I just finished reading a WWII Naval History book by Craig Symonds, a very lengthy read. I enjoyed his writing very much, and got very absorbed every time I read it.

I hate short novels, books. The longer they are, the better I like them.

I Remember reading, Gary Jenning's Aztec so many years ago, quite a thick book, loved it.

Who else likes huge books?

While I am not necessarily a fan of long books, I do dread when a good book is coming to an end.

One such book was a Lewis and Clark book that I read last year. Another was The Beatles: Tune In by Mark Lewisohn. The Lewisohn book is especially difficult because he is going to publish 2 more. First was published in 2013 while 2nd should be in 2020 and the 3rd in 2028.

I started reading really long books some time ago. So much more satisfying to hold a 500-1k+ page hardback book a few inches thick when closed and know there’s so much more left to read when you’re wiped out and can’t keep your eyes open late at night. When you hit the last page, there’s a bit of disappointment that there isn’t more. I completely relate.

On that note, I think my son is old enough now that we’re going to read through The Hobbit pretty soon. When we finish that, I’ll break out the big hardback edition of the complete Lord of The Rings edition I have and we’ll start on that.

I read about 75 books a year. Last year some took a few days and some took a week or two. I'm just finishing The Institute by Steven King - nearly 600 pages and 10 days. Great read but I hate to see it come to an end.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
So much more satisfying to hold a 500-1k+ page hardback bookWhen you hit the last page, there’s a bit of disappointment that there isn’t more. I completely relate.

I can see a trip to the library Monday.

To me, lenghty history books, written well, are the max.

The only short novels I've ever enjoyed were the Spanish Bit Saga books by Don Coldsmith.

I had the same feeling as I was finishing Tragedy and Hope and also Human Action.

I too, hate to see the end of a good book.

I am a voracious reader, always have been. I used to haunt used book stores and make frequent trips to the library.

Then I got a Kindle reader. Fantastic device! I rarely spend any money, there are always free books to explore in Prime Reading, and I can connect with the county library to borrow books electronically. Very handy when going to the doctor, the motor vehicle office, or anyplace else where I am going to be sitting on my tuchas for a while in a waiting room -- I can carry dozens of books, thousands even, in a small lightweight device.

Prime Reading is free for Amazon Prime members. Kinde Unlimited is ten bucks a month for a much bigger selection of books, but to date I have been able to avoid paying that. Every now and again they offer a 99 cent special for three months (33 cents / month), after which it reverts to the regular ten dollars unless you cancel before the three month renewal date. I have availed myself of that special, several times.

I have read "The complete works of Sherlock Holmes" and "The complete works of Jack London" several times. Great books.

quote:

Originally posted by George43:
I have read "The complete works of Sherlock Holmes" and "The complete works of Jack London" several times. Great books.

In my preteens, I got hooked on Sherlock Holmes. I read all the SH books in our local library, and Mom's friend who was a Librarian there would find the one's I had not read at other libraries for me.

You get "tuned" in to the "British" vernacular /grammar once you read Sherlock Holmes books.

Recently, I've tried to recultivate that early interest in Sherlock Holmes, but the Victorian style of writing grammar just makes me lose interest.

Many books have larger print in pages, of course they are easy to read. But when you find books with small print, and not many paragraph breaks, that is some serious reading times !

If it is a good read, the longer the better. I catch myself skimming poorly written or uninteresting books so I can finish them up sooner. Good books I find I read slower to try and make them last as long as I can.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
I too, hate to see the end of a good book.

I am a voracious reader, always have been. ...

Then I got a Kindle reader.

When I was about 10 years old our TV broke and my Mom could not afford to fix it or get a new one. As a result, I became a voracious reader as well.

I read 30+ books a year. As far as long reads, last year I read 'Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors' (500 pages), 'The City of Mirrors' (587), 'The Conquering Tide' (656), 'Grant Moves South' (492), 'Team of Rivals' (945), and 'Vietnam' (752).

I love my Kindle too. IMO, it's the best thing since the invention of the internet. I never go anywhere without it.

quote:

Originally posted by ggile:
I catch myself skimming poorly written or uninteresting books so I can finish them up sooner.

I used to do this, but not any more. There's just too many good books out there that I don't waste my time reading crap. I give a book 100 pages (sometimes less). If it hasn't "sold" me by then, I dump it and pick up something else.

quote:

Originally posted by CoolRich59:

I love my Kindle too . . . I never go anywhere without it.

The Kindle goes with me if I have a reasonable expectation of sitting and waiting for someone or something.

Other times, if I find myself with an unplanned wait, there's always the Kindle app on my phone. If wifi is available the phone app syncs with the Kindle, showing my current place in the book that I am reading.

Heaven on earth looks like this. I'm sitting in my Tommy Bahama chair reading on my new Kindle Oasis (It's a killer upgrade to the Paperwhite). I'm in my swimsuit wearing my Costco reader sunglasses drinking a Monster Energy.

Sadly I don't read much anymore, but I would drag out finishing them. read the first 500 pages in three days and take two weeks to read the last 25.

Kindles are fantastic. My wife claims I am single handedly destroying the library system. I try to tell her I’m reading a library book on my kindle to no avail. She likes the smell and heft of an actual book. I prefer to carry my favorite 1000 books with me. She’s a Luddite. (dig at ensigmatic). I just finished The Wheel of Time series for the third time. It made me wish for one more book. I’m with you brother.

Know the feeling. There are books that I hated to finish. Many Hemingway books were like that. That is when you know it was a great read, you dont want it to end.

I like long books with short chapters.
I like to read after I go to bed, and if the chapters are around 30 pages long, that’s just about right. I hate to stop before the end of a chapter.

Leon Uris “Trinity” and the sequel “Redemption”

Great stuff.

I too have started giving up on books that don’t pull me in. If I start noticing which page I am on, that is a flag that this isn’t as good a# it might be.

Someone once said that there’s no such thing as a cup of tea that’s too big or a book that’s too long. Arthritis means I’m having to actually limit the size of my cups of tea (and the big refill is in the kitchen), but a good book can’t be too long for me. And good is the key. I have become much more willing to dump a book if I don’t like it. Even though I get a little panicky if the pile of unread books gets too low, there are limits to what I’m willing to put up with these days and I’m becoming more than a little annoyed about the recent trend of authors of what are supposed to be serious histories to write as if their readers were twelve years old.