Books on the Nightstand discussion

I love long books so not scared by this, but I've been mostly reading ebooks lately (and prefer it for a huge heavy lomg book!) so it's tough to tell how long a book is when browsing unless I go way into details pages. I could just browse some physical shelves but prefer to just browse from home. Anyone know of a) a way to filter/search by pahe count or b) a good list of long books?

I have the same issue with ebooks- sometimes if you just quickly google the book it will give you a page count.

Goodreads has some lists- Best Books over 500 pages, Popular Long Books Shelf. The Guardian has The 10 Best Long Reads.

Have you read Lonesome Dove yet? I seem to remember some discussion about that on the podcast, but couldn't remember if you'd gotten around to reading it.

The Stand, baby!

I found that A Fine Balance (603 pages) by Rohinton Mistry went very quickly!

loved the stand. thanks for all the other ideas everyone

A Little Life!

Ann I already read that after the podcast! :)

The Bone Clocks, David Mitchell
Hild, Nicola Griffith
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell, Susanna Clarke (a miniseries based on this book is airing soon on BBCA; you could follow along!)
Several of the later Harry Potter books
Several of George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones)

ooh thanks. read some but will check out the others

As Meat Loves Salt.

"Under the Dome" or "11/22/63" by Stephen King
"Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon
"The Time-Traveller's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger
"The Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett
"Ship of Magic" by Robin Hobb
"Feed" by Mira Grant

"The Woman Who Lost Her Soul" by Bob Shachochis
"A Moment in the Sun" by John Sayles
"Cutting for Stone" by Abraham Verghese
"The Goldfinch" or "The Little Friend" by Donna Tartt

I'm definitely a long book lover as I've read the entire outlander series multiple time, all of game of thrones so far, as meat loves salt and some of the other ones

I have both longer than 500 pages and 800 on my card. Doubt I'll get to both. Currently reading the Goldfinch, which is unfortunately only 771!

Sloan wrote: "I have both longer than 500 pages and 800 on my card. Doubt I'll get to both. Currently reading the Goldfinch, which is unfortunately only 771!"

Sorry about that Sloan. We'll make sure to remove "Longer than 800 pages," because 500 is long enough, and it's just mean that you got both!

Ann wrote: "I love long books so not scared by this, but I've been mostly reading ebooks lately (and prefer it for a huge heavy lomg book!) so it's tough to tell how long a book is when browsing unless I go wa..."

When you look a book up on Amazon or Goodreads and don't specify a digital edition, the number of pages are listed in the book description.

thanks Jaylene I'll have to look for that. thanks for all the recommendations. started the goldfinch recently and loving it so far.

The Passage and The Twelve by Justin Cronin
The Crimson Petal and the White (800+) by Michel Faber-- so good, I was sad it ended.
The Book of Strange New Things (also Michel Faber)

The Meaning of Night- Michael Cox
Cutting for Stone-Abraham Verghese
All the light we cannot see- Anthony Doerr

Loved all three!

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
Shogun: A Novel of Japan by James Clavell
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Hawaii by James A. Michener
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald
North and South by John Jakes
Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates

Carin wrote: ..."Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity by Andrew Solomon..."

That's a great book!

got to recommend Cloud Atlas (509 pages) both because it's an amazing book but also because readers with a fear of long books might enjoy the fact that there are 6 quite different and separate (but connected) stories

Anyone who enjoys fantasy should read the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini! Each book is a little over 500 pages, but sure doesn't feel like it. (And don't hate because this is one of my favourite series)

Carin wrote: "The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
Shogun: A Novel of Japan by James Clavell
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
Hawaii by James A. Michener
Gone with the..."


I love anything by Michener as well. I'm about a 1/3 of the way through The Source and it's terrific. I'd also add another Follett novel, Fall of Giants. That one is probably closer to 900 pages but Follett strikes such a great balance between historical detail and dialogue that his books fly by for me. I've started the second book in that trilogy, Winter of the World and it's every bit as good as the first book in my opinion.

I just finished that Follett trilogy, JP, and I liked the last one, Edge of Eternity, best of all! Enjoy!

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin and The Testament by John Grisham are books over 500 pages I enjoyed. I believe that The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell is over 500 pages as well. If so, that's one of my all-time favorites.

In the episode you mentioned the word 'doorstop', in Sweden we call it Brick (tegelsten), and that is my definition of a thick book. I don't think that 500 pages counts as that, i think it's more 700-800 pages and up. Like Game of thrones, American gods, 11/22/63 and so on. What do you think?

the fall of giants series was great, my favorite being the first one. I listened to the whole series on audiobook and loved the Welsh accents and others.

Every summer, I host the Big Book Summer Challenge on my blog - a chance to catch up on those bigger books that you may have been putting off! I define a "Big Book" as over 400 pages, and you only need to read 1 Big Book to join the challenge:

http://bookbybook.blogspot.com/p/2015...

For some Big Book ideas for your Bingo square, here are some of the Big Books I've enjoyed in past summers:

2012: http://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2012/0...

2013: http://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2013/0...

2014: http://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2014/0...

And the Big Books I am reading this summer (4 down and on my 5th so far!):

http://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2015/0...

Hope the ideas inspire you! I am definitely enjoying my big books this summer - too bad I didn't have this square on my Bingo card!

Sue

I did love the audio version of the fall of giants trilogy. especially the Welsh accents. I read the goldfinch for my over 500 square but looking forward to checking out the big book challenge sue

Sue wrote: "Every summer, I host the Big Book Summer Challenge on my blog - a chance to catch up on those bigger books that you may have been putting off! I define a "Big Book" as over 400 pages, and you only ..."

Oh, good - I hope you do check it out! If you don't have a blog, you just need to leave a comment to sign up!

Sue

Right. I ditched In the Light of What We Know by Zia Hayder Rahman at 70%... It really was enough; rather kept me from reading.

Now I've happily started the 19th Lynley novel from Elizabeth George: A Banquet of Consequences. Won't have a problem finishing this one! :D

678 pages of comfy read.

City on Fire is long- just over 900 pages but it is good so far. I'm about half way through.

Rachel wrote: "City on Fire is long- just over 900 pages but it is good so far. I'm about half way through."

I really enjoyed the first half but it started dragging afterwards and I eventually gave up.