Recommend: some massive tomes, y'all

speakinghands · Apr 13, 2011

OK, they don't have to be massive, but I'm one of those people who amortize the cost of a book by the number of its pages, kwim? I'm poor and I read fast, so I gravitate towards books that can also be used as free weights. Most of what I read is mainstream contemporary or historical, but I'm open to pretty much all genres and I especially like books that fall into more than one genre (600 page paranormal historical mystery? Please sign me up. Especially if there's a series). And most of my favorite books are a little, shall we say, gynocentric. And I loathe present tense.

Favorite authors off the top of my head: Amy Tan, Sharon Kay Penman, Michael Cunningham, Julia Glass, Alice Hoffman, Lisa See, Alison Weir

Authors that I like to enough to usually buy their books when they arrive in paperback: Michelle Moran, Diana Gabaldon, Ken Follett, Philippa Gregory (she's fun, ok?!), Stephen King, Greg Iles

And of course there are plenty of books I love by authors who have only released one novel or other books that weren't my thing, such as The Secrets of Jin-Shei and Watership Down and Til We Have Faces and well... a lot more that I can't think of just now.

I'm pretty starved for good books, guys. I just went to the bookstore for the third time in a row where I didn't find anything that looked appealing. Recommendations appreciated!

Kitty Pryde · Apr 13, 2011

Long-ass books? Sure!

Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, and whatever the other 2 books are by Neal Stephenson--IMO he is good at being excessively wordy. And there's Anathem, which I haven't read because it's so heavy I literally cannot hold it up!
Jonathan Strange And Mr. Norrell--this one is love-it-or-hate-it...but if you love it it goes on for a delightfully long time!
Otherland series by Tad Williams--another one who's good at wordiness
A Game Of Thrones and various sequels by George RR Martin--don't read any other long-ass epic fantasy like Goodkind or Jordan because it will suck (RIP Mr Jordan but your books were not good)

May I humbly suggest that a better solution to your cost-per-hour-of-reading-delights problem would be the public library? I read like 10 books a week, if I had to buy them all I wouldn't be able to eat

JoNightshade · Apr 13, 2011

All of Kitty's suggestions dittoed. Plus, my classic favorites:

Lonesome Dove
Shogun
The Godfather

I'm serious about Lonesome Dove. I recommend it to every single person I ever discuss reading with. Most people think they won't like it. I then hand them my spare copy (yes I keep a spare just to loan out) and challenge them to give it a shot. I've never met anyone who didn't give it back to me a week later and go, "OH MY GOSH THIS WAS SO GOOD!"

nevada · Apr 13, 2011

The girl with the dragon Tattoo and its sequels, Drood, A Suitable Boy, Infinite Jest, Wolf Hall, Swann's Way.

speakinghands · Apr 13, 2011

Nice! I'm going to check out A Suitable Boy, Drood, Shogun, and Game of Thrones first.

Kitty, LOL, I know. I got out of the habit of libraries years ago due to a tendency to lose their books before I returned them. I think now that I'm an adult I might be better about that, and I keep visiting ours and just not getting a card since I can't find anything to f'n read... It's like I'm always looking for something very specific for that very time but don't know what it is until I find it, y'know? Man, this was easier when I was a kid. Rambling now, moving right along...

gabbleandhiss · Apr 14, 2011

Big-ass books:

Thomas Pynchon - V., Gravity's Rainbow, Against the Day, etc.
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
Don DeLillo - Underworld
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged

Diana Hignutt · Apr 14, 2011

Don Quixoite's a pretty big book.

Those Russian guys write some pretty big books, or so I've heard.

Anne Rice's The Witching Hour is a bigass book.

Snowstorm · Apr 14, 2011

Interested in non-fiction? I'd recommend Benjamin Franklin by Carl Van Doren.

Storyteller5 · Apr 14, 2011

Pillars of the Earth (Ken Follet)

Jess Haines · Apr 14, 2011

George R.R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, and Robert Jordan are good bets for fantasy.

L. Ron Hubbard wrote a MASSIVE tome called BATTLEFIELD EARTH which was a craptastic movie, but an excellent novel.

C.S. Friedman wrote a trilogy of massive books in the Coldfire Trilogy that are heavy on the fantasy, but mixed a bit with scifi. The first one is BLACK SUN RISING. Fabulous story.

Also, not sure how big the actual, physical book is, but I recently read JOHN DIES AT THE END on kindle and it was very long, and very, very, VERY good. Fantastical monster horror that is about as politically incorrect as you can get. Reminds me a lot of Stephen King, only... modern. If that makes sense.

illiterwrite · Apr 14, 2011

Roots.

ElisabethF · Apr 14, 2011

Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and War and Peace. Go for the Pevear/Volkhonsky translations; they're the best! What's even better is that they have a character list at the beginning so you can keep everybody straight.

Then there's Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, of course. The paperback is almost as thick as it is tall.

I'm not too familiar with recent historicals, but if you want recommendations for big thick old-fashioned ones, I know lots! Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley, The Scottish Chiefs by Jane Porter, The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper, etc.

Lillie · Apr 15, 2011

The Ring Master - David Gurr.

Wonderful book. And it's big.

Big, fat and juicy.

Torgo · Apr 15, 2011

Infinite Jest, Infinite Jest, Infinite Jest.

Oh, and Life a User's Manual.

mscelina · Apr 15, 2011

...And The Ladies Of The Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer for a good post-Civil War to 1930's historical epic. The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a really good vampire/mystery/thriller. Anything by Jacqueline Carey in her Kushiel's Dart series is big and very good fantasy. And if you like Phillipa Gregory's stuff, give Margaret George's historical fiction a whirl--her Autobiography of Henry VIII is one of my favorite books, along with Mary, Queen of Scotland and The Isles and Memoirs of Cleopatra. (psst- the ones on Mary Magdalene and Helen of Troy aren't quite as much fun, IMO)

nevada · Apr 15, 2011

Also, not sure how big the actual, physical book is, but I recently read JOHN DIES AT THE END on kindle and it was very long, and very, very, VERY good.

I have it in hard cover, it's not particularly long. regular size i woudl say. it's at work so i cant get the page count. i started it but never finished it for some reason. what i read was really good. lol

Kateness · Apr 15, 2011

Fantasy: Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen - completed series, 10 books, probably well over 7,000 pages total.

childeroland · Apr 18, 2011

*Can't go wrong with Pynchon.
*Not exactly a doorstopper, but difficult enough to be one in places: Little Big, by John Crowley
*Anna Karenina, in the pevear volokhonsky translation
*The Gormenghast books
* Le Morte D'Arthur, as well as the Vulgate cycle
* Ulysses
*The Story of the Stone a.k.a. Dream of the Red Chamber
*Journey to the West
*Tale of Genji
*Romance of the Three Kingdoms
*The Faerie Queen
*American Gods

Satori1977 · Apr 18, 2011

The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb. I think it was like 700 pages, and one of the best books I have read.

The Stand and It by Stephen King as well were great long reads.

And if you like YA and fantasy, read the Harry Potter series. Most of those books were 600 pages or more. And there are 7 of them.

Recommend: some massive tomes, y'all

speakinghands

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

JoNightshade

has finally arrived

nevada

speakinghands

gabbleandhiss

1% Irish, 99% blarney

Diana Hignutt

Very Tired

Snowstorm

Baby plot bunneh sniffs out a clue

Storyteller5

Say something...

Jess Haines

Boldly going nowhere in particular.

illiterwrite

ElisabethF

Lillie

practical experience, FTW

Torgo

Formerly Phantom of Krankor.

mscelina

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

nevada

Kateness

childeroland

What happened to my LIFE?!

Satori1977

Listening to the Voices In My Head