Well, yes, I'm asking, and it's not all that (really) provacative.  Some books are just really thick.  Really fat.  Will take a huge commitment in time and emotion to gut through.  

So, what are the thickest (fattest, hugest, most voluninous, biggest, you get the idea) books that you've ever read--er, muddled though, survived, lived to tell about?  

For me?  Gone With the Wind, (hands down the best ever!!) and Hawaii by James Michener.   These are huge books, but well with the time and involvement it takes to conquer them.

What about you?  What are the biggest freakin' books you've gotten through?

I call them nice fat books myself. I have a tendency to choose those all the time. Since I also have a penchant for 18th and 19th century novels, I read a lot like that. I have read hundreds.

The ones I hated were Crime and Punishment and Clarissa & Pamela.

I'm trying to get through the Otherland series by Tad Williams. 4 books, 700-900 pages...each!  The thickest single volume would be... Harry Potter had some hefty books. Imajica by Clive Barker was 800+ pages. I want to start Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell but it's so daunting right now.

I don't know how many inches they were but the five biggest ones I've ever read are Gone with the Wind (1,024 p), Roots (736 p) and Queen (670 p) by Alex Haley, The Stand (1,141 p) by Stephen King and Mary Queen of Scots and the Isles (880 p) by Margaret George.

Holly--thanks for posting in!!

But....did you like them???  Inquiring minds need to know, beause I need to know what to add to my TBR pile!!  And I've been eyeing "Roots" for a while now.

The Harry Potter Series, and the first X books of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  I've read some of War and Peace (for a class where we were only required to read key selections) and plan to finish it someday.

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series:

• Outlander, 640 pages
• Dragonfly in Amber, 752
• Voyager, 880
• Drums of Autumn, 896
• Fiery Cross, 1456
• Breath of Snow and Ashes, 992

I've been slowly reading Les Miserables for years now.  I found an old edition that is not abridged.  When I was 10, I started to read all of James Michener's novels.  I love those books still.  Harry Potter can be on the long side too.  Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser was pretty long, but felt a lot longer.

Desperation by Stephen King....which is amazing, because I suffer from Literary ADD (I diagnosed myself lol).

When I was a kid (7th-12th grades) my parents had The Complete Shakespeare, including all the sonnets.  Took me forever, but I eventually read the whole thing.

To: Chris B.     WoW!      I can't even imagine reading The Compleat Shakespeare.  That must be WAY MORE than 2 inches!

The Fiery Cross and Breath of Snow and Ashes have to be the thickest ones that I have read.

I'm not sure which of these were longer than the others, but some of my biggies are:

• Gone with the Wind
• Les Miserables
• The Clan of the Cave Bear (all the books in this series were pretty hefty!)
• The Stand
• Outlander (entire series)

And I'm sure many others, but I can't remember at the moment.

I tend to read the thicker books and actually prefer them most of the time!  I figure if I am spending my hard earned money on a book, I want to be sure to get my money's worth!!  LOL

Some of my favorites are:

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Hawaii & South Pacific by James Michner

The Stand, The Shining, It, etc. by Stephen King (I have almost all of them!)

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (a couple of smaller ones here, but mostly hefty)

I read War and Peace in HS, but had a really hard time keeping the characters sorted out.  I was halfway thru the book before I really knew who was who!  Really enjoyed it after that!

The Grapes of Wrath & East of Eden  by John Steinbeck

It's already been posted, but I read the first 10 books in the wheel of time series as well.  Even in hardcover they are over 600 pages each.

But....did you like them??? 

I actually liked them all.  I've heard others say that Queen wasn't nearly as good as Roots but I loved it.  The Stand is the best Stephen King I've ever read and the Margaret George awesome too. All her books tend to be really long though....

Herman Wouk Winds of War and War and Remembrance, and And the Ladies of the Club. I will seconf the motion on these. SM Sterling Island in the Sea of TIme and its sequels.

But....did you like them??? 

A fair question!!

I have to say, yes, I loved Gone With the Wind.  It is now, without exception, my favorite book of all time.  My other gigantic (2 inches plus) read was Hawaii by Michener.  I am proud to say I read it, it was an accomplishment, because it was truly massive.  And I really really really liked it.  Quite a page-turner.  But....truthfully, it was exhaustive.  I never felt exhausted reading Gone With the Wind.   Some days, Hawaii just tired me out, though I never even considered not finishing it.  I was determined.  So, I guess, long for long's sake is not necessarily the way to go.   So I think posting whether we liked these huge, thick, fat books is relevant.

Which did you love and which did you loathe??

Les Miserables took me about two months, but I adored it!  There are some parts that are a little rough to get through and if I read it again I'll probably pick up an abridged copy, but I loved the book.  My dad couldn't believe I was reading it for fun.

Anna Karenina was a hefty one, but decent.  I really like Tolstoy, though.  Not my favorite book, but worth reading.

And of course, Harry Potter.  No matter how many times I read them, I can do it in a few days. 

Greg Iles' books are fairly long, but I really like them. Just ordered BLOOD MEMORY and was quite surprised when I received it--764 pages. Probabaly my next book.

I read GONE WITH THE WIND many years ago and don't remember it being that long. It is one of my favorite books so the length probably didn't bother me!

Another big book that I liked so much it is on my keeper shelf---Poisonwood Bible.

Read Gone With The Wind in 7th grade --- I'm from Georgia, it's a coming of age event for all of us southern gals LOL

I recently read Moby Dick. I have Michener's Alaska on my book shelf to read soon.

A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth, 1200+ pages.

Lata needs to get married. All her family is in on finding someone for her to marry. Will it be the utterly unsuitable but gorgeous, poetry-writing Muslim boyfriend, or the nice, sensible, will provide for her, but a little dull, thoroughly respectable Hindu shoemaker that is her mother's choice for her? 

Fabulous book. It doesn't seem like there's enough to keep you going for 1200 pages, but there is. A wonderful family saga. I love it. And I re-read it every now and again!!