Time for another Top Ten Tuesday! Today’s Topic is “Longest Books I’ve Ever Read” but how does one figure that one out? I’ve read some really long books in my life. Since I can’t pinpoint the longest books I’ve read in my lifetime, I guess you’ll have to settle about reading about some of the really long books that I’ve read. They’re all over 800 pages long!
A lot of these are history books because they can be really long.
The Bible might be the longest book that most of us ever read. Maybe. I’m guessing that the majority of people around today have never actually read the Bible from cover to cover. I try to every year, but I’m failing miserably this year. I have different editions that I read (one year I read it in Spanish for a challenge and to improve my Spanish language skills). The American Patriot’s Bible is 1568 pages and contains a lot of interesting facts about the founding of the United States.
A History of Modern Europe – at 1515 pages, this is a really long book! It’s definitely not something that you’re going to read over the weekend. It was really good though. A lot of history that I’ve read over the years either deals with world history or American history. This one focuses solely on Europe, which has had plenty of its own problems!
Atlas Shrugged might very well be the longest fictional book that I read. This edition is 1188 pages! It is not an easy read, either. This particular book took me months to read. I wasn’t blogging about books at the time, but even if I were to reread this book today, I think it would take me a while to get through. The writing is not easy.
I’m sure that there will be a lot of George R.R. Martin books on Top Ten Tuesday posts this week. The edition of A Dance with Dragons that I read was 1125 pages! No wonder they took me so long to read! I read the five books that were published while I was at work last year; I was reading this series on my lunch break for months!
The edition of A Storm of Swords that I read was 973 pages. Even though these books are long, they were a lot easier to read than Atlas Shrugged. They’re still long enough that I don’t plan on reading them again until the last book comes out. Well, maybe if Winds of Winter comes out ten years from now, I might reread the series before that, but if it’s out in another two or three years (LOL) then I’ll probably wait on the reread.
A Patriot’s History of the United States is another very long book, with 960 pages to it. This one focuses on the history of the United States, from its discovery by the Europeans to fairly recently. Although long, it was well-written and easy to read.
The History of the Ancient World is 896 pages. Susan Wise Bauer’s writing is interesting and easy to read. Even though this book took me a little while to get through, it didn’t take me months like some of the more difficult books on this list did.
From Dawn to Decadence is 895 pages (at least the original hardback edition that I read was) and took me a very long time to read. It’s not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination. I had aspartame poisoning the first time I tried reading it, which made it difficult for me to remember details of the book as I read it. Years later, I tried reading it again, and I was able to finish it. I read it right around the time that the author died (he was really old at the time).
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is a long book, even in the abridged version, which is what I read a long time ago. This Penguin Classic edition was 848 pages. It took me months to read this. Someday, I hope to read the unabridged version of this book, but that’s 3,674 pages — and it’s not easy reading, either! That will probably be the longest book that I’ll ever read.
The Creators by Daniel J. Boorstin is 832 pages long. I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I did The Discoverers, but this was a good book. For a book this long, it didn’t take too much time for me to finish. Looking this book up on Goodreads, I discovered that there’s yet another book in this series — The Seekers — that I had never heard of before. I had to add that to my TBR, because these books are amazing.
So there you have it: ten über long books that I’ve read. I have some really long books on my TBR, but most of them (with the exception of Kingdom of Ash) are not quite as long as these!
Next week I will probably write about settings in books that I’d like to visit. The topic is on bookstores and libraries I’d like to visit, but since I can only think of three of those, I’ll be switching up the topic a bit.
I love history, especially European but also American, so some of those books you have look good to me! Especially the A History of Modern Europe. And Martin’s books- so true!
If you like European History, you’d probably like A History of Modern Europe. The newest edition is something like $79, but you can get an older edition from places like Alibris.com for $10 or less, including shipping.
I think I’m seeing books from A Song of Ice and Fire on everyone’s lists today haha.
Cora | http://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/
Cora @ Tea Party Princess recently posted…The Longest Books I’ve Ever Read
They’re going to be on a lot of lists, I’m sure. Unless someone hasn’t read them, has forgotten about them or are really into War & Peace like epics, they’re probably the longest books for most people!
This is such a diverse list! And all so epically long
It’s amazing how many ginormous books there are!
I didn’t include it on my list, but the Bible is the longest book I read. I did it over the course of year with my church, so it was really spread out, but I did read it all. My list was pretty much all YA SFF books. They always seem to be quite long.
I think that most people who actually do read the entire Bible don’t read it in one sitting like we do with YA books (or over the course of a few days). I usually start reading in January and then finish up at the end of the year. Not happening this year though.
I thought I’d have a few more YA books on this list, but even SJM books weren’t as long as these. Although Kingdom of Ash would definitely make this list if I had read it already.
The History of the Ancient World sounds like a good read.
Here is our Top Ten Tuesday.
Astilbe recently posted…The Old Dispensation by Lavie Tidhar
She has three books in the series and they’re all good!
A Game of Thrones is a pretty popular series this week (it made my list as did Atlas Shrugged).
Hope you have a great week.
Katie @Just Another Girl and Her Books recently posted…*Top Ten Tuesday* I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie
You have a great week too!
GoT is going to be on a lot of lists this week. So will Atlas Shrugged, but I think fewer book bloggers have read it.
How impressive that you try to read the bible every year. 🙂
I feel bad that I gave up this year but there’s been a lot going on.
I too felt like Atlas Shrugged was a lot of work. It took a lot of mental energy!
I didn’t include Rise and Fall on my list, because I didn’t read it start to finish, but I loved what I did read of it.
Gibbon, like Atlas Shrugged, took a very long time to read. And that was just the abridged version!
Your historical knowledge must be incredible! That’s an area of mine that’s quite lacking, I never did anything other than cursory Australian history in school and I pick up most of my information now from fiction books that then encourage me to look up the events they’re based on.
I love history. I took a course on the French Revolution on Coursera the year before last? (maybe last year) so when I read Enchantée a couple weeks ago it really added something to it.
Wow! All over 800 pages! That is… a lot. Do you have a different reading process for non-fiction and fiction or do you go a similar route for both of them? (If that makes sense…)
It depends. The ones listed here I just read like a novel, but there are some books that are better in smaller chunks. Now that I’m reading more fiction, I’d probably mix it up more. Depending on how interesting the nonfiction book was.
I read the Bible all the way through in college but haven’t done it again since. I’m impressed that you do it almost every year!
Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction recently posted…Star-Crossed by Pintip Dunn: Review & Giveaway
It’s only a few pages a day. When you consider that many of us read a couple hundred pages a day, it’s not that much. Although it can feel closer to reading Atlas Shrugged in some places than popular fiction.
We have a few books in common! I read parts of The Bible in college for my ancient lit class, but it was nowhere near the whole thing. That would be a big commitment.
Aj @ Read All The Things! recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday: Longest Books I’ve Read
I’ve read I Know This Much Is True and The Stand as well… I didn’t realize that they were longer than some of the books here when I wrote this article. I’m not even sure if they’re in Goodreads as having read them! I read them both long before I had a Goodreads account.
Wow! Impressive history reading list. I like history, but too much nonfiction doesn’t hold my attention very well–I tend to do better with historical fiction, even though I know it’s not usually entirely accurate.
The writer has a lot to do with whether a history book is good or not too. Some are much more interesting than others.
Ahhh these are some long ones for sure! I read Game of Thrones a few years back and like…it was so so long. 😂I ended up going with the audios just to save trying to wrangle the huge books. But WORTH IT. At least they get a lot of world building into those long ones!
You have to have a well thought out world to have a book that long, I’m sure! Otherwise the story would probably be a little flat.
I’ve seen Atlas Shrugged a few times this week and am really impressed. Not only is it long, it does seem like a book that would require the reader to pay close attention. I can already see my mind drifting away.
It’s definitely not an easy book. Maybe because it’s older. It took a really long time to read.