I bought this book back in January of this year and have been reading it since. Though I have managed to read several books in between this massive 971 page narrative, I must confess I usually only read 3-5 pages in the low points of renewed interest in some other topic, book, or video game. But alas I have finished. One down two other massive narratives to go!

Though I could not afford to buy all three which had the price tag over 100 bucks I instead bought Volume 2 for the simple reason that it contained the Battle of Gettysburg. Not sure which one I should focus on reading next. Volume 1 may contain a detailed cover of the Battle of Shiloh, while the third will surely cover the events of the Battle of the Wilderness.

food

United States1951 Posts

October 11 2009 07:31 GMT

War and Peace? Longest most boring book ever imo. Or was it 4 books..

stanley_

United States816 Posts

October 11 2009 07:42 GMT

you didn't read harry potter?

madnessman

United States1581 Posts

October 11 2009 08:41 GMT

I think that technically all 3 volumes of The Lord of the Rings counts as one book so that would probably be the longest book I've ever read.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21244 Posts

October 11 2009 09:07 GMT

Yes, The Lord of the Rings is considered to be one book. And the print on it is small too and it's single spaced.

Harry Potter has big font and is 1.5 spaced so it's not as long as it seems I feel.

Dark.Carnival

United States5095 Posts

October 11 2009 09:10 GMT

On October 11 2009 17:41 madnessman wrote:
I think that technically all 3 volumes of The Lord of the Rings counts as one book so that would probably be the longest book I've ever read.

in that case, how about the wheel of time series? 11 books so far, with three more to go.

The_Australian

Australia458 Posts

October 11 2009 09:12 GMT

Longest book i've ever read was called "the Neutronium alchemist" which was 1256 pages. It was part of a trilogy of equally long books by Peter Hamilton. The trilogy included one called "The naked god" and one other i cant think of. It was pretty "meh" though, tbh.

zgl

United States1055 Posts

October 11 2009 09:20 GMT

The Wikipedia entries for the Dune series was pretty long. Wonder how long the real thing is :p

meegrean

Thailand7699 Posts

October 11 2009 09:21 GMT

Longest shit that I ever read was Lord of the Rings and it was really worth it. I doubt if I will ever have the time to read the whole thing again though.

benjammin

United States2728 Posts

October 11 2009 09:26 GMT

#10

'infinite jest' for me

very fitting title

dismiss

United Kingdom3341 Posts

October 11 2009 09:52 GMT

#11

War and Peace is the longest book I've read so far, got it done in about two days though.

benjammin

United States2728 Posts

October 11 2009 10:14 GMT

#12

On October 11 2009 18:52 dismiss wrote:
War and Peace is the longest book I've read so far, got it done in about two days though.

i really doubt that

Lemonwalrus

United States5465 Posts

October 11 2009 10:17 GMT

#13

I've had a copy of "The Idiot" staring at me from my bookshelf for years now, but I haven't yet worked up the courage to dig in. I think the longest I've ever read was Ellison's "Invisible Man" (not to be confused with "The Invisible Man")

dismiss

United Kingdom3341 Posts

October 11 2009 10:25 GMT

#14

On October 11 2009 19:14 benjammin wrote:

Show nested quote +

i really doubt that

You have no idea how much I can read when I'm bedridden. :p

BluzMan

Russian Federation4235 Posts

October 11 2009 10:32 GMT

#15

"Theoretical Physics" by Landau and Lifshitz closely followed by "War and Peace". Did the latter in three days as a part of a bet. The former took 5 years.

spinesheath

Germany8679 Posts

October 11 2009 11:05 GMT

#16

The Swarm (Frank Schätzing), ~1000 pages, took me about 7-9 days.
Lord of the Rings, some new translation, ~1200 pages, I'd guess somewhere around 2 weeks back then.

Flicky

England2670 Posts

October 11 2009 12:03 GMT

#17

On October 11 2009 19:25 dismiss wrote:

Show nested quote +

You have no idea how much I can read when I'm bedridden. :p

I'm also doubting this. Seems like an un-necessary brag. Would be reading 292 words a minute for 32 hours to finish in it 2 days of being awake, without a break.

Anyway, it's strange that this topic popped up as I was just looking at longest novels the other day and came accross Marienbad My Love which has 17 million words. To quote wikipedia on some info about the book: "He began writing "Marienbad My Love" in the 1980s. Leach promotes it as the world's longest novel. He also claims to have set records for the world's longest word (4.4 million letters), longest English sentence (3 million words) and longest book title, including the subtitle (6,931 words)."

There's a website about it. It doesn't seem like it would be a good read at all.

The longest book I've read is probably... erm... something about 600 pages. I got bored reading Lord of The Rings.

To note, apparantly Wheel of Time series is the 4th longest story at the moment and looks to stay that way when complete.

LaLuSh

Sweden2358 Posts

October 11 2009 12:43 GMT

#18

On October 11 2009 21:03 Flicky wrote:

Show nested quote +

I wouldn't doubt an experienced reader's ability to plow through 40pages/hour or more. Over the span of 30 hours that makes 1200 pages.

Certainly could be done. I don't think I've ever read more than 500 pages in one single day though. 16 hours a day uninterrupted by breaks? Nah.

LordWeird

United States3411 Posts

October 11 2009 12:49 GMT

#19

Man I really wanted to play that Wheel of Time MUD....

Are the books any good? Does anybody know?

Railxp

Hong Kong1313 Posts

October 11 2009 13:08 GMT

#20

wheel of time looses its luster after like book two. Although I did plow through I think 11 if not 12 of the books. IMO there are better series out there.