21st Century Literature discussion

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Question of the Week > What Are The Longest & Shortest Books You Have Read So Far in 2025 & What Was Their Length? (8/3/25)

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message 1: by Marc (new)

Marc (monkeelino) | 3454 comments Mod
One easy way to find this (at least, on the desktop version of the website) is to go to: My Books -> Reading Stats (towards the bottom on the leftside menu) -> Details (for 2025). You should then see the longest and shortest, as well as the the page counts for each...

So tell us your longest and shortest 2025 reads (so far) and how long they each were.


message 3: by Marc (new)

Marc (monkeelino) | 3454 comments Mod
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)


message 4: by Whitney (new)

Whitney | 2498 comments Mod
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.


message 5: by Hugh (new)

Hugh (bodachliath) | 3095 comments Mod
Longest:Solenoid (640 pages)
Shortest: Hunchback (112 pages)

Neither anywhere near my all time records.


message 6: by Stacia (new)

Stacia | 268 comments Whitney wrote: "Stacia wrote: "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?"

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!


message 7: by Whitney (new)

Whitney | 2498 comments Mod
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.


message 8: by Carl (new)

Carl Reads (carlreadsbooks) | 39 comments My longest this year was a non-fiction book. Mythica: A New History of Homer’s World, Through the Women Written Out of It

And my shortest was a translation. Not a River


message 9: by Joy D (new)

Joy D | 10 comments Longest:
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


message 11: by Bill (last edited Aug 05, 2025 07:51PM) (new)

Bill Hsu (billhsu) | 289 comments Good to see you enjoyed Stunt, Marc!

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


message 12: by Marc (new)

Marc (monkeelino) | 3454 comments Mod
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.


message 13: by Bill (new)

Bill Hsu (billhsu) | 289 comments For non-comics/graphic books, my shortest has to be Carlos Fuentes' Aura. I read the 47-page English edition, without the Spanish text.


message 14: by Emmeline (new)

Emmeline | 191 comments I don't seem to be able to see the page breakdown, it just organizes the books by how many stars I gave them...


message 15: by Beige (last edited Aug 06, 2025 09:57AM) (new)

Beige  | 13 comments 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..."

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...


message 16: by Marc (new)

Marc (monkeelino) | 3454 comments Mod
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).

---------------------------------------

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).


message 17: by Beige (last edited Aug 06, 2025 05:12AM) (new)

Beige  | 13 comments I tend to avoid chunksters.

Longest: Lote by Shola von Reinhold - 384 pages

Shortest:
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa -112 pages
Rosarita by Anita Desai - 112 pages


message 18: by Alwynne (new)

Alwynne | 239 comments Beige wrote: "I tend to avoid chunksters.

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


message 19: by Beige (new)

Beige  | 13 comments Alwynne wrote: "I loved Lote..."

Me too!

'Tiny Moons' sounds wonderful, instant add to my TBR


message 20: by Marcus (new)

Marcus Hobson | 88 comments My shortest was So in the Spruce Forest by Ali Smith - a whopping 45 pages, but with lots of illustrations of paintings by Edvard Munch, considerably less actual text.


message 21: by Marc (new)

Marc (monkeelino) | 3454 comments Mod
Count me as another fan of Lote here!


message 22: by Henk (new)

Henk | 85 comments My shortest book was Europa by Han Kang at 35 pages, while the longest was Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke at 865 pages


message 23: by Jenna (new)

Jenna | 157 comments I like questions like this for the inspiration :)
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.


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