Recommend A "Long" Book!!

jackbhoy

I am going on few long overland trips this year and want to bring 1/2 books with me. I will be spending stints of 3-4 days at a time on trains/boats so need something that I won't finish in a day!
I brought Crime and Punishment and LOTR Trilogy last time and they only lasted 1/2 weeks.

So anyone got any suggestions? War and Peace and Count of Monte Cristo spring to mind but any others?

Mr. Bones

Don Quixote?

pandemonium

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
its abit hard to get into but i loved it

Mr. Bones

oh yeah, Proust's En Recherche du Temps Perdu (spelling?).

biZrb

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

buck65

A suitable boy - Vikram Seth
War and Peace or Anna Karenina.

Sheridan

If you enjoyed Crime & Punishment, Dostoevsky's "The Idiot" should be right up your street. Similar themes and treatment but a whole lot longer...

jam_mac_jam

Q by Luther Blissett , excellent novel set during the reformation. Quite long.

LoLth

Focaults Pendulum - tough to get into but well worth perseverence. A chunky book (smaller than LoTR) , well written and a really good story with tons of detail.

Cryptonomicon by neal stephenson: if you're in any way techy or if you like ww2 then you'll like this (math heads will like it too).

you could start on the baroque cycle by stephenson then. each book is about 3/4 the length of the cryptonomicon but is harder (slower) reading.

slinky

Strumpet City - James Plunkett

pwd

malazan book of the fallen series by steven erikson. Each book is about 1000 pages. They're good too. (fantasy)

Dune by Frank Herbert (sci fi/fantasy)

Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders trilogy, tawny man trilogy by Robin Hobb. Each book is about 1000 pages again. (fantasy)

dream brother

Count of Monte Cristo is a very good read!!!

LoLth

pwd wrote: »

malazan book of the fallen series by steven erikson. Each book is about 1000 pages. They're good too. (fantasy)

Dune by Frank Herbert (sci fi/fantasy)

Farseer Trilogy, Liveship Traders trilogy, tawny man trilogy by Robin Hobb. Each book is about 1000 pages again. (fantasy)

hmmmm, Dune, fair enough. its a nice long read. malazan, I read these books on the bus during my morning / evening commute , 3 hours per day and the book lasts me 5 days - at an easy pace , so thats 15 hours. Not what I would term a long read. and judging from the OPs comments on C&P and LotR he's either got a lot of time on his hands or is a much faster reader than me.

Same for the farseer/liveship/tawny man books. in fact I find Hobb's writing style very easy to read and on first pass read through the assassain trilogy at a rate of 1 book per day. The latest soldier trilogy were even quicker.

I think the OP is more concerend with having to carry as few books as possible while still having a lot to take in. generally, the more thought provoking a book the longer it takes to read as the reader stops to digest bits before continuing on.

I would like to suggest that you bring all four dan browne books with you. force yourself to read through every single page (deception point being the most challenging for this) and then when you finish each novel, write out every fault you can find with it and any way in which you think the touch of a 3 year old would improve upon the plot/details/character development. the reading will fly past - but will *feel* like years - and the writing will last you several journeys!

pwd

So it's thought provocation rather than sheer wordcount huh? The Glass Bead Game or Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse, or any of his later novels really.
A collection of essays by orwell.

Another good long book in the wordcount sense is Papillion by Henri Cherrie

Hermy

biZrb wrote: »

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

The Fountainhead by the same author is another good long read.

John Updike's quadrilogy (tetralogy according to wiki) Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels will keep you going for a while.
http://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Angstrom-Novels-Everymans-Library/dp/0679444599/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202392468&sr=8-1

After that you might like to tackle Beckett's trilogy - Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable.
http://www.amazon.com/Molloy-Malone-Unnamable-Everymans-Library/dp/0375400702/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1202392672&sr=1-1

r3nu4l

Okay if you're not just looking for old classics you could try "Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrel" by Susanna Clarke. It's written in the style of Dickens and set in the 1800's.

A very enjoyable and different mythological/fantasy read set in the real world. Worth a look, I loved it.

SuperGrover

The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. Now published in a single volume.

jackbhoy

Thanks for all responses so far, some really good suggestions there so keep them coming!

LoLth wrote: »

I think the OP is more concerend with having to carry as few books as possible while still having a lot to take in. generally, the more thought provoking a book the longer it takes to read as the reader stops to digest bits before continuing on.

Exactly! I am travelling overland (and Irish sea of course) from Dublin to Bhutan and from there to NZ etc so going to have a lot of time on my hands. Given that we have to carry backpacks for duration we will bring a maximum of 2/3 books between us. I suppose a good question is, if you had to bring 2 books for trip like this, what would you choose?

LoLth wrote: »

I would like to suggest that you bring all four dan browne books with you. force yourself to read through every single page (deception point being the most challenging for this) and then when you finish each novel, write out every fault you can find with it and any way in which you think the touch of a 3 year old would improve upon the plot/details/character development. the reading will fly past - but will *feel* like years - and the writing will last you several journeys!

Excellent!! And I'll always have copious amounts of toilet paper at hand if needed too! Read in a Sunday paper that he has "writers block" with his new novel about the Stonemasons, I thought to myself shouldn't that just be "block".

John

Ulysses as it's:
a) long
b) very, very good
c) heavy going so you won't just rip through it

When I was backpacking around Poland I did about 20 hours on trains and only managed about half of it.

Joe Cool

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller.

If you plan on reading Ulysses find the pages where the chapters divide and it shouldn't be too much of a bother. Reading it through as a single story gets confusing, for me anyway.

sxt

"The stand" is a great book weighing in at over 15oo pages:).


The illumantis trilogy as mentioned before as well

shockwave

If you like sci-fi then Peter F Hamilton is your man, the Nights Dawn trliogy is good and very long with each book over 1000 pages long.

Should keep you going for a while.

Red Hand

The Little Friend by Donna Tart. Brilliant book and very readable even though its pretty long, around 1050 pages.

Jack Sheehan

The fountainhead +1.
I'd also recommend Magician if you're into fantasy. (Raymond E Feist)

Dades

Surprised nobody has mentioned "Shantaram", yet. (See thread here).

Definitely a voluminous book, and has a genuine travel/adventure theme.

And it's f*cking brilliant too.

studiorat

buck65 wrote: »

A suitable boy - Vikram Seth
War and Peace or Anna Karenina.

+1 for the Russians.

Or Crime and Punishment.

cailinoBAC

Most of Solzhenitsyn it quite long. And if not long, then heavy...Brothers Kamarazov by Dostoevsky....haven't actually finished that one yet.

Also, Les Miserables

Mainstay

Any Thomas Pynchon Novel would do.

Most of them are quite long and all of them are quite dense and take a lot of attention to read.

Otherwise Underworld by Don Del Lillo weighs in around 800 pages and is an excellent read.

sdep

Some long-ish books I've enjoyed are:

Vanity Fair - Thackeray's rumbustious novel of society and scandal in Napoleonic era England - 800 pages, but a proper page turner.

Tristram Shandy (Sterne) - a meandering account of the life of the eponymous hero, full of jokes and tangents, and quite bonkers. The longest shaggy dog story committed to print - about 600 pages.

Collected Fictions (Borges) - a treasury of paradoxical, apocryphal and fantastical tales and musings - about 500 pages, but when done, you can start again at the beginning.

I'd throw in Hunter S. Thompson's 'Great Shark Hunt' - stranger than fiction, substance-inspired commentary on 60's & 70's America - but, though it's a 600-pager, you can blast through it.

inverted_world

If you are looking for contemporary, engaging, and very well written, I would highly recommend:

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

If I was in your situation, I would bring these and a collection of short stories. (Roald Dahl's are great.) Last year, whenever I travelled I brought two books: a novel and Donald Barthelme's "Sixty Stories".
Good short stories are wonderful in their own right, but also great if someone needs a break from what they are reading, or if they are finished a novel and waiting for the other person to finish their book so that they can swap.

jackbhoy

Jack Sheehan wrote: »

The fountainhead +1.

Bought this in Rathmines bookshop this afternoon (for €0.99!), now I just need to resist the temptation to start reading it!

BossArky

Don Quixote ... easy to read, but I lost interest about 1/3 of the way through. I'm currently taking a break, which has lasted 3 books.

Any Peter F.Hamilton stuff (The Nights Dawn trilogy, or the other trilogoies which I cannot remember) .. usually pretty long and great entertainment if you like your Sci-Fi.

Ulysses ... makes more sense when you are mildly drunk. Would not recommend this as the only book to bring with you. Bits of it are great, but other sections drag.

Satanic Verses ... I enjoyed this more than Ulysses, but it takes a bit of concentration.

For WHom the Bell Tolls ... you can smell the hills, forests and bombs in this one. Highly recommended. Its about 400 to 500 pages.

Catch 22 ... very funny. I'd recommend this one over the rest.

St Bunt

The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson is brilliant.
Definitely enough to keep you going there!

Serpentine

I second (or third) Ulysses, also Middlemarch or Moby Dick to plough through.

Ah Tristram Shandy is a great book I forgot about!

buck65

Ulysses? are you mad jesus I read half that book and realised I started to dread reading:D

I would second Underworld by De Lillo, not everyones cup of tea either but brilliantly written.

markw999

SuperGrover wrote: »

The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. Now published in a single volume.

Seconded! I was just gonna post this. The greatest mindf*ck of a book ever.

piscesgroove

I agree, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell and The Historian are excellent reads and long enough to get lost in but my all time favourite big read is 'I Know This Much is True' by Wally Lamb - it's the story of two male twins in their late 30's, one of whom is a schizophrenic, sounds heavy but it's not, the story flashes back also to their fathers life in Italy as a child....excellent reading!!!

nmk

Hi, this is my first post in this forum, I'd recommend The Pillars of the Earth and it's sequel, World Without End by Ken Follet. Both are fantastic reads! The First Man in Rome (Colleen McCullough) is the first in a series of 5 historical fiction novels. I've gotten some great suggestions for books on this thread, thanks!:)

rowlandbrowner

Lanark by Alasdair Gray, I first read it when my g/f went away for a few weeks last summer and it helped fill in the hours of free time (and consumed my life somewhat). It’s made up of 4 books (but presented in the order of 3,1,2,4), two of them deal with a young boy growing up in Glasgow, it follows him from adolescence to some very awkward teenage years and is one of the most apt descriptions of growing up that I’ve read. The other two books are sort of Kafka inspired dystopia, they focus on a character called Lanark, he lives in a city called Unthank, there is no sunlight and people are afflicted by diseases like dragon hide and some grow mouths all over their body’s. The two characters may be the same person, their worlds kind of mirror each other In many ways. Its subtitled “A life in four books” and is a genuine life changing read, it’s heavy enough at 600 pages.

Poppy78

Tristram Shandy is a funny read for such an old book. The language is a bit difficult to get your head around, so that should slow you down and it is worth it.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame took me a good while to read and gives a great historical perspective as well as being a good story.

If it was me I would bring a Martin Amis book as I read Times Arrow recently and loved it, so I want to try more of his. Also something I have not yet read by Kurt Vonnegut. And as neither of these usually write great tomes of books, I could take a cheeky third book. Maybe re-read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or The Sun Also Rises like I have been meaning to. Or I could take my husbands spare shoes out of his pack (he'll be fine he only ever wears the same pair anyway) and bring both. Although it would be a shame to take two books that I have already read. JESUS!!! What about Ulysees, it would be just the opportunity I have been waiting for, giving me the time and focus that I need.

I could never decide.

Good luck!

Enjoy your trip, It sounds great.

AckwelFoley

Ulysses.

My ex read it 3 times. :eek:

Girls a freak... but incredibly smart.

bassman22

count of monte cristo - never taken me longer to read a book! great one though!

randomguy

Books for travelling with are difficult - you want something big, so that it will last, but not so big you can't carry it; something compelling enough that you won't want to give up, but not so dense that you can't read it on a bumping bus for a few hours. You want something that you can put down for a while and can easily pick up again a week later and get straight back into. So I'd recommend The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy if you can find the 4-book trilogy in one volume. And I'd second the vote for the Baroque Cycle. If you want something a bit heavier, Infinite Jest is stunning. And Shantaram is great fun.

Even better, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
A cracker of a read: memorable characters, wide canvas, compulsive plot, mesmerising writing, deceptively literate, warm and funny and with serious heart. Don't be put off by the fact that it is a western - it deservedly won a Pulitzer, and my now-ex, who was sniffy about man-books, took to it like crack when we were travelling together.
It's a long book without being heavy-handed about it.

randomguy

After writing that post I got thinking on travelling and big books for specific destinations -
If Canada, consider The Deptford Trilogy or the Salterton Trilogy (Robertson Davies) if you can get either in one volume. Very Canadian, but good.
If going to Australia on your travels, Illywhacker by Peter Carey would keep you busy a while - not huge but dense.
The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass (if going to continental europe), but like Illywhacker I am not sure if it would be big enough.
The Famished Road isn't huge either, but again is dense enough to keep you busy for weeks in Africa.
And if going to India I'd second A Suitable Boy - another one light enough to read while travelling.
For China, it would have to be Wild Swans.

bassman22

hitchhiker's is a five book trilogy now.

another one I like to take while travelling is the silmarillion by tolkien, kind of (ish) a prequel to the lord of the rings. Its not big or long... but i like to bring it because it's small and is more of a collection of short stories than a seamless big story so you can dip in and out as you go

Karlusss

snyper wrote: »

Ulysses.

My ex read it 3 times. :eek:

Girls a freak... but incredibly smart.

Once you read it once it's not hard any more.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne is both very long and a very slow read. It should last.

sdep

Karlusss wrote: »

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne is both very long and a very slow read. It should last.

If that's the main requirement, I'll prescribe the complete Montaigne. At present rate, I've 30 years left to finish it.

alexj9

I recommend Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. Its a long book and has some very interesting twists in the plot.

Dades

Half way through "The Name of the Rose" (Umberto Eco) at the moment.

Really enjoying it, but boy it's a long read.

aliqueenb

not very long at all. am in the middle of reading it and i like it even though i'm only young lol, star of the sea...

JackKelly

+1 on Catch 22. You'll get funny looks for laughing out loud.