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What’s the longest novel (single volume) you’ve read or tried to read. Apparently famous, David Foster Wallace published an unfinished volume titled The Infinite Jest. It was published unfinished at 1088 pages with 388 end notes, some of which had end notes. It’s a dystopia volume. The poor guy couldn’t hack it (life) and hanged himself. Much is written about his genius.
Anybody read this book.
The longest I’ve tackled (unsuccessfully) was Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. I enjoyed it until he started quoting Indian politicians. I can’t even stand the Western variety of the breed, so I had to close. Still, I remember that I enjoyed the part I did read.
So what’s the longest single volume you’ve ever tackled?
I own Infinite Jest but haven’t read it yet. Actually, it is a finished novel and the footnotes (and their footnotes) are intended by the author. The Pale King is his unfinished novel.
I read War and Peace about 25 years ago, which is apparently longer than Infinite Jest. Stephen King’s The Stand and It also comes to mind, as does Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes. Do we count The Lord of the Rings which is a single work published in multiple volumes?
In the last few years, I read several long novels, including 2666 by Roberto Bolano, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, Underworld by Don Delillo, and Anathem by Neal Stephenson.
Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books, in paperback form, sometimes clocked in at the 900 page mark or more. I managed to wade through five of them before I gave up…
ROFL! That’s about how long I lasted, too. :silly:
Happy writing,
Deb Salisbury
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http://www.djsalisburybooks.com/Dead-Wizard-s-Loot.htmlThe Infinite Jest is selling well. I think I saw the number 155,000 and still selling well. There seems to be a lot written about the author. Some reviewers claiming it’s not a finished novel because it doesn’t have an ending. I’ve been seeking an excerpt, but can only find audio. I don’t like audio.
astropolis wrote:I think Heinlein’s “Time enough for love” must be up there somewhere.How many pages is it and did you read it all?
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The Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson (highly recommended to any Epic Fantasy reader!) consists of ten books, all between 200k and 300k words. My paperback edition of Toll the Hounds is over 1,200 pages, and I think that might be the longest of the bunch.
Time Enough for Love is just under 600 pages and I’ve read it right through about four times.
Gilroy wrote:Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books, in paperback form, sometimes clocked in at the 900 page mark or more. I managed to wade through five of them before I gave up…Those are all divided into two, three, even four volumes each for the German paperback edition.
Gilroy wrote:Doesn’t offer as satisfying a thunk when thrown against a wall, though.A far more sustainable thunk experience… you know, *thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk thunk*
Just finished Wise Man’s Fear at something like 1100+ pages, word count is apparently 395,000. I’d have read another 500 pages too.
bwochinski wrote:Just finished Wise Man’s Fear at something like 1100+ pages, word count is apparently 395,000. I’d have read another 500 pages too.Was it worth the effort — story-wise.
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