# What's the longest book you've ever read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 13, 2004, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239 "2004-01-13T06:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/41 "2004-01-14T06:59:48Z")
I read **Infinite Jest**. 1079 pages, but I enjoyed every last one. Okay, there were some pages that were a kind of boring, where I couldn’t wait to get back to what was happening at the tennis academy, but it was a really good book. ---
**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/42 "2004-01-14T16:16:56Z")
I’ve read Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler. If you count both volumes as one book, it works out about 1650 pages, if memory serves. ---
**Author:** ![paulberserker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@paulberserker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paulberserker)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/43 "2004-01-14T16:46:11Z")
> [@Thea Logica](#): > > You win. > > Does anyone have a page count for _Illuminatus_? 'Cause I’ve read that, too. The Illuminatus Trilogy (one book) comes in at well over a 1000 pages. fucking hard book to get into as well, jumping between characters in the same paragraph to start with. LOTR I consider 1 book. done plenty of 5-700 pagers. normally takes about 2-3 weeks for those. Arthur C. Clarkes Rama series must be 2000+, but thats not really 1 book. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/44 "2004-01-14T16:53:57Z")
_The Spanish Civil War_ by Hugh Thomas - 1136 pages. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/45 "2004-01-14T18:49:29Z")
I did finish Marcel Proust’s _A la recherche du temps perdu/Remembrance of things past_ while commuting. The french Gallimard pocket edition adds up to 420 + 514 + 578 + 515 + 399 + 273 + 353 = 3052 pages. I’m thinking of reading it again because I seem to have forgotten half of it. Still I’m not sure whether the feeling at the end is one of joy at the great book you’ve read or sheer relief that it is finally over. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/46 "2004-01-14T18:52:27Z")
> [@edwino](#): > > I have embarked on Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver, the first released of three planned of his Baroque Cycle. It clocks in at 927, and given his style I don’t see how the others will be any shorter. And, though it’s been said endings have never quite been his strong point, I really get the impression this is the first volume of a big book not a book in a trilogy. Do textbooks count? Glancing at my bookshelf I see “Mathematical Methods of Physics and Engineering” is about 1000. Further, most textbooks are probably heavier going than most fiction, however dense: stopping to cover a piece of A-4 in scribblings every sub-clause is time consuming 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cherry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cherry)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/47 "2004-01-14T19:25:11Z")
Like others have mentioned, a Suitable Boy, It, LOTR, The Stand, and the Quran. ---
**Author:** ![Basandre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@Basandre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Basandre)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/48 "2004-01-14T20:47:51Z")
For me, it’s probably the last book in the **Memory, Sorrow, Thorn** trilogy, which is called **To Green Angel Tower**. In paper back, it had to be split into 2 books, which according to Amazon are 816 pages each. That makes the whole book 1632 pages. ---
**Author:** ![widdershins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f0a364/32.png) [@widdershins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/widdershins)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/49 "2004-01-14T23:27:21Z")
The borrowed version of the _Illuminatus!_ I read clocked in around 1000 pages. I got a good way into a translation of _The Water Margin_ that ran about 1200 pages before I had to quit due to college classwork. Everything else I can remember right off falls short of the 1000+ standard established, lots of Niven and Pournelle, Claney, Dumas, etc. in the 600-900 range The book that seemed the longest was George Eliot’s borefest _Silas Marner_, inflicted upon my 9th grade Advanced English class. It took so long to get through, the teacher kept bumping back the completion date and the test as she was re-reading it with us. The most voracious reader I’ve ever known IRL read the entire _Battlefield: Earth_ series (avg. 1000+ pages per book) and declared that they were, “Okay, nothing special.” Seems a long slog for something you consider so underwhelming, but he’s a strange guy. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2004, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/50 "2004-01-14T23:31:59Z")
> [@Thea Logica](#): > > Oh, yeah, and the Bible- all seventy three books. **73** books? Not 66? What are the other 7? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/51 "2004-01-15T00:14:25Z")
> [@tracer](#): > > \*\*73 books? Not 66? > > What are the other 7?\*\* Tobit Judith 1 Maccabees 2 Maccabees Wisdom Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) Baruch If my memory serves, **Thea** is Byzantine Catholic, and uses the Catholic Bible, which has those seven OT books which are _not_ in the Protestant Bible. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/52 "2004-01-15T01:53:37Z")
_Outlander_ and its 4 sequels all were well over 1000 pages. Time well spent. _Gone With the Wind_ _Lonesome Dove_ I’d recommend all the above FWIW. ---
**Author:** ![slackersavant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a4c791/32.png) [@slackersavant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slackersavant)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/53 "2004-01-15T06:02:14Z")
I’m rather suprised no one’s mentioned any James Michener books yet. \Chesapeake\ is one of the longest books I’ve read, at 1024 pages. \Anna Karinina\ is pretty long; my version is 853 pages and small print. I’ve read some other Michener books and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/54 "2004-01-15T08:54:20Z")
One story (though three books) _The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant_ - 1472 pages. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/55 "2004-01-15T12:12:48Z")
**Shogun** , paperback 1210 pages. ---
**Author:** ![notquitekarpov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@notquitekarpov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notquitekarpov)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/56 "2004-01-15T12:28:56Z")
I ploughed through all six Folio Edition volumes of Edward Gibbons’ “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, a surprisingly easy read. Comes in at 3800 pages according to Amazon - I don’t have my copy out here to check. Like others I have also succesfully tackled JRRT’s “LotR” and “Silmarillion”, the three volumes of John Julius Norwich’s “Byzantium”, James Clavell’s “Shogun”, Vicram Seths’ “A Suitable Boy” (loved the politics, hated the love story and did not believe in the ending) and some of the “Barchester Towers” series. “War and Peace” is on the list, but never intend to even try “Ulysses”… ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239/57 "2004-01-15T12:37:06Z")
> [@Tusculan](#): > > I did finish Marcel Proust’s _A la recherche du temps perdu/Remembrance of things past_ while commuting. The french Gallimard pocket edition adds up to 420 + 514 + 578 + 515 + 399 + 273 + 353 = 3052 pages. Gallimard published it entirely in one volume that weighs in at 2408 pages a few years ago. Small print too. That’s my record. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-longest-book-youve-ever-read/224239.md?page=2)