Recommend me an insanely long book

[Zen Bard]

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.

 

[userwhoquitthesite]

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.

Clavell is about as historical as Dan Brown.
That said, he does write some damn good novels

 

[Captain Billy]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

A thousand times, yes. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard.

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.

 

[MopBox]

The Story of the Vivian Girls, in What is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion. By Harvey Darger.

It's both insane, long, and insanely long.

 

[Something Amyss]

On the chnce it hasn't been mentioned, Taiko. I believe the definitive translation is by William Scot Wilson.

Also, thanks to this thread, I just discovered I can now buy it on Kindle. About time!

 

[Commissar Sae]

The Physician by Noah Gordon. It is a relatively accurate historical fiction. Both well written and fun to read.

Technically part of a series but each book is a complete standalone separate by centuries and only featuring members of the same family rather than a continuing plot.

 

[Vuliev]

Honestly surprised that Les Miserables isn't on that list yet. Fantastic novel, and by the looks of your list, you won't have a problem with the writing style.

I also really liked Man in the Iron Mask (it's part of the Three Musketeers books.) Might be up your alley as well.

 

[Bedla]

REAMDE - Neal Stephenson.

Longest one I personally can recall that isnt a series of books. Similar in design to a brick.

Not that far through, however, but I had to read Snow Crash for Uni, which was superb.

Remember: Always check for a Dentata.

Pretty much anything from Neal Stephenson, really.

My personal favorite would be the Baroque Cycle. Almost three thousand pages of awesomeness. I would also suggest the Diamond Age as the apetizer and Cryptonomicon as the desert


Another great (though somewhat unorthodox) read is Sandman from Neil Gaiman. Although it may have started as a series, it kinda grew from there. The last parts don't make much sense without all before them.

 

[Me55enger]

Another great (though somewhat unorthodox) read is Sandman from Neil Gaiman. Although it may have started as a series, it kinda grew from there. The last parts don't make much sense without all before them.

Bugger! I really should have thought of that.

I have the entire collection upstairs, the limited quantity tomes, over the comics. You're right, they are amazing. Read them. now.

 

[Silverbane7]

got to say.. Dune.
while its more than a trilogy (hell, there are about 12 or so books to the series now) you can get all the main story in the original book so you dont actualy need to read the rest (unless you want to, and its worth it to do so if it grabs you like it grabs me lol)

while it feels a little like fantasy, Ghormenghast is less a tale of fantasy (apart from how the frell does that place stay UP all those years? o.0) and more a tale about house sitting in a less than technological age.

and a modern (this admitidly, some fantasy elements ) are Clive Barkers Weaveworld (a carpet... its a carpet ) and The Great and Secret Show. he also did a more horror themed book, i think it was called Cabal and was what the movie 'Nightbreed' was based on.

then you could go for the translated old books. like the Illiad or Beowulf.

but sometimes it is worth to dip into a trilogy or two (if you can find them cheap. i recycle to my local charity (thrift to you US users) whenever i can, so more people can read the good stuff)

 

[Adept Mechanicus]

I read A Tale of Two Cities my freshman year in high school. It was a bit of a slog to get through, but the ending retroactively made the whole thing good somehow. No other book has had that effect on me. Also, Shakespeare can take you a very long time if you read it the proper way (Folger's edition, none of that easy reading stuff). Always take the opportunity to read more Shakespeare, even if you hate him, because then you'll be able to impress people at parties.

 

[MsWhatsit]

Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson. Worth it for the "Captain Crunch" section alone. I don't love all of Stephenson's newer stuff, but IMO Cryptonomicon is a masterpiece.

I am surprised that you said no fantasy and no series, but yet you list The Lord of the Rings as one of the books you've read. It's only the most famous fantasy series of all time! (But maybe that's what put you off fantasy...)

 

[Doctor Insanovic]

The Russians have got plenty of books as large as their motherland. I recommend And Quiet Flows the Don. It's about Cossacks. And everyone knows Cossacks are cool.

 

[Bug MuIdoon]

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.

This! One of my favorite reads of all time.

I have to agree with whoever said Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov too, such a great book. Les Mis has been mentioned a fair bit too, and I have to agree with them. While it's not one you'll want to re-read multiple times, it's definitely something that should be read before you die. Moby Dick's a classic too! The complete works of Shakespeare is fairly lengthy and worth a read as are some of Hemingway's works. Grapes of Wrath is another 'read before you die!' book and you could even give James Joyce's Ulysses a try, It's a lot of work though. Whatever you do, don't read Thomas Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel- I'm the type of person that always forces myself to finish any book, film or game I start but I came seriously close to not finishing Look Homeward..

Without trying to sound rude, it looks, at least from your list, that you are fairly new to reading good literature. You should check out Catch 22. It's an obvious choice and not amazingly long but really worth the read.

 

[Sparrow]

Grapes of Wrath isn't exactly the longest book going, but it's pretty darn lengthy. Great book too.

 

[Blue_screen]

The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

It is about a young man who visits his sick cousin at an Alpine sanatorium. Very dense book (748 pages long), full of symbolism.

 

[Pipotchi]

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot is an absolute beast to get through, it's good but just endless (albeit well written) dialogue between a cast of about 5. I think it's only about 700 pages but feels like it goes on forever

 

[The Name's Bond]

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens,
It's only 500 pages but it's reasonably dense, so it'll take you a long time but it's worth it in the end.

If you're really desperate there's also the dictionary and the terms of service agreement for any game, website, program and in some cases, update.

 

[The Funslinger]

Insomnia by Stephen King is pretty decent and like 800+ pages I think, not sure if that counts as insanely long.

Speaking of Stephen King, 11. 22. 63. is a very good book.

Aside from featuring mysterious time travel, it's not fantastical at all, and is very well researched and enthralling. It's also a complete brick, so it should satisfy the OP.

 

[Mojo]

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.

Two thumbs up for this one.

I second this. All-though it seems only books that have a Swedish translation come into question and I don't believe Infinite Jest is as good in any other language then in English, but who knows. (I live in Germany by the way and I have read a fair share of translations and originals, so I can safely say that the original is always better.)