Really big book suggestions

[dex]

My RE date is in a couple of weeks and I'm planning a long trip and I am thinking about what books to take with me.

I'm looking for some really long book suggestions. I read James Cavellels' Shogun - about 800 pages and when I finished I thought I was Japaneses - that type of book - big and engrossing.

I also liked A Soldier of the Great War by Helprin about 700 pages.

Most any topic except - Science Fantasy.
thanks

 

[Cut-Throat]

War and Peace.

 

[mb]

Herman Wouk's The Winds of War and/or War and Remembrance.  Think that those are the correct titles?

 

[donheff]

Cryptonomicon (SF, not fantasy).

 

[brewer12345]

"The Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek. About 400 pages in the English translation (which you will need unless you can read Czech and a smattering of German and Hungarian). The book is an absolutely hysterical story about a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during WWI who acts like a simpleton, but gets exactly what he wants. Classic story of the little man beating he machine, and very funny as well.

"It happened to me that I drank one beer after another."

- Svejk, explaining why he missed the train that took his unit toward the front.

 

[Eagle43]

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.  Great characters and great writing...

or if history/politics interests you, Master of the Senate, by Robert A. Caro.  This book shows that LBJ was indeed a master politician, who told southern racist senators he was with them while secretly working with the civil rights people.  He knew he could not be perceived as racist and become president.    Fascinating description of an expert politician, who had to walk a fine line between both sides to maintain power.

 

[P.S.]

Hitler's Willing Executioners : Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust -- by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich -- by William L. Shirer

summer time fiction read:
A Widow for One Year -- by John Irving
The World According to Garp by John Irving
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Don Quixote de La Mancha (Modern Library)  by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

 

[brewer12345]

Don Quixote de La Mancha (Modern Library)  by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra

Good one.

Another one for a "big" book: Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco. Interesting melange of European history, various conspiracy theories, and what ever happened to the Knights Templar.

 

[justin]

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I'm about 1/3 through it right now, and it has been a great read so far.

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

If you like brainless entertainment, both Tom Clancy and Stephen King have produced some really, really long books that are fun to read. In fact, I think the first Clancy book I read about 15-20 years ago was bought simply because I forgot to bring my books for vacation and it was the thickest book on the shelf at the airport book store.

 

[Indexter]

I just got Atlas Shrugged out of the library, but because someone else had a hold on it, they said I could only have it for a week.  Ha!

I enjoyed her other big book: The Fountainhead.

 

[Martha]

Les Miserable, by Victor Hugo. Not light reading and old, but very engrossing.

James Michener books like: Tales of the South Pacific , Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, and Poland.

For something more modern, I recommend Scott Turow's The Law of Our Fathers. It is long. It is engrossing. Scott Turow is a very good writer and this is one of his better books.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Second on the Atlas Shrugged, a fabulous book, like all of Ayn Rand's.
Stephen King's The Stand is an old fiction favorite, too.
And Michener's The Drifters is not long, but still a great read from the 60s.
Ditto Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.
Sarah

 

[Gumby]

..

 

[justin]

Ayn Rand's Anthem is great too. Very short read (I think you can download it for free from online locations). If you don't like her outlook on the world you may find the books irritating I suppose.

 

[donheff]

[

I liked Clavel's King Rat when I read it a million years ago.

 

[eridanus]

I'd argue Cryptonomicon isn't really Sci-fi. It's definitely for techheads.

Stephenson's latest trilogy, the Quicksilver, is historical fiction. Three weighty tomes will take you weeks to read. I'd add that there's a lot of humor in these works too.

Infinite Jest?

 

[eridanus]

nm

 

[Sarah in SC]

Justin quit baiting "them" with the Ayn Rand!
I have some nice hardbound copies of the Objectivist Letters as well as Night of Jan 16th and We the Living (more autobiographical about her early years in Russia).
Sarah

 

[eridanus]

Yeah, read the Anthem first. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are, well, long. LONG.

 

[justin]

Justin quit baiting "them" with the Ayn Rand!

That's why I mentioned the caveat! I wouldn't want anyone to get mad at me if they take a 1200 page book on vacation, get 50 pages into it and find out that they hate the book and the author because of her politics. There's much more to the book [Atlas Shrugged] than just politics. Lots of descriptive narrative, good plot, exploration of human nature (what drives us?). And that's in the first 1/4 of it. I'm sure some will utter "That's B.S.!" a couple of times, like I did when reading The Jungle (Upton Sinclair), which was never the less a good read.

Yes - read Anthem, and if you can stomach it, you'll probably like Atlas Shrugged.

 

[lazygood4nothinbum]

the thickest book in my house is only about 700 pages. though not quite one to lose yourself in, it has been said that confucious, had he more time, would have spent it all studying i ching aka book of changes. my favorite translation is by wilhelm/baynes and includes a foward by c.g. jung.

 

[alphabet soup]

Alot of great suggestions, so far.

I would add "Team Of Rivals", by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Justin, I read a lot of Rand in my early 20's.

Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

 

[justin]

Justin, I read a lot of Rand in my early 20's.

Don't worry, you'll grow out of it.

Hey, don't impugn me. I'm in my mid-20's now.

I like the themes in Rand's works. I think she's over the top in terms of the extremes she illustrates. Most characters in her works (of the two that I've read) are either black or white (in the figurative sense), very little gray. In that respect, some characters' actions/personalities aren't very convincing.

 

[SilentSwirl]

The Quincunx - Charles Palliser