21st Century Literature discussion
Question of the Week
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What Are The Longest & Shortest Books You Have Read So Far in 2025 & What Was Their Length? (8/3/25)
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Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (96 pages).
Whoah! 1,276 pages. That's a door stopper (or, to steal a better phrase from Whitney, a kitten-squisher)!
Mine are:
Hild by Nicola Griffith (560 pgs)
Stunt by Michael DeForge (72 pgs)
Mine are:
Hild by Nicola Griffith (560 pgs)
Stunt by Michael DeForge (72 pgs)
Stacia wrote: "The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1,276 pages).
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (96 pages)."
Count of Monte Cristo is the oldest entry on my GR "Want To Read" list. Is that translation in your link the one you read, Stacia?
I can't take credit for "kitten-squisher", that was the great, erstwhile leader of Chaos Reading, Ruby Tombstone.
Twelve Angry Men by Reginald Rose (96 pages)."
Count of Monte Cristo is the oldest entry on my GR "Want To Read" list. Is that translation in your link the one you read, Stacia?
I can't take credit for "kitten-squisher", that was the great, erstwhile leader of Chaos Reading, Ruby Tombstone.
Longest:Solenoid (640 pages)
Shortest: Hunchback (112 pages)
Neither anywhere near my all time records.
Shortest: Hunchback (112 pages)
Neither anywhere near my all time records.

Yes, that's the edition I have.
I read it ages ago but my irl book club selected it this year. The person who selected it is not usually a lover of huge books. I wondered if she would change her selection once she realized how long it was. (She did end up reading an abridged version of about 600 pages without realizing it was abridged, lol.) I knew I loved it from long ago so was happy that we all were in agreement that it's a great book. For 1200+ pages, it moves along quite quickly!
Stacia wrote: "I read it ages ago but my irl book club selected it this year...."
I'm impressed that your book club actually read it! I know that in my IRL book club, anything over 400 pages or so is likely to result in a mority DNF.
I'm impressed that your book club actually read it! I know that in my IRL book club, anything over 400 pages or so is likely to result in a mority DNF.

And my shortest was a translation. Not a River

The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Shorter Fifth Edition - 1424 pages
Since that work has lots of white space, my second longest is:
Kristin Lavransdatter -1169 pages
Shortest:
The Rest Is Memory - 128 pages

Including graphic novels/comics seems kind of cheating to me. But my shortest is
Richard Sala, Night Drive
This is the original limited edition with 28 pages, not the recently reissued hardcover. Ordered directly from Sala in the '80s, so there.
My longest from my goodreads stats is one that I abandoned (after 15 years) and should not count. I'm guessing the next longest is the mere 400-page
Grace Paley, The Collected Stories
Agreed (that it seems unfair to count comics/graphic novels). I think the shortest book for me was The Promise by Silvina Ocamp at 103 pgs.



I think you're on the 'details' view? Try selecting 'view books from 2025', from there you can sort by page count.
Alternatively, you can view your 'Year in Books'. Just change the 2024 in the URL to 2025 :D
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...
Emmeline wrote: "I don't seem to be able to see the page breakdown, it just organizes the books by how many stars I gave them..."
Just to the right of the star-organization should be a little rectangle with longest/shortest. I think you can also go to your "read" books, and add the page numbers as a column (if Beige's suggestion hasn't already worked for you).
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From this whole thread (so far), I figured there would be many books I hadn't heard of (and that's been true), but I didn't expect there to be something as big as Kristin Lavransdatter that so many of my GR friends have already read (writer and book completely off my radar).
Just to the right of the star-organization should be a little rectangle with longest/shortest. I think you can also go to your "read" books, and add the page numbers as a column (if Beige's suggestion hasn't already worked for you).
---------------------------------------
From this whole thread (so far), I figured there would be many books I hadn't heard of (and that's been true), but I didn't expect there to be something as big as Kristin Lavransdatter that so many of my GR friends have already read (writer and book completely off my radar).

Longest: Lote by Shola von Reinhold - 384 pages
Shortest:
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa -112 pages
Rosarita by Anita Desai - 112 pages

Longest: Lote by Shola von Reinhold - 384 pages
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa -112 pages
[..."
I loved [book:Lote|59435615]. Unfortunately my longest was the deeply dispiriting but illuminating Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise. But my shortest was the exquisite Tiny Moons: A Year of Eating in Shanghai



My shortest is a popular choice this year: Hunchback
Longest actually read: The Luminaries
but I am just about done with Parade's End, which is an astoundingly good book.
Books mentioned in this topic
The Luminaries (other topics)Parade's End (other topics)
Hunchback (other topics)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (other topics)
Europa (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Susanna Clarke (other topics)Han Kang (other topics)
Shola von Reinhold (other topics)
Saou Ichikawa (other topics)
Saou Ichikawa (other topics)
More...
So tell us your longest and shortest 2025 reads (so far) and how long they each were.