41 - The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list

[Therese]

Charlotte wrote: "Mine is London by Edward Rutherfurd at over 1100 pages. I can't believe it tops Anna Karenina!"

We will both be reading on. I was surprised it topped War and Peace.

[Michelle]

Kaitlin wrote: "The Way of Kings is the winner on my shelves. I guess I'm starting the Stormlight Archives in 2021."

I read that this year and loved it! It will be one of the next 2 in the series for me Words of Radiance or Oathbringer

[Kristin]

I don't tend to add long books to my TBR, so mine is 1Q84 at 925 pages. I have the audiobook so that should help!

[Kelly Sj]

Technically, London (Rutherfurd) is the longest on my list, but I'm currently reading Sarum and might need a break before starting London. Shantaram (Roberts) is on my shelf in hard-cover taking up way too much space, so I'll probably read that and then donate it so I have room for more books :)

[Jess]

I am gonna be reading Les Miserable as well.

[Becky]

Gone with the Wind

[Katrina]

Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge #1) by Ken Follett

[mikeyandherbooks]

The Way of Kings it is, have been dreading it's length lol

[Brandon]

I've got The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson as my longest TBR book. We could have some kind of buddy read going on, either in this group or in a discussion thread on the book's page.

A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament is my actual longest TBR book, but unless someone wants to mail me a copy, I'm going to have to postpone that one.

[Brandy]

I haven't checked yet. My longest audiobook though 1Q84.

[Theresa]

Thank goodness I read Proust this year and got it off my TBR!

[Dixie]

Audrey wrote: "Oh dear, I really am going to have to read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth...all 1504 pages of it!"

Same! My ex-husband gave it to me last year...

[Sarah]

The longest book I own is is graphic novel, Bone by Jeff Smith at 1342 pages.

[Nadine in NY]

Theresa wrote: "Thank goodness I read Proust this year and got it off my TBR!"


LOL you dodged that bullet!!!!

[Nadine in NY]

Buddy reads can really help for long books. We had one this year for The Count of Monte Cristo. I was one of the last ones, I was limping to the finish, and I can say that knowing a bunch of other readers had just been through it right before me helped me to be much more engaged than I would have been otherwise.

There's a folder for Book Discussions buried at the bottom of our group page. That would be a good place to set up group discussions for your buddy reads.

A few books may have discussion posts already started. If they are recent, I would recommend continuing them, since most members will still be here and active. If they are older, from before 2018, maybe it would be best to start a fresh discussion post (just label it "BookTitle 2021 read" or something)

[Tania]

It looks like it is Atlas Shrugged for me, at close to 1100 pages.

[Taylor]

Sarah wrote: "Mine is Les Misérables at 1463 pages...haha oh god

I do have it on audiobook. Maybe I will just listen a little every day?"

ughhhh it's also my longest book and I only added it a month ago! *facepalm* Audiobook sounds like a great option actually...

[Sara]

For all the people who are stuck reading War and Peace, my library did a great read-along podcast where they divided it in to manageable chunks and then discussed them a little bit at a time. It's still available on google podcasts, and I imagine other podcast outlets. It was called Oh Boy, Tolstoy, but they later changed it when they read Moby Dick. So you would need to search for Big Book Club: What the Whale! Anyway, I loved the podcast and it did help me finally finish War and Peace. (They also did Middlemarch, for what that's worth).

My longest book is Grant which is going to be so so long and probably boring in places. I can't promise not to skip some of the battle stuff.

Having said that, I also have Les Misérables for a different prompt. So I would love to join a Les Mis reading group!

[AnneElisabeth]

Oh dear... A Suitable Boy 1474 pages... Have mercy!!!

[Sallie]

Tom Clancy - Executive Orders - 1354
That’s what I found on my bookshelf. Did not peruse my Kindle yet

[poshpenny]

Do I actually still want to read London? I added it over 12 years ago and forgot it existed.

London is the longest book on my GR TBR at 1,152p
1Q84 is the longest unread audiobook I own at 46hr 45m
Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters is the longest book on my GR TBR that I physically own at 706p

[Sarah]

Sydney wrote: "I guess it’s finally time to try to tackle Under the Dome..."

I've read it three times... I'm not sure what that says about me. But I hope you love it as much as I did! It goes pretty quick because it's King so it's easy to digest.

My longest owned book is an omnibus at 1400 pages, and then my next longest book that's not an omnibus is A Storm of Swords which is number 3 in a series where I haven't read number 2...

So I think I will finally have to tackle It which I'm dreading because I've started it multiple times and never finished. Sigh.

[Lilia]

I might go with Les Miserables, but it kind of depends on the edition. If not I could do War and Peace or The Stand even though I don’t really want to... I’ve also considered The Way of Kings for this prompt

[Caitie]

Mine is The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany at just over 1600 pages... I'm not going to read it all at once, thats for sure!

[Megan]

These category are so hard for me because I don’t use the TBR shelf on goodreads—I have an actual tbr shelf.

[Robin H-R]

poshpenny wrote: "Do I actually still want to read London? I added it over 12 years ago and forgot it existed.

London is the longest book on my GR TBR at 1,152p
1Q84 is the longest unre..."

London is mine too.

[Alicia]

ok I actually LOVE long books. I just finished The Evening and the Morning which is a little over 900 pages and I was mad it wasn't longer. I needed more!

For those with Game of Thrones books, do not be daunted. They are EXCELLENT books, no matter how terrible the show got towards the end.

Ken Follett is always a great fave. They go quicker than you think and leave you wanting more.

I've always hated the musical Les Mis, so it will likely never be on my TBR. Next year I had already planned on reading The Count of Monte Cristo and War and Peace. I may use one for another challenge/prompt and one of those will be what is left over.

[Jenn]

Looks like I'll be continuing with A Song of Ice and Fire series. A Storm of Swords is the longest book on my TBR.

[tea_for_two]

My longest book is Cities in Civilization , at 1184 pages, but the cheapest copy I can find of it is $40, so that's not happening. Instead I'm going to read Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas , which isn't technically #3 on my TBR list, but only because I'm *currently* reading it. Hopefully this will help me actually finish it next year.

[Heather]

As someone who has already read Les Miserables and The Count of Monte Cristo, I think you're in for a treat either way you go. The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite classic novel of all time. (It may be unseated one day, but not yet.) I used an audiobook for both. I listened to 2 chapters a day. It took me a couple months to finish both books. I can highly recommend the Naxos audiobooks narrated by Bill Homewood.

[Rachel]

I'm choosing from the books that I own since I can't guarantee that I'll have library access next year, and also excluding some of the lengthier classics since those are on my TBR mostly as a reminder that I'd like to eventually read them, rather than being a book I "actively" want to read. That left me with Queen of Air and Darkness, which is 912 pages and a book I was planning to read anyway, so that was lucky!

[Shannon]

I've decided to interpret this as "the longest book on my 2021 TBR" (meaning books I'd already slated to read next year) instead of my overall TBR. That means I can just use Inheritance for it--it's over 900 pages, but technically isn't the longest book on my TBR. BUT, I'd already decided I'm finally going to finish the series next year (I started them when they first came out and then couldn't bring myself to read the last one because I knew character would die and I just...didn't want them to lol).

I don't think I could do this book AND another one that's even longer, so this is my personal work-around lol.

[Fannie]

It's between War and Peace or The Count of Monte Cristo for me.

I did try to read Le Compte de Monte-Cristo 3 times before and never cared enough to finish it. I guess I should just remove it from my TBR. Too bad because I loved the Three Musketeers.

[K.L.]

I've got several books on my TBR that are all around the same number of pages. Since most of them will fulfill other prompts, I'll probably read The Tale of Genji for this one.

[Teri]

It's War and Peace for me.

[poshpenny]

tea_for_two wrote: "My longest book is Cities in Civilization, at 1184 pages, but the cheapest copy I can find of it is $40, so that's not happening."

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/cities-...

[Milena]

We had a support group for The Count of Monte Cristo last year, and the encouragement helped me get through it. I suggest we start a similar group for War and Peace.

[Milena]

For those reading War and Peace, what translation will you be reading?

[Lilith]

Milena wrote: "We had a support group for The Count of Monte Cristo last year, and the encouragement helped me get through it. I suggest we start a similar group for War and Peace."

If I do a reread, I'd be happy to join.

Not sure I will be able to get to rereads tbh. I found that making a list of all of the names and diminutives really helped me!

[L Y N N]

Shannon wrote: "I've decided to interpret this as "the longest book on my 2021 TBR" (meaning books I'd already slated to read next year) instead of my overall TBR. That means I can just use Inheritance for it--it's over 900 pages, but technically isn't the longest book on my TBR. BUT, I'd already decided I'm finally going to finish the series next year (I started them when they first came out and then couldn't bring myself to read the last one because I knew character would die and I just...didn't want them to lol).

I don't think I could do this book AND another one that's even longer, so this is my personal work-around lol."

Likewise, I am scheduled to read Ken Liu's The Wall of Storms for a Buddy Read in January. It is 880 pages long and although I have a couple of other books on my "TBR listing" that are a bit longer, I'm using this one. Close enough, IMHO! :)

[Sara]

Sara wrote: "For all the people who are stuck reading War and Peace, my library did a great read-along podcast where they divided it in to manageable chunks and then discussed them a little bit at a time. It's ..."

I would definitely recommend reading the audiobook version of Grant. I was lucky enough to snag the physical copy for $4 at a used book sale and along with the audiobook was able to power through it. It's long, but if you can read it on 1.5 speed and while doing something else (like cleaning or driving to work), it moves along. I really enjoyed the book when I was done and felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

My longest book is 11/22/63 at the moment because I started my other longest book Washington A Life by Chernow Monday before I saw that prompt.

[Britany]

Tara wrote: "Shall we form a "I guess I'm finally going to read Les Misérables club/support group"?"

YASSS Tara! It's mine too. :)

[Britany]

Amanda wrote: "Is there a way to determine book length just by your TBR list on Goodreads? I don't have a book that immediately sticks out as "longest" or "shortest"..."

Yes Amanda, from the web page, you can sort your TBR by pages, just click up and down arrows at the top of the page/column and you'll get shortest & longest!

[Brittany]

Looks like it's finally time to read Don Quixote for me! I've actually been wanting to read this for a while but have put it off because it was a rather long book to read while also trying to finish the challenge (and it wasn't fitting where I wanted in the previous prompts).

[Bekky]

Milena wrote: "Well that means I have to read War and Peace in 2021. I should just start now." emoji with the wide eyes! That is on my TBR too.... not sure I'm ready.

[SadieReadsAgain]

I've already put my longest book (A Little Life) in for a regular prompt, and another of my longest (The Poisonwood Bible) for another regular prompts. I have two other long books, but I think I'm going to unhaul them (American Gods...which I have no idea why I bought, and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle but I've gone off Haruki Murakami), so next one down is Cloud Atlas - that'll be my pick.

[Susan]

So, about Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time'. It seems most are thinking this gets categorized as a single book of ~4200 pages. Isn't it also considered a 7 volume set, at which point I'd be looking at ~470 pages? It's on my TBR list ... and would be the longest by far if I "must" count all 7 volumes. What should I do Decisions, decisions!

[Nicole]

Question:
What's about combined Editions? I have several books on my TBR that include multiple books of a series. Do you count them as one book or each individual?

I'm not really sure, If I want to read The Complete Miss Marple Collection or The Dark Tower Boxed Set in one go. But also feel like cheating a bit otherwise...


To anyone reading Les Miserables for it: It took me 4 months last year, but its really worth it! Hugo is often going on and on about things not really relevant to the story though.
When you get to the part about Napoleon and Waterloo, just a heads up that only the last 2 paragraphs of the 15+ chapters are connected to the story at all ;)

[Heather L]

Nicole wrote: "Question:
What's about combined Editions? I have several books on my TBR that include multiple books of a series. Do you count them as one book or each individual?

I'm not really sure, If I want ..."

I always count books that were originally published individually, individually. GR isn’t set up to count collections as three or four or however many might be packaged together, so if you want full credit for all books read, you have to enter/count them separately. Plus, I might read one book from the collection this year, the rest later. Also, one book in the collection might fit one prompt on the list, while the second book in the collection fits another prompt, or none at all.

[Teri]

Milena wrote: "For those reading War and Peace, what translation will you be reading?"

Whatever the library gives me.