Top Ten Tuesday

TTT – I Like Big Books And I Cannot Lie

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Top Ten Tuesday used to be a weekly post hosted by The Broke and the Bookish, but was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl. “It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.” This is definitely something I can understand and want to participate in.

Hello, and welcome back to another week of my favorite top ten lists. Even though I’ve been busier than ever with life stuff, I’ve gotten better with balancing out scheduling, and Mom and I have been compromising to work together more efficiently. We’ve both agreed that having one weekday to take care of making phone calls and doing things we can’t do on the weekend is a good idea. It also gives me a bit of time to rest from how much running around the two of us have to do, since I think she’s starting to get a better idea of what fatigue is really like, since she hasn’t experienced that.

This week’s topic is books with a high page count and if there’s one thing about me, it’s that I love a good doorstopper. PS they can handily be used to swat a bug right out of the air, and can serve as a self-defense aid if needed. To be honest, I love nothing more than losing myself in a story and not having to worry about having to grab the next book. Here’s some of my favorite doorstoppers, and I have only included books that are the first if it is part of a series:

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  1. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice (1216 pages). This might actually have been my first doorstopper of a book, and I loved how it was historical fiction/family saga/fantasy/romance all rolled into one huge book. | Amazon
  2. The Stand by Stephen King (1152 pages). This was a great book that a friend talked me into reading, and it let me see the fantasy/dystopian side of his writing. | Amazon
  3. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (1006 pages). When my friend suggested this, I thought she was delulu if she thought that I was going to enjoy reading a book about the building of a cathedral in the Middle Ages, but she turned out to be so right, it barely felt like it was as long as it was. | Amazon
  4. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (853 pages). It killed me to have to include this on the list, because I’ve given up hope on having the series completed. But I was introduced to this one by a friend in college and I loved it as much as she did. | Amazon
  5. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (850 pages). You know I couldn’t write a list of doorstoppers without including this time traveling romance featuring some of the most lovable characters I’ve ever read about. | Amazon
  6. The Revolution of Marina M by Janet Fitch (816 pages). Readers of historical fiction often have a place or time period that they love reading about. For me, that’s the Russian Revolution, and this is the story of a woman who gives up her privileged life and quickly discovers that being part of the ‘proletariat’ isn’t as glamorous as she previously thought. | Amazon
  7. House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas (803 pages). This book doesn’t actually look like the doorstopper it is, because the hardcover copy has super thin pages. It didn’t stop me from lusting after the characters and loving the story. | Amazon
  8. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky (796 pages). I read this during my Russian fiction phase of high school, and it was this book that really made me love reading about Russia. | Amazon
  9. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (771 pages). A few years back, this one caught my attention. I was stunned at how much I loved this read about a young boy and a missing painting. | Amazon
  10. Sons and Daughters by Chaim Grade (704 pages). I read this recently, once it was translated into English, and was so impressed. It felt as though the Yiddish storytellers of my childhood were revitalized with a story for grownups. | Amazon

Have you read any of these? What’s your favorite long book?

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60 replies »

  1. Big lengthy books tend to “scare” me. I know many titles that have a high page count have a great story, but the reading part is quite intimidating. 😉 Who knows! Maybe someday I’ll get over that.

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    • I think there might be two kinds of readers out there – those of us who see a big book as a challenge and/or a place to get lost in for a seemingly endless amount of time, and those of us who see it as ‘whoa, that’s too much of a time/energy/effort investment.’ No shade to either, because I know I’ve been both at different times in my life. Lately, I’ve been challenging myself to try new things, but as far as bookishly, it’s been focused on reading from a wider range of countries than just North America and Europe, and have found so much great reading that way!

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    • Same here – lately I tend to delay reading long books simply because I don’t have the time I’m going to need to devote to a chonk, especially if I get really into it.

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    • Thank you! I love both of those so much. I’m glad the Outlander series has found a way to age with the characters, and The Goldfinch was brilliant! I was so disappointed when I didn’t get that same *bookish magic* from The Secret History.

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      • Oh, yes, Outlander aged rather well. To defend The Secret History, maybe where it was written before The Goldfinch and Tartt matured as a person and a writer from one to the next 🙂

        Speaking of historical fiction written by women writers, I just added The Revolution of Marina M. to my TBR pile. Thank you, Leah 🙂

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      • You could completely be right – The Secret History came out 21 years before The Goldfinch! I didn’t realize there was that big of a gap between the two. I’m so glad that you added the Janet Fitch novel – it is part of a duology, and written so well. The Russian Revolution is my kryptonite in books.

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    • It’s such a great series from the first two books I read, but there is so much that goes on in each book and ends up being meaningful later in the series (like Throne of Glass). I have to reread the first two books before I can even get to book 3, which I PREORDERED. As soon as I have the time, I’m all over that.

      Long reads aren’t nearly as intimidating when they’re standalone, it’s just finding the time to devote to the series when book 6 has just come out and I need to reread the first 5 because I never remember to note important plot points in my notes 🤣 When will I learn? Have a great week!

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    • Me too – it’s such a relief to have things moving more smoothly in the house. I realized that my attention span has shortened and it makes it difficult for me to read a super long book compared to when I was younger. I’m hoping for the day I have all the undisturbed time to read.

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    • Thank you! I think my love for chonky books was in childhood, when I’d get what I got from the library and it would have to last me at least a week in between visits, so I started with the big books early.

      Hopefully we are able to introduce each other to some awesome doorstoppers!

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  13. Haven’t read any of those, but long books I don’t mind reading

    Most long books seem to fall under one main kind of book- classics

    So most likely, my favorite long book is the unabridged “Les Misérables”- didn’t intimate me when I read it, but if I had seen that book on the shelf with no former knowledge probably would have walked right past it. So thank god I had prior musical knowledge first- that really was helpful in my reading of it

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  16. Ove the years, I have read some doorstoppers, but with my attention these days, I try to steer clear of them. I have not read any of these, Leah, but have the Diana Gabaldon book on my TBR. Someday.

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    • THIS!!! He’s been promising us the next book for like 20 years, so I’m not confident at all that the series will finish or that he’ll even publish another book in the series. Also, I’m so mad that he happened to be the one with high page counts, because I’m furious with GRRM!

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  18. I included The Stand and Outlander on my list as well. I didn’t love The Goldfinch like most people did, but I’m glad you loved it. I’m interested in Sons and Daughters, I’ll look that one up.

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    • Nice! I really liked The Goldfinch but didn’t really enjoy The Secret History. Sons and Daughters was a fascinating family story that was originally serialized in a Yiddish newspaper. It was like a peek into a world that has disappeared. I hope you like it!

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    • There are still only some Stephen King books that I can handle, like Carrie and Cujo, and then The Stand was a favorite for such a long time. It’s super long but so good. And so are Follett’s! You know once you get started you won’t even be worried about the page count, just finding out what happens next.

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  21. Wow you have some BIG books! I’ve only recently been brave enough to try and read some bigger books – I’ve read both Fourth Wing and Iron Flame and my next big book to read on my TBR is ACOMAF 🙂

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    • Those are all great reads, and when they’re good enough you don’t even notice how long it is. Cassandra Clare’s Shadowhunters series books are like that, and based on your other reading, you’d probably enjoy them if you haven’t checked them out yet. They’re ginormous, but when you read them, you don’t even realize you just flew through 600+ pages. And you’re gonna love ACOMAF, but it’s going to rip your heart to pieces.

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