Top Ten Tuesday: The longest books I’ve read (in ascending order)

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This week’s theme is:

October 9: Longest Books I’ve Ever Read

Chunky books (aka long bois) seem to divide opinion in the book community. People either love them or hate them. They’re not great for our TBRs but excellent for our page count stats at the end of the year.

So for this week’s post, I thought it would be fun to compile the ten longest books I’ve read in the last few years, in ascending order. I’m not counting web comics in this, because each ‘boxset’ for those would end up taking up the top five places, and I thought I’d go for novels only this time.

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10. The Name of the Wind // 662 pages
In tenth place, with 662 pages, is Patrick Rothfuss’s fantastical adventure novel. This book is one of my all time favourites, but I’ve put off reading the sequel because I know we’re not likely to get the third book for at least another eight years. Give or take another five. (Complaining about the wait for book three of The Name of the Wind seems to be becoming a running theme in my posts.)

9. A Conjuring of Light // 666 pages
A my sweet, sweet beauty, A Conjuring of Light. The final book in my favourite (ever) trilogy. A book that changed my life. When Victoria Schwab was promoting the book before its release date, she kept joking about the fact that this book is 666 pages long and that it made her devilishly happy. (Sorry.) I sailed through this book, though, because it was such a thrilling and tense read, and I would have happily read another 1000 pages.

8. Empire of Storms // 693 pages

I still quite liked SJM books when I read Empire of Storms, so the nearly 700-page long fantasty adventure didn’t feel like a slog to me. SJM seems to plot her novels in a way that means there are lots and lots of smaller plot points that make up the overall story, and at the time of reading, this kept me engaged. (I’m not sure whether it would not.)

7. A Court of Wings and Ruin // 699 pages
Coming in seventh with a chunky 699 pages is ACOWAR. Unlike Empire of Storms, by the time I read A Court of Wings and Ruin, I was pretty tired of SJM’s writing and characterisation. Almost 700 pages of Feyre doing nothing special and having little personality, yet being lauded as a hero was a bit tedious. Plus the amount of toxic masculinity in this novel and alpha male tendencies put me off a lot. So 699 pages was a struggle.

6. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire // 734 pages
After Prisoner of Askaban, this was the first BIG Harry Potter book I was old enough to read on my own. The first two, my Dad and I read together because I was still very young, and the third one I read on my own but it wasn’t nearly as big as this one. So, at the time of reading, it’s possible that this might have been the biggest book I’d ever read so far, and 734 pages is no mean feat.

 

5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows // 759 pages
Coming in fifth place is Deathly Hallows, which is undoubtedly my favourite Harry Potter book. It’s dark, exciting, and the final showdown had me yelling from the build up of tension. (If I remember rightly, I actually ran round my dining room table six times screaming when Harry defeated Voldemort.) I’m glad this was such a long book, as so many things needed to happen to make this a worth conclusion of such a good series.

4. A Clash of Kings // 784 pages

Although this was by no means the biggest book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, weighing in at a modest 784 pages, A Clash of Kings has some great character development and slowly fills out the world in a dark and invigorating way. I enjoyed Jon’s chapters the most, so I was more motivated to read the less interesting POVs knowing that I’d get round to another of his chapters soon.

3. A Game of Thrones // 802 pages
At a sizeable 802 pages is Game of Thrones. I’d been excited to start GOT for a while when I began reading it, so I flew through the first few chapters. The alternating POVs and introduction of new characters kept things fresh, but the dense world-building meant it was still quite a slow read.

2. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix // 870 pages
In second place, with 870 pages, is Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I remember reading this book because was such a CHUNK. It was the biggest HP book so far to be released and I remember leaning over it on the dining room table because it was too big to lift up. Despite this, I really enjoyed the introduction of the Order, and the ever-darkening tone of the progressing plot.

1. Middlemarch // 904 pages
And the longest book I’ve read, with 904 pages, is Middlemarch. I read this during my first year of university for a literature seminar, and let me tell you, it was slow going. It’s a pastoral novel set in a small village in the English countryside, so the pacing is very leisurely. (Very.) It’s primarily character-driven, so the plot is sparse at times, making it seem longer than it is, despite the main character being reasonably interesting. So, although this is the longest book I’ve read, it wasn’t the most engaging or entertaining unfortunately.

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So those are my ten longest books, in ascending order, according to my Goodreads statistics. It’s safe to say that I enjoyed some much more than others, but that there’s definitely something satisfying about holding the weight of a big, hefty book.

What are the longest books you’ve read? Are there any books you wish had been longer?