27 January 2011

Booking Through Thursday: Heavy

What’s the largest, thickest, heaviest book you ever read? Was it because you had to? For pleasure? For school?

Since I love huge books, this is a tricky one to answer ... there are so many possibilities!

Probably the biggest I’ve read were my Year 11 & 12 Psychology textbooks - large, thick, and hardback. Unlike every other textbook I’ve owned, I read them cover to cover; I had enough interest in the subject to want to read more than just the sections I had to.

In the realm of fiction, perhaps the biggest and heaviest of all the big and heavy books I’ve read is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Or The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber - I read both of them in hardcover! I’ve also read enormous volumes by authors like Sharon Penman, Diana Gabaldon, Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens, but in paperback. Books in paperback feel much more compact than hardcover ones; if I can carry it in my handbag it doesn’t count as big.

Obviously I had good luck with required reading at school - I never had to read a huge book for anything other than pleasure!

6 comments:

  1. I am yet to read that Susanna Clark novel!

    Here is my BTT: Heavy Books post!

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  2. I've got the Jonathan Strange book on my TBR list, but I've been reluctant to start it because of the length. I know I'd probably never finish it, but it does sound intriguing.

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  3. I've not read any of those but I might have to check them out.

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  4. hm, I don't know. Most of the really big books I wind up reading are in paperback...

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  5. Really big books are not my style, either. I did have an 1000 page book assigned in one class but our teacher realized it was a bad idea.

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Header image shows detail of A Young Girl Reading by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, c. 1776