This has got to be one of the most fun tags ever! I have been thinking of doing it for months, and I mean months, as the first time I saw it on Ditsha’s blog was way back in March! Thanks for this great idea, Ditsha! And thanks for letting me use it. The idea is, you pick 5 books with the biggest number of pages from your Read pile, and then 2 from your TBR! So let’s start. For the sake of making it more interesting, I shall skip school reads like Gargantua and Pantagruel (which was quite gruelling, I will give you that) because it’s clear to us all that you won’t be reading that, nor should you, really. I’m also skipping the ones that weren’t translated to English or the ones I DNF’ed. Let’s just stick to the ones you might actually read one day.
The Biggest Ever Book I’ve Read
Drumroll… It appears to be It by Stephen King at a whopping 1093 pages! Oh, I remember this one. In fact, I was quite a big fan of The King when I was a teen, and this was one of the first ones that I have ever read, and it was striking. So much so, that I can’t even remember whether I hated clowns before reading it or only after. Have you read or at least seen the movie adaptation of It?
A Slightly Smaller, But Still A Very Big Book I’ve Read
Surprise, surprise – it appears to be Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts, 936 pages. Yes, it was no small feat, that book. But I simply gobbled it up! What’s surprising about it? It’s because it’s not the typical book I read. In fact, I would have never read it if my colleague hadn’t just loaned it to me. I had discounted it as one of those inspirational India and Yoga crazed books, sprinkled with existencial candy, but… it was none of the sort. Shantaram really is quite a raw story of a man living in India, running from the law, and said to be written following true events (although I still believe it was somewhat fictionalized). It’s a wonderful read though, and I truly do recommend it.
We Are Reaching The Middle Here
Here we have Collected Stories of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I’m not giving you a link, cause tis was a beautiful Lithuanian version with the prettiest cover, but published only in my language, as it’s a collected works book, and a huge one, clocking at 912 pages! It was a pleasure to read. Those who haven’t read any of the real Sherlock’s adventures, should know that he was basically The Harry Potter phenomenon of the 19th century, as in – people queued in front of publishing houses and beat each other up to get a copy, and when Sherlock was killed off, they pretty much boycotted poor Sir Conan Doyle. They might seem like every other detective story now that we’re so spoiled, but they are still very smart and engaging, and you should really know where it all comes from, especially if you’re into mysteries. Plus, you can choose a shorter collection than this one! Haha.
It’s Still A Very Long Book
Here we finally have some scifi, and a truly epic one – Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, at 881 pages. I very truly and honestly recommend this book to everyone, this is not a space opera, rather it’s about survival in space, against all odds. The world comes to an end, and humanity has very little time to, well, move the hell out. So they move to a space station and try to, well, not die. As a species. Which leads to some very interesting events that ultimately span 5000 years! This book was incredibly interesting as it shows the big picture so well, also just anthropologically and socially. If you like books bigger than you (I’m wondering if I mean this just metaphorically, or literally as well.) and like scifi, you should definitely read Seveneves.
Okay, It’s Still Not Smol, But Almost
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, 771 pages, which I recommend to absolutely everyone everywhere for every reason. This is one of my all-time favorite books. It’s incredibly emotional, draws you in like a swamp and just… I can’t. I can’t tell you why it’s so great. Just grahgrgrjrjhdhfddhfryehh. Yes. That.
Humongous, Plus I Still Need To Read It
Yeah, I’m done for. It’s In Search Of Lost Time by Marcel Proust, and, drumroll… 4211 pages long. I… Should start now, lest I never finish it before I’m old.
Slightly Smaller, But Not Less Unread
It’s A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, and I have got no clue. I don’t really remember why I added it. Must have had a good reason, since it’s 1474 pages long?
Time To Tag Some Lovely People
Alright now! I shall tag these lovelies! No pressure, you only do it if you want to, but this tag is loads of fun 🙂
- Dragonfly @ Our Familiarium
- Lashaan @ The Bookidote
- Elise @ Roaming Reader
- Cait @ Paper Fury
- Haniya @ Voracious Bookling
- You! If you want to 🙂 have fun!
Do you read huge books? If so, what’s the biggest one you’ve read?
I’m Evelina and I try to blog about books that matter, with a bit of fun there too! Disability and equality will be topics you see a lot, but there’s also a lot of scifi, fantasy and… GIFs. I’m also the proud founder of #ARCsAnonymous.
Ooo! Thanks for the tag! I’m sure it’ll be lots of fun!
The biggest books I’ve read is probably sonething with 700 pages. The biggest book on my shelf is Les Mis with over 1000 pages. I’ve promised myself I’ll get thru it one day. As if now I think I’ve read about 300 of those 1000 pages but we’ll see how that changes in the future!
Yeah, I believe that’s a lot of people’s biggest book 😀 I hope you enjoy the tag! Looking forward to seeing yours, and if I don’t notice it, kindly tag me in your tweet, cause I really want to see it 🙂
oh thanks for tagging me! I’m such a lazy reader, though. That’s why I never read Seveneves despite all the hype back then 🙂 BUt I’ll try my hardest not to suck at this tag! :X
So I’m counting on some of the classics I read in the past like Gone with the Wind, The House of the Spirits and the Godfather! 🙂 Ok, gotta go now to count pages. I’ll be back soon to visit. Waaaaay overdue 🙂
I’m back yup Gone with the Wind! 1037 pages!
Woot woot! Awesome!
Hahaha, yeah, I don’t know if you’d enjoy Seveneves though? It’s.. yeah, it’s kind of a slow book, and it’s a bit more like hard sci-fi than adventure, so I don’t feel like you’d enjoy it much. It’s got a lot of philosophizing. Not a lot of people enjoy that 🙂 not to say that I know what you would or would not enjoy, I’m just guessing, but based on the books you’ve liked before, I feel like that one would have bored you 🙂 Yes! The House Of Spirits was biiiiig 😀 oh, don’t rush! You can do the… Read more »
Ooooh, interesting! I’ll have to look through my reading history and check on long books. I think The Count of Monte Cristo and Inheritance are up there.
Also–that Proust book is extreme! Wow! I’m not sure I’d ever make it through that.
I actually just looked through my Goodreads shelves, it shows page count :DDD
Actually… I’m not sure I’ll make it through Proust either ;D
Anyway! Have fun if you do this tag and throw the link my way, if you do! I’d hate to miss it 🙂
I did the thing! https://lyseofllyr.blog/2017/07/27/i-like-big-books/
I don’t use Goodreads, so I had to go back and do it from memory, then look up page counts to verify. So I’m sure I’ve read more long books than I listed. 😉
You did the thing! Yay! I will check it out!
Wait. DOUBLE TAKE. You don’t use GR???? Whyyyyy? It’s so good???
I mean, I have an account. But for some reason I just don’t use it? I keep my own spreadsheets of books read, but they only go back 3 years.
Old school, huh 😀 I like it as a social network. More reach for my reviews as well 🙂
Ooh, I just tweeted about this last month. From Goodreads:
Longest books read, by year:
2011: 1,125
2012: 1,344
2013: 1,392
2014: 1,087
2015: 1,088
2016: 880
2017 (thus far): 656
Those 1000 page plus books were:
2011: A Dance with Dragons
2012: The Power Broker
2013: War and Peace (Maude translation)
2014: Words of Radiance
2015: Walking Dead comp. 3
Wow, that is awesome 🙂 War and Peace, of course that’s the chunkiest one.
The biggest book I’ve ever read is also IT. I’ve also read 11/22/63 by Stephen King as well and that comes in second! I have yet to read Under the Dome by him. This is another hefty one!
I’ve glimpsed the show for The Dome 🙂 so I don’t know if I’ll be reading, I’ve at least been partly spoiled 😀
And isn’t Stephen King great? I’m proud to have his book as the winner of this tag 🙂
I’ve seen the show and I actually liked it, though I’ve heard from fans of the book that it’s terrible so I’m interested in reading the book and seeing how it compares.
Over 4000 pages???!?!?!?!!?? That’s insane! And I thought over 1000 was crazy…
I have no idea the longest book I’ve read. I don’t even remember most of what I read prior to 2014ish, and I read mostly ebooks, so it’s hard to even know/remember lengths! But ok I checked out stats from the last two years, and one book I read last year, The Alabaster Concordat by J. Armand, was 722 pages. And the year before that I read Fallocaust which I know was like 800+. I don’t know if I’ve read anything over 1000 pages, unless full series count lol.
Yeah, lol, I also read almost only ebooks! But there’s a handy function in Goodreads where you can sort by page count! And that’s what I did 😀 cause I was pretty curious myself.
I think the 4000 pages is just because it’s like 7 tomes. So technically, it’s not ONE book… But it’s one work.
I too had a Steven King phase as a teenager! But it was the Dark Tower series and I didn’t even enjoy it! I was just reading it because it was cool or something. hahaha. The longest book I ever read was Atlas Shrugged and it was 1100 pages and I will never do it again! hahaha.
Great post!
Thank you 🙂 well, I heard the Dark Tower series is very different, isn’t it his first series ever? That changes a lot. But I haven’t read it yet, it’s still in the plans 🙂
Atlas Shrugged! I’m not sure I’ll ever read that, because Ayn Rand has some thoughts about privilege that I absolutely don’t agree with 🙂
I dunno about any of Ayn Rand’s political beliefs, but don’t ever read Atlas Shrugged. It was too freaking long
😀
Wow, It is that long?? I assume it was a mass market edition, but still! And on the plus side about A Search for Lost Time…it’s broken up into smaller books?
I used to love long books and series…but now I kind of avoid them. One day I will read Infinite Jest, though, because I’m a sucker for postmodernism.
The way I read IT, it was broken up into two books 🙂 which were both huge xD and yes, Proust is definitely broken up into tomes. Although it’s just the one book on the Kindle 😀 so that’s why it’s the longest. And technically, it IS one work, although it may not be one book.
I also used to love long ones! But being a blogger kind of… changes that, doesn’t it 😀
I don’t know about Infinite Jest! A friend warned me that it might make me blue 🙂
Hey! I really liked your TBR list! Especially Stephen King! He’s my favorite! Well the biggest book I’ve read was about 500-600 pages and it was in one of the books in the ‘I Am Number Four’ Series.
Oh, I don’t know that one 🙂 and thanks!
So, I have made it a #lifegoal (yes, the hashtag is part of the goal) to read a Stephen King book every October and this year in honor of the remake, I have decided to read It. Well, at the time I promised it to myself, I didn’t realize that its like, THE LONGEST BOOK IN THE WORLD!!! SHIT!!! (Sorry) I’m still a little nervous. I think I need to start reading it like, now, in order to finish it by October. Okay, that’s probably a slight exaggeration, but maybe September 1st. I want to read it so badly but… Read more »
Specifically in October 😀 I guess it makes sense, Halloween and all. But trust me, it doesn’t feel so long! It just gets you so immersed in it, you won’t notice the length. But yes, you might need to start reading it earlier 😀
IT IS TOTALLY WORTH IT, don’t you worry about that. It’s a REALLY REALLY good book. There might be a side-effect about clowns though. I have stopped liking them in the least since I finished that 😀 😀 😀
Whoa, these are some huge books! Especially, In Search of Lost Time—I don’t know how you you even think about getting into something as long as that!
😀 a friend said it was very good. Then I started it, and… didn’t feel like it much anymore 😀 so it’s one of those I’ve left for “one day” :DDD
Ohh I will definitely have to do this one soon, I have read some pretty hefty books in my time, including A Suitable Boy (twice). I will have to check out the Goldfinch, I do like Donna Tartt’s other work.
Oh, did you like A Suitable Boy? I’m assuming you did, cause you’ve read it twice. And yes! Definitely check out the Goldfinch. I still long for a book like that, it was pure genius.
I did really like a Suitable Boy, it is a love story at heart but it covers a whole number of Indian families in such depth. It took me ages to read though.
I’m looking forward to it then 🙂
I have some of Stephen King’s huge ones too. A couple other large ones I’ve read are
Bones Omnibus by Mark Wheaton – 716
The Swarm by Frank Schatzing – 881
Imajica by Clive Barker – 824
The Mists Of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley – 876
and
Queen Of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas – 645
Those are pretty long! And have you noticed, Stephen King always seems to write such long ones somehow! 😀
AHH THANKS FOR THE TAG! So you probably know I’m terrified of big books. Like avoid avoid please and thank you. I think the biggest one I’ve read is A Dance With DRagons? It was over 1000, and I listened to it on audio to save my POOR WRISTS. Otherwise I try not to read anything over 700 tbh. Cassandra Clare’s books are big enough for me!!
I don’t know, 700-1000 is big enough xD I think most of mine were like that too. I used to like really long ones, but then I started blogging 😀
Wow, those are some pretty big books! I’ve read a couple of them, and I’ve got some of the others on my tbr list, but I might add the rest to the list as well. They sound great!
Thanks for sharing this tag 🙂
Thanks! 🙂
This is a great post. I love that you’ve read some MASSIVE Books! Thank you for NOT tagging me, as I can’t even begin to compare. I tend to hide from gigantic books. Why? I just have commitment issues, I guess. I have been slowly making my way through the complete Sherlock Holmes collection of stories over the course of my life. I’ve never really been one to read collections of short stories until recently. Lately, I’ve been super into it! Perhaps, now is the time for me to find a similar collection and just get through them all? Also:… Read more »
I must’ve not tagged you because I figured you have enough post-vacation hurdles as it is 😀 To be fair, most of my long ones were read aaaaages ago! Although 4321 was also massive, but not massive enough to make the list, lol. It’s also the same for me with Sherlock! I also hadn’t read anything, but then I found that BEAUTIFUL giant edition in my library. And I loved it! Conan Doyle was a genius. You can’t turn down sometime people were totally nuts about 🙂 it’s gotta mean it was at least somewhat good, usually it means it… Read more »
I’m sorry, 4321 wasn’t massive *enough* to make the list?! Oh man. I really need to up my game to keep up with you. How many darn pages are you able to read in a week? Mind. Blown.
I always question whether I should count book collections as a single book or many unique books. For example, I’m reading Mistborn, but my book comes in a trilogy collection on my Kindle. Do I count it as a single book in Goodreads and track it that way, or do I count it as individual books? So challenging.
Yeah, I was also surprised! And neither was Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, which I wholeheartedly recommend to you! I was surprised about that one, cause it was HUGE.
I don’t know how many I read in a week… Not very much, apparently, cause I can barely make 100 books a year. But hey… Maybe THIS is the reason? xD
I usually count book collections as separate books, cause who cares if it’s on the kindle? 7 tomes do not make one book you could hold if it was printed, so it’s not exactly fair, is it xD hehehe
I just finished Snow Crash by Stephenson; it’s my first Stephenson and I *love* it. I am all about reading Seveneves now, even if it does intimidate me by its size. I’ll just pick it up on Kindle so I can’t see how long it is. 😉
Oh yes, this is totally the reason you don’t break 100 books a year. You’re reading tomes on the regular! I just don’t even know how you manage that. I have far too many books to read in short periods of time to read tomes. Or, perhaps that’s just an excuse?
Yes yes, picking it up on the Kindle is the way to go 😀 I’m super excited!!! You will love this, I’m sure – especially due to women’s role in that book. That is one sci-fi you might enjoy because of how it treats women characters! Ooh, I’m soooooo excited about your reading that!
IT!! IEHHH… I hate clowns. They scare me like crazy! I’ve started reading that book ones, but I just couldn’t sleep anymore. I’m not easily scared.. but clowns.. iehhh!!
I don’t think I’ve read a lot of ‘big’ books.
Fun post Evelina 😉
I hate clowns too!! And thanks, Maureen 🙂 you know, my Bf laughs at me hating clowns.. one time I asked him if he’s read IT. He said no. I told him he’s got no authority to tell me NOT to hate clowns then 😀
What a fun tag! I guess It might be top of my list too – I read it as a teenager, so I’d forgotten it was so big! (Big books were less intimidating to me then – I had more time to read, and didn’t have to carry them on commute) I’ve also read The Goldfinch (although I enjoyed it rather less than you; The Secret History remains my favourite Donna Tartt), and it felt every bit as long as it is. But now I’m curious to look at the length of some of my other books – so I… Read more »
It is such a fun one! Be sure to pick it up if you want, I’d love to see it on your blog 🙂
Yeah, I find I also used to like (I’d even go as far as love) big books when I was a teen. Book blogging kind of makes you go for efficiency though xD
I haven’t read The Secret History yet 🙂 that’s too bad you didn’t like the Goldfinch that much though. For me it was absolutely genius :0
Yep book blogging and having to carry the tomes around with you both make smaller books more attractive 😀
…I appreciated the Goldfinch – it’s a work of art and artistry. But I didn’t love it. Whereas The Secret History got its hooks in me young (and *ahem* is a lot shorter).
The problem wouldn’t be in that for me, as I only carry around my Kindle 😀 it’s just that you would be reading a book for a month, and you need like… four posts in that time 😀
This was a fun read; I’ll have to try it on my blog. I think the longest book I have read is The Lord of the Rings. After that, I’m curious to see my results as I usually avoid long books…
Sure, you’re tagged if you want 🙂 it’s a very fun tag!
[…] be talking about some of the larger books we’ve read! I was tagged for this one by the amazing Evelina @ Avalinah’s Books and it gonna be fun so let’s get started! (I will be refering to these books as mountains from […]
Thanks for the tag! I’ll make sure to put my link here once I have my post up! 🙂
WHOOPS! I meant to comment over on The Roaming Reader, LOL! I navigated over here to your post to try to track down the original creator. You can delete my comment 😉
Oh! No worries 😀 I guess I do say I tag anyone who wants to be tagged? Please share your link anyway! I’m very curious 🙂
😀 Here’s my link!
Cool! Thanks, I’ll check it out 🙂
Yay!! Will be very curious 🙂
[…] first came across this tag on Avalinah’s Books 5 books read then two from to read pile.The idea is this: Pick 5 books with the most pages from […]
[…] first came across this tag on Avalinah’s Books. The idea is this: Pick 5 books with the most pages from your read pile, and then two from your […]