Recommend A "Long" Book!!

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.

tHE vAGGABOND

+1 Count of Monte Cristo

Beruthiel

Why has nobody mentioned Lord of the Rings!?
A cracking read.

Dades
Thanks for suggesting Shantaram, I'm half way through it now and can't put it down.

Dades

Beruthiel wrote: »

Dades
Thanks for suggesting Shantaram, I'm half way through it now and can't put it down.

First heard of it from another thread here.

Also send my Dad off on his hols with it last week!

crotalus667

I think I saw pullmans dark matirials thrilogey in one book for 9.99 in eason's im not that far into the first book but it's a good read i think it's about 400-600 pages per book so thats about 1500 pages for 9.99 and it dident look too big to carry around either;)

shockwave

Have you considered audio books.

I downloaded all of The fire & ice series by george rr martin and put it on my ipod. It took weeks to listen to it all.

owlwink

The Odyssey by Homer - 472 pages
Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - 570 pages
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - 671 pages

3 worth a look

Alice Junge

Proust long and sexy

Morva

The Lord of the Rings trilogy can be obtained in a single volume. Then there are the Charles Dickens books that, good as they are, go on forever. Just a thought.

crotalus667

Morva wrote: »

The Lord of the Rings trilogy can be obtained in a single volume. .

I got it recently form easons in a red cover very compact size about 1175 pages not including the adverts at the pack , it was just under 12 euro the one with the film cover is somewhere between 20 and 30 :rolleyes:

tbh

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.

Yeah, lowbrow, but huge, and a real page turner!