49 - The Longest Book (by pages) on Your TBR List

[L Y N N]

The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list

This was prompt #41 from the 2021 Challenge. There was no listopia, but it might be helpful to post what your book will be to give others ideas if they want to add that to their TBR listing...

My first one is A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth at 1,474 pages
My second one is ...And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer at 1,433 pages
I own a copy of the second one and I really would like to reread it, so it could also count for the "book you read at least 10 years ago" prompt... I'll probably cheat just a bit and read it...

HELP IN CASE YOU NEED IT:
To sort your "Want to Read" shelf, click on "Settings" > I always set "Per Page" at Infinite Scroll > "Sort" by "num pages" > select "descending" > CLICK ON "Save current settings to you 'to-read' shelf"
That should give you a listing of the books with the most pages first!

[Dubhease]

My longest one is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

[Heather L]

Ugh! I failed on this one in 2021. I have eight books over 1,000 pages, including War and Peace (1156), Bleak House (1002) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1006). 😳

[Mandy]

mine is The Tale of Genji. the kindle edition is 1224 pages long. 😵

[Jen W.]

Ruling out anything that's a multi-book omnibus, my longest is The Way of Kings at 1005 pages long.

[Milena]

Mandy wrote: "mine is The Tale of Genji. the kindle edition is 1224 pages long. 😵"

This is my second longest. If I delete the first, this will move to the top. I am considering it. I also do a classics challenge, so this would work for both.

[Rachel]

I've got Ducks, Newburyport, which is 1022 pages.

[Dedra ~ A Book Wanderer]

I picked my next book in the Outlander series when I did this prompt in 2021. I still haven't finished the series, so I may repeat that strategy with Written in My Own Heart's Blood (825 pages). Or else I'll be reading The Stand by Stephen King (1153 pages) or The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (976 pages).

[Ron]

I have a lot of nonfiction that are pretty thick so I'm thinking of going with Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America or Born of Lakes and Plains: Mixed-Descent Peoples and the Making of the American West

[Kaia]

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for me!

[Bea]

I participate in so many GR groups and challenges that I look for crossover books to help me. The longest book on my TBR/wishlist right now is The Fireman [768p], for which I have no other challenge planned.

The second longest is Against All Enemies [756p], and it is a book that I own. That means I can take my time getting through all those pages rather than trying to meet a library due date.
AND it is planned for 3 other challenges.

Needless to say, I will be reading Against All Enemies, which is only 12 pages shorter than the first book.

PS...I really have a reluctance to read BIG BOOKS. They seem to intimidate me. I am slowly getting past that...but it does come into play with prompts like this one.

[Matt]

This could be rough. Mine is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Over 1700 pages in my edition.

I have the entire "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" on my Kindle, which claims to be nearly 4,000 pages long, but I think it was originally 6 volumes, not a single book.

[VanesGirl]

for me it will be Die Gestirne by Eleanor Catton german version of The Luminaries

the paperback has 1040 pages *gasp*

[Joshua]

It's definitely the books in the Crescent City series for me. I just have to determine if I'm using either one for another prompt and use the other for this.

[Ron]

Okay heck, I might skip my nonfiction rule to add in a few here and there. I can always use my Twilight books for this topic so I'll make an exception for that. LOL!

[Megan]

The Years of Rice and Salt is the longest book on mine.

[Pooja]

I've got War and Peace - and for some reason my Kindle edition is listed with having 2101 pages. Oh joy.

At least it's not asking for the longest book on my bookshelves in general - because that's listed at 6680. While I adore Worm, it's also an enormous undertaking, especially when I now know all the dark and depressing things that are coming...

[Bea]

HaHa. Good thing I planned this one yesterday. I just added a book that is almost 1000p!

[The Artsy Book Witch]

Not including anthologies, my longest is Les Mis, at 1463 pages

Les Misérables

[Debbie]

Heather L wrote: "Ugh! I failed on this one in 2021. I have eight books over 1,000 pages, including War and Peace (1156), Bleak House (1002) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1..."

FWIW, I listened to Jonathan Strange on audio initially, while I was on a long roadtrip. By about halfway through the book, I was listening while driving and then reading the physical or ebook when I had to stop reading because I was hooked.

My longest are The Cider House Rules (973), Middlemarch (904), Outlander (850), The Priory of the Orange Tree (827), and Cold Warriors: Writers Who Waged the Literary Cold War (800).

[Britany]

I read Les Miz last time this prompt was around, which took me almost the entire year.

Looks like up next is either War and Peace or The Count of Monte Cristo. Anyone up for a buddy read?

[Ron]

Britany wrote: Looks like up next is either War and Peace or The Count of Monte Cristo. Anyone up for a buddy read?

I'm up for Count of Monte Cristo. I'm pretty sure I have a copy of that one.

[Heather L]

Debbie wrote: "FWIW, I listened to Jonathan Strange on audio initially, while I was on a long roadtrip. By about halfway through the book, I was listening while driving and then reading the physical or ebook when I had to stop reading because I was hooked.

My longest are The Cider House Rules (973)...”


The Cider House Rules will be a first quarter read for the classics group (Jan-Mar), so I might give that a try.

[Chrissie]

Happy that The Winners is the longest on my TBR. I *knew* there was a reason I was waiting to read that!

[Christine]

This prompt is what caused me to not finish the 2021 challenge. Mine is also Les Mis. I got as far as purchasing the audio book and got about 3 hours in. This will be my third attempt at reading this behemoth of a novel.

[Chelsea]

Matt wrote: "This could be rough. Mine is Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Over 1700 pages in my edition."

Les Mis is mine too. I ignored all omnibus and book sets and this one popped up which honestly surprised me because I assumed I was finally going to have to contend with Under the Dome which is keeping me from finishing a book challenge but SO. MANY. PAGES. I'll just set a certain amount of pages to read per month to get through it and I will do this!

[chysodema]

Thanks to my multiple TBRs (nonfiction, 2023 TBR, and all-the-fiction-books TBR) I have three longest books to choose from. Pihkal: A Chemical Love Story (978), King's Dragon (636), and The Hands of the Emperor (969).

[Vanessa]

Dammit. Popsugar really wants me to read Pillars of the Earth huh?? (It's been on my TBR since 2008.)

[Denise]

Megan wrote: "The Years of Rice and Salt is the longest book on mine."

Same for me! 763 pages.

[Liz]

I have a lot of series that are added. I'm just going for regular books which happens to be Sherlock Holmes

[Ellie]

I was sure I didn't want to do this prompt again but the current longest book on my TBR (not including the depths-of-kindle shelf which has books I technically have a copy of, but don't really want to read any more) is my NetGalley of A Day of Fallen Night at 880 pages. So I guess I need to go uncross this prompt out!

[Ashley Marie]

Ron wrote: "Britany wrote: Looks like up next is either War and Peace or The Count of Monte Cristo. Anyone up for a buddy read?

I'm up for Count of Monte Cristo. I'm pretty sure I have a copy of that one."

Another yes for Count of Monte Cristo here!

Edit: It looks like my longest is actually this particular edition of War and Peace. I'm good for either one!

[Nadine in NY]

Last time this prompt came up, I took it as an opportunity to delete all super long books from my TBR. Now I'm in good shape, nothing longer than about 650 pages or so :-)


Anyone who wants to start a group read can create a folder in the Book Discussions section. There is already an old group read of The Count of Monte Cristo so you can decide if you want to piggyback on that one, or start a new post for 2023.

[Dixie]

L Y N N wrote: "The longest book (by pages) on your TBR list

This was prompt #41 from the 2021 Challenge. There was no listopia, but it might be helpful to post what your book will be to give others ideas if they..."

I read A Suitable Boy for this challenge a couple of years ago. It had been sitting on my shelf for years and ended up being one of those "why on earth did I wait so long to read this" books. I loved it, and, in the end, wished it was longer.

[Dixie]

Heather L wrote: "Ugh! I failed on this one in 2021. I have eight books over 1,000 pages, including War and Peace (1156), Bleak House (1002) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1..."

I'm going with Bleak House this year. I read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell years ago and loved it - as well as the author's two books published since then, which are much shorter!

[Ron]

Britany/Ashley Marie,

Let me know if we do the Count of Monte Cristo read. Message me, let me know here, wherever.

[Brandon]

Mine is decently long without being burdensome: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (reported as 458 pages on the Goodreads Kindle version)

[Nona]

My longest book is "Don Quijote", at almost 1400 pages. I guess this will be the year I will be finally fighting windmills...

[StefanieFrei]

I got a bunch of ebooks that are "The Complete Works of..." ... Virginia Woolf. 14,662 pages. Not. Reading.This. Here.
Okay. I am absolutely certain that the task said it should not be a single book right???
edit: nor counting non-fiction manuals with LOTS of pages.
And again, same as for shortest book, there are lots of books where the page count just does not make sense.
Stephen King: The Stand.
Thomas Mann: Der Zauberberg.
Sabine Ebert: 1815. Blutfrieden.
Robert Musil: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften.
Gone with the Wind.

...one from those??

[Felicia]

The longest on my tbr is Black Leopard, Red Wolf (640)

[K.L.]

Britany wrote: "Looks like up next is either War and Peace or The Count of Monte Cristo. Anyone up for a buddy read?"

I would enjoy reading The Count of Monte Cristo as well.

[Britany]

I'll set up a buddy read thread in the new year for us and anyone else that would like to join in on the Count of Monte Cristo.

[Ron]

I'm going to count my Twilight books as my longest.

I have a hard time reading books over 400 pages and those things are massive (I do miss the days when I actually had the patience to do full sit throughs though.)

[Ron]

Okay I've decided to go with:

Silent Spring Revolution: John F. Kennedy, Rachel Carson, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and the Great Environmental Awakening

It's 896 pages so it's either going to be exciting or it's going to literally kill me since my average reading is around 330 pgs. Whatever, I'm sure it's going to be fun and interesting.

[Leona]

Maybe I will finally read Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherfurd I have had for years.

[Reed]

Gone Tomorrow by Lee Child 561 pages

[Dea]

Well, guess I'm finally reading Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy! 964 pages.

I've read all the Stormlight Archive books and the Wheel of Time, so I can do 964 pages. I'll probably do it as an ebook, though, and read off and on through the year. I don't like to do physical reads of very long books on the bus. So heavy!

[Melissa]

My longest is Les Miserables - GoodReads lists the paperback as over 1300 pages. I plan on reading it throughout the year with the Serial Reader app.

[Jeanne]

Melissa wrote: "My longest is Les Miserables - GoodReads lists the paperback as over 1300 pages. I plan on reading it throughout the year with the Serial Reader app."

I love that serial app. It was the only way I would have gotten through War and Peace.

[Melissa]

Jeanne wrote: "Melissa wrote: "My longest is Les Miserables - GoodReads lists the paperback as over 1300 pages. I plan on reading it throughout the year with the Serial Reader app."

I love that s..."

It's so great for the longer books!