Recommend me an insanely long book
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For something of a less literary nature there always the works of James Clavell. They are well written, nicely paced stories, largely based on true events.
For something literary I'd would go with Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. Its hard going, a good way of describing it is as Dostoyevsky without the jokes. That said, its very moving and gives a real feel of life in mid century Russia. Vasily Grossman, in my view, is the most important of the Soviet dissident writers. He is the Tolstoy of the Soviet era.
For something literary I'd would go with Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman. Its hard going, a good way of describing it is as Dostoyevsky without the jokes. That said, its very moving and gives a real feel of life in mid century Russia. Vasily Grossman, in my view, is the most important of the Soviet dissident writers. He is the Tolstoy of the Soviet era.
The Descent by Jeff Long http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Descent_%28novel%29
About creatures within the earth and how the world deals with this new world. And on finding the real historical satan. The main story is following a group of people and mercenaries sent into the earth to claim the tunnels etc under the earth in the name of a company. Amazing book, what i wrote here doesnt do it any justice at all. Sorry. But its a thick book.
Flood by Richard Doyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_%28Doyle_novel%29
What happened if a flood hit London at high tide? Amazing amount of research done that follows the flood from the sea, up through the Thames and into London. Scariest part is its based on reality that this could actually happen for real.
About creatures within the earth and how the world deals with this new world. And on finding the real historical satan. The main story is following a group of people and mercenaries sent into the earth to claim the tunnels etc under the earth in the name of a company. Amazing book, what i wrote here doesnt do it any justice at all. Sorry. But its a thick book.
Flood by Richard Doyle http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_%28Doyle_novel%29
What happened if a flood hit London at high tide? Amazing amount of research done that follows the flood from the sea, up through the Thames and into London. Scariest part is its based on reality that this could actually happen for real.
How about Moby Dick, 592 pages of nautical awesomeness?
" Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. "
" Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. "
Well that may be, but speaking as someone who's currently a little over half-way through that book, the random tangents that he takes, to talk about the different ways humans act, tend to be more interesting than the actual narrative.Dirty Hipsters said:
Well, you read Outlaws of the Marsh and Journey to the west, so you may as well read Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dream of the Red Chamber to complete the set. I haven't read Dream, but I greatly enjoyed Three Kingdoms, 'twas very good.
Also, seeing as you read The Stand and It, I'm going to assume you like Stephen King and also recommend Under the Dome, another of his pretty snazzy, massive tomes.
Also, seeing as you read The Stand and It, I'm going to assume you like Stephen King and also recommend Under the Dome, another of his pretty snazzy, massive tomes.
Insomnia by Stephen King is pretty decent and like 800+ pages I think, not sure if that counts as insanely long.
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid. It's so non-fantasy that it's non-fiction. Except where it is fiction and metafiction. Don't worry about that, though. It's a very enlightening read about recursion, computation, consciousness, music and art. Also, have a notepad at the ready, at least I know I had the urge to scribble things down while reading.
Once you're done with that , you could look into Dune or Roadside Picnic.
Once you're done with that , you could look into Dune or Roadside Picnic.
I just finished reading this, it's hilarious but very eccentric. If you want something older, try The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. His Crime and Punishment is also excellent.Axolotl said:
Wow. Lots of great suggestions here.
I'll throw in a few of my own:
"American Psycho" by Brett Easton Ellis. Better than the movie. Though I'll warn you, the last third of the book is a little...graphic.
"Little Big Man" by Thomas Berger. Kind of a Western, kind of a satire, insanely funny. Again, better than the movie.
"The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Pseudo-pyschedillic philosophical fiction that will blow your mind all over your face. And it's not really a "trilogy". All the "volumes" come in a single book.
And finally,
If you enjoyed "The Stand", you might like "Imajica" by Clive Barker. It's so long, the "pocket" edition is split into two books that are roughly a thousand pages each.
I'll throw in a few of my own:
"American Psycho" by Brett Easton Ellis. Better than the movie. Though I'll warn you, the last third of the book is a little...graphic.
"Little Big Man" by Thomas Berger. Kind of a Western, kind of a satire, insanely funny. Again, better than the movie.
"The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Pseudo-pyschedillic philosophical fiction that will blow your mind all over your face. And it's not really a "trilogy". All the "volumes" come in a single book.
And finally,
If you enjoyed "The Stand", you might like "Imajica" by Clive Barker. It's so long, the "pocket" edition is split into two books that are roughly a thousand pages each.
Clavell is about as historical as Dan Brown.albino boo said:
That said, he does write some damn good novels
A thousand times, yes. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard.Axolotl said:
As for my personal recommendations, I've got a couple for you. These are actually my two favorite books, and while they're not necessarily super-long in terms of pages, if you invest the necessary time, they're plenty "insanely long."
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri- It's commonly regarded as one of, if not the, greatest poem ever written, and that's not without good reason. By turns a theological and metaphysical discourse, traditional epic, political commentary, love story, and slasher film, it's nothing if not diverse, but never schizophrenic. If you can stomach an unrelentingly graphic torture scene (read: the entirety of Inferno), you'll be rewarded with the best and arguably most influential journey story ever written. Its beauty ranges from perverse to serene, but it never loses the central contrapasso elements that make the story a cohesive and arresting whole.
House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski- So first, a disclaimer: as a straight novel, House of Leaves is laughing in many ways. But what it succeeds at, that no other book besides Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire has ever come close to, is creating a book that is not a book. Imagine a Blair Witch Project-style horror story being told by five different people at once. Three of them don't exist, one of them doesn't speak English, two of them have never heard the story before, one of them is mixing up the story with the tellers, one of them is mixing the story up with another story entirely, and absolutely nobody can tell if it's a horror story or a romance. Now take these stories, cut them up, burn half of them, and rearrange them in random order, and have another person write an academic examination of the lot just for good measure. House of Leaves is undeniably confusing, and while it's occasionally overwhelmed by its own pretentiousness, it's an experience like no other that I'd recommend to any fans of horror, mystery, thriller, romance, puzzles, or even anyone who loves to read and is looking for a challenge.