BIG HUGE books

[Smae]

What do we all think about big books?
I'm talking about the huge ones with so many semi-relevant details crammed into chapters upon chapters such as Ragtime and Les Miserables...everyone complains about the overly detailed parts and says they're boring.
But what do YOU think?

[sloegin]

A story is a story, regardless of its size.

[fayefaye]

Unless it gets to the point where it has virtually no plot whatsoever, in which case, regardless of length, they really irritate me. And yet I feel compelled to finish. Like sitting through a bad movie, and you just keep thinking, 'hey maybe it'll get better' and then you realise you've wasted three hours of your life. *sniggering at War and Peace*

[subterranean]

I'm not really sure here. First, there's nothing wrong with the size, I mean each part of the book is an integrated part. I suppose without one of them, the book won't be really complete. Of course I can say that some parts are irrelevant, but it's a work of art, everything in it is important.
But on the other hand, sometimes the size of a book makes me lost interest in reading it. And when I forced myself to finish but the end of it wasnt good, then I can only say "oh, another wrong decision"..

So there...

[lazy cat]

It depends on the book really...if it's good I don't want it to end!Generally I like big books because I read very fast and I can't afford to buy ALL the books I want:)

[piquant]

Fayefaye, I appreciate your snigger at W&P. I always feel like I must be suffering from some sort of mental defficiancy because I hat e W&P, and everybody says that it's the greatest book of all time. I just talked to someone who said she didn't appreciate it until she was 38, and that maybe I would like it in time. Like I'm suffering from a stunted intellect that won't bloom to its full potential until I'm 38! I liked Anna Karenina, Iliked a variety of books that are "difficult". I don't like war and peace. Honestly, I think it's just like a soap opera, jumping around between the characters fighting the war, and the characters stuck at home, who's dying, who's marrying whom. If their was any depth of relevance I completely missed it. What is the point of those bazillion pages!? and why should I waste my time reading them?

[Koa]

Originally posted by fayefaye
Unless it gets to the point where it has virtually no plot whatsoever, in which case, regardless of length, they really irritate me. And yet I feel compelled to finish. Like sitting through a bad movie, and you just keep thinking, 'hey maybe it'll get better' and then you realise you've wasted three hours of your life. *sniggering at War and Peace*

Ahem, this is exactly what I was telling you of 'on the road'.
I agree W&P is like that most of the time, but I've happened to enjoy it sometimes... I'm so excited now I'm about to finish it... Anyway, I agree with piquant, it's a bloody soap opera, I wonder why so many people say that of Anna Karenina instead... I was planning on opening a thread of complaints about W&P once Im will have finished it...

As for big books in general, I tend to prefer them to short ones. I think it's because when I was younger and an incredibly voracious reader, I always was sad when books I liked were finished (it must have started with Matilda as I said before lol), so at least if it's long you can enjoy it for a longer time...
But then some longer book are soooo sloooow (like War & Peace in fact), and it ends up being a love/hate relationship...like with W&P, like with Dickens' Bleak House which I've enjoyed in general but I was about to literally throw in the river in a moment of frustration...

[Admin]

Robert Jordan's most recent Wheel of Time book was around 700 pages I think, was the 10th entry in this saga, and progressed the story about a week. Of course he doesn't even deserve to be mentioned along side writers like Hugo and Tolstoy but if you want an example of overkill you have it.

[subterranean]

Originally posted by Koa
...like with W&P, like with Dickens' Bleak House which I've enjoyed in general but I was about to literally throw in the river in a moment of frustration...


I haven't finish reading Dicken's Bleak House until now. The back cover said it's Dicken's best work, so i tried to read it. But I have lost interest in finishing it (the size of it is one of the reasons).

[imthefoolonthehill]

Originally posted by piquant
I just talked to someone who said she didn't appreciate it until she was 38, and that maybe I would like it in time. Like I'm suffering from a stunted intellect that won't bloom to its full potential until I'm 38!

I hate people who tell me I will grow to like things... how the hell do they know what I will like when I am older? That smug confidence that comes with their overt feelings of mental superiority really pisses me off.

[fayefaye]

*so...tempted.. to ..say 'you'll get over that when you're older'...desperately fighting urge...not to be...a pain in the ..*ss *

[Dr Cynic]

Maybe it’s been said before but to the best of my tiny mind there are a number of big authors guilty of spouting no end of rubbish about things that have nothing to do with the story itself: Look at Hugo’s description of the Waterloo battle in “Les Misérables” and Tolstoy’s load of bollocks about the philosophy of History in “War and Peace”.

I personally do hate all this irrelevant fringe but nonetheless I just can’t bring myself to skip one single line. Because, after all, these are the world’s greatest classics and deserve to be read from cover to cover. Damn it!:mad: :mad:

[Koa]

Originally posted by Dr Cynic


I personally do hate all this irrelevant fringe but nonetheless I just can’t bring myself to skip one single line. Because, after all, these are the world’s greatest classics and deserve to be read from cover to cover. Damn it!:mad: :mad: [/B]

Same for me...whether they're classics or not, I can't skip a word. Yes I'm reading *all* the words repeating the same concept about history in War&Peace...then I get to the end of the page, realise I haven't payed attention to ANY of those, think maybe I should skip these pages...then go back at the beginning of the page and read it again because it might be important to I should pay attention!!! That's perversion...
I think W&P is a joke to prove readers' patience, and Tolstoy is laughing at us in his grave now... There are so many absurd things happening, I'm sure they're there cos he wanted to make fun of us...

Still, I like huge books. The size is something that makes me want to reach the end so desperately... And hate them at the same time.

Talking of useless parts, it's possibly considered one of the best scenes in literature, but how useless is that part in Anna Karenina where Levin works in the fields??? I found it unbearable, while I mostly enjoyed the book.

[subterranean]

There are several books that i read more than once. And of course when i read them for the second or the third times, I always skipped the parts which I think not really important.
For me, it's like seeing these movies at home for the second or third times, I always skipped those parts which are just the complimentaries

[David J]

It's not as easy as it was
Or as difficult as it could be
For the Samurai in Autumn

Where does that sig come from Koa? Really like it.

[fayefaye]

Originally posted by Dr Cynic
Look at Hugo’s description of the Waterloo battle in “Les Misérables” and Tolstoy’s load of bollocks about the philosophy of History in “War and Peace”.


Yeah, some of Hugo's descriptions are boring... but I LOVE the way Tolstoy takes the piss out of historians-it's my favourite thing about him!

[Dick Diver]

Originally posted by David J
It's not as easy as it was
Or as difficult as it could be
For the Samurai in Autumn

Where does that sig come from Koa? Really like it.
It's from The Samurai in Autumn by Pet Shop Boys from their much maligned Release album.

[IWilKikU]

I like big books when I'm at school, little ones at home. I have alot more time at school to read. At home there are so many things to distract me. I've been reading Tale of Two Cities for like two weeks. That way I read the same amount of books even if they arn't the same length ;).

Also the only HUGE books I've read (800+ pages) have been Steven King and I didn't even notice they were that long because they were so damn good. *waiting for the backlash of angry King haters*

[Koa]

Originally posted by fayefaye
but I LOVE the way Tolstoy takes the piss out of historians-it's my favourite thing about him! [/B]

LOL yeah that made me smile too, but one or two examples would have been ok... not 5 pages about it at the beginning of every part, and sometimes even in the middle...:rolleyes:

Yeah, the samurai thing is from Pet Shop Boys- I like that song a lot, wonderfully electronic.

[Guber]

I much depends on the book, if it is a great book then I think it is too short regardless of the size, on the other hand if it is a bad book I seriously thinking several times during it, when is this torture going to end, yet even so I cannot bring my self to stop, after all if I did begin it I might as well end it.....

[piquant]

Although I continue to hate war and peace, there is one part that has stuck with me after my partial reading two years ago. It's where levin (I think) and his girl are sitting at a card table and he writes the first letter of every word in the sentence declaring his love, and she understands perfectly, and replies in the same way. Something about that scene catches me, and I suppose, although the 3/4 of the book I read was incredibly tedious, it was worth it just for that image. Prehaps if I read the other forth I'd find another pearl...nah, probably not.

[Dr Cynic]

Originally posted by piquant
Although I continue to hate war and peace, there is one part that has stuck with ... It's where levin (I think) and his girl are sitting at a card table and he writes....

Hey you got it wrong pal: Levin is a character in Anna Karenina, not W&P.

You'd better take a look at the cover before beginning a book.;)

[Koa]

Originally posted by piquant
Although I continue to hate war and peace, there is one part that has stuck with me after my partial reading two years ago. It's where levin (I think) and his girl are sitting at a card table and he writes the first letter of every word in the sentence declaring his love, and she understands perfectly, and replies in the same way. Something about that scene catches me, and I suppose, although the 3/4 of the book I read was incredibly tedious, it was worth it just for that image. Prehaps if I read the other forth I'd find another pearl...nah, probably not.

The whole part is from Anna Karenina, not just the name of Levin.

[Dr Cynic]

Originally posted by Koa
The whole part is from Anna Karenina, not just the name of Levin.

Yeah I meant the whole scene, not just the name.:)

[imthefoolonthehill]

When measuring the length of a book, you must be a fool to count the pages. For example: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is over 600 pages long. It was short. The Scarlet letter was about 200 pages long. It was thirty times longer than Rainbow Six.

[piquant]

Wow, in that case, War and Peace just sucked. Sorry, my russian period sometimes has a tendency to all blur together.

[fayefaye]

lol. Yeah, W& P does suck!

Fool-too true. Counting pages is something I do when I just want to finish a book. Machiavelli's the Prince was about 50x longer than The three musketeers. It was about a hundred pages long. The three musketeers was about 500? I have no idea- I enjoyed it too much.

[Koa]

Originally posted by Guber
I much depends on the book, if it is a great book then I think it is too short regardless of the size, on the other hand if it is a bad book I seriously thinking several times during it, when is this torture going to end, yet even so I cannot bring my self to stop, after all if I did begin it I might as well end it.....

I agree on every word.


I do count pages, cos sometimes I plan to read something in a certain period and want to see how many pages I should read to do that in time (or on time? I hate prepositions, I know there's a difference between these 2 but i never remember which one is which :D), but only if the book is big and boring... For W&P I had planned 10 pages a day, but 10 pages of it were like 100 pages of most other books... Reading just 10 pages really took me ages :eek:

[Tabac]

Originally posted by fayefaye
*so...tempted.. to ..say 'you'll get over that when you're older'...desperately fighting urge...not to be...a pain in the ..*ss *

Many writers of this period considered themselves to be not only novelists but also historians/philosophers. The news media were not what they are now, and people relied on published books to find out what was going on, what had gone on, and what to think about it.

[IWilKikU]

uhh... ok. So that's why you should or shouldn't read big HUGE books!