brothers - one who is a schizophrenic.
I've read an enjoyed Lamb's other books, which aren't short, but I think this might be his longest novel.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara - this is the most recent chunkster I've read and it is a book I won't soon forget. Four college friends and their lives - mostly centering around Jude, who is badly broken as the result of an abusive childhood.
And some other books that still sit on my TBR that are just a little too long (and perhaps literate) for me to want to start:
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and The Winds of War by Herman Wouk. I own them both (and have had them on my shelves for years). Maybe someday I will feel a need to crack one open.
What are some chunksters you've read and recommend?
2 comments:
It's time for you to add another chunkster to your list!! I am doing a read along for King's new book, Sleeping Beauties and it's 700+ pages. I can't wait! I really prefer chunksters but as a blogger, reviews every 4 weeks don't really work so I need those shorter reads in between.
Chunksters that I can remember: A Little Life, The Stand, Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, Ulysses was just shy of what I call a chunkster but the lack of 200 pages or so was made up for in complexity.
Oh, and of course IT!
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