Longest Book You've Read?

[matt72582]

I'm reading a partial memoir, and it's 4,000 pages as it is. Willem Oltmans memoirs (spanning about 70 years). I don't know if I can finish it, since I pause to look up certain names, or watch a documentary mentioned on YouTube, etc..

[Takoma11]

Moby Dick is 720 pages, and I've read that.

I feel like I read something that was 800-some pages long in college because I remember thinking that I could read 400, then 200, then 100, then 50, then 25 and then be done.

I know I tapped out of Godel, Escher, and Bach, not because the book wasn't interesting, but the print I had was made up of super-thin pages that were hard to turn and the font was really small. It made the reading experience, especially before bed, really unpleasant.

4,000 pages just sort of sounds unwieldy to me.

[KeyserCorleone]

It took me a week.

[MovieGal]

The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. It's 876 pages.

[hownos]

Reclaiming History by Vincent Bugliosi - 1510 pages

[honeykid]

A-Z of Great Britain. It was about 2 foot. :D

[Torgo]

Stephen King's It (1,153 pages). I liked it, but it took me nearly a year to read. I didn't find it to be the brisk read that his similarly long books like The Stand, Salem's Lot and the longer Dark Tower books are.

[Sedai]

Just thinking quickly about it, the longest books for me would be:

Stephen King's The Stand Uncut at 1,153
Pandora's Star by by Peter F. Hamilton at 1,144
Stephen King's It at 1,138

In actuality, Pandora's Star is just the first half of the story, with Hamilton's Judas Unchained being the second book that completes the story, and that one clocks in at 1,024 pages. A whopping 2,168 pages for the complete story! I'm glad I read them, because they contained some really cool sci-fi ideas and one of the better nasty alien races I have run across, but man, that stuff took me forever to finish.

I am just finishing up Wolfe's You Can't Go Home Again, which is just a bit under 700, but I must say, I am ready to read some shorter books or short stories for a nice break!

[Nausicaä]

Just had a look at my bookshelves and the longest books all seem to be around the 700-800 page mark, mosty the non fiction.

There is a book on my wish list called The Anatomy of Melancholy and it's apparently 1376 pages long.

[nyctc7]

Not sure, the first thing that comes to mind is Shōgun by James Clavell, 1152 pp

[Gideon58]

I don’t how many pages they are but either Gone with the Wind or Hawaii

[kgaard]

If you count it as a single book (which it is generally regarded as), Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time. I think it's about 5000 pages (over 7 volumes, though volumes 5 and 6 are generally printed together, so my set has 6 volumes). I read it over about 7 years, more or less a volume per year.

For a single-volume book, the longest I've read is Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, which clocks in at just under 1500 pages (1494-1499, depending on if you count the author's postscript as part of the novel).

[Captain Steel]

The Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged).

[Takoma11]

Stephen King's It (1,153 pages). I liked it, but it took me nearly a year to read. I didn't find it to be the brisk read that his similarly long books like The Stand, Salem's Lot and the longer Dark Tower books are.

Oh, yeah! I read IT. It was okay, but did not merit 1000+ pages.

[hownos]

Washington by Ron Chernow ---- 817 pages.

[TONGO]

SHOGUN by James Clavell. 1700 pages. Still my favorite book.

[TONGO]

Not sure, the first thing that comes to mind is Shōgun by James Clavell, 1152 pp
I just looked it up and Google said 1700

[nyctc7]

I just looked it up and Google said 1700That can't be right

[Takoma11]

That can't be right

Storygraph says it's 1152 pages long.

But a large print edition or just one with a larger font might be longer?

[nyctc7]

Storygraph says it's 1152 pages long.

But a large print edition or just one with a larger font might be longer?
1152 is the first edition paperback. A new hard cover edition was recently released at 1312 pp.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shogun-james-clavell/1100618383

[LAMb EELYAK]

If you count it as a single book


The Lord of the Rings.

[WrinkledMind]

A Suitable Boy 1350 pages if I am not wrong. Didn't really care for it.


The original Mahabharat is supposed to be 10000 pages long - which is one long poem.

I have only watched the series as a kid, had stories told to me by my elders , & during Covid listened to a podcast retelling of it on Spotify. All those three things are shorter versions of the original text of Mahabharat.

[LeBoyWondeur]

Texas by James A. Michener

[KeyserCorleone]

Stephen King's It (1,153 pages). I liked it, but it took me nearly a year to read. I didn't find it to be the brisk read that his similarly long books like The Stand, Salem's Lot and the longer Dark Tower books are.


It took me a week.


Speedread, my friend. Speedread. 150 pages a day, 250 on the final day.

[AgrippinaX]

I think maybe Dos Passos’ U.S.A. trilogy (****, I loved it; one of the best things I’ve ever read), but it depends on the font/how they’re printed, no? Then, more recently-ish, Don Quixote and Moby Dick. I adore long books. They are the best.