Sunday 8 February 2015

Babbling about Books: I fear Big Books and I cannot lie

That's right: I'm an avid booklover/total bookworm who shies away from the chunkier reads.

It's not that I don't like longer stories -  some of my favourite books of all time including A Song of Ice and Fire Series and The Inheritance Cycle are massive! There's more room to delve deeper into the characters and world building. You get to spend more time with aspects of the book you love. If you buy them you might get more value for your money than buying a smaller book for the same price. And it looks awfully impressive to people when you show them what you're reading! ;)

But personally I tend to see more downsides to big books. I read quite slowly and am often strapped for time, so I get really discouraged by my lack of progress. There's always piles of books clamouring for my attention. Should I really be devoting so much time to one big book when I could read three in the same amount of time? Often big books come in a series, each bigger than the last. All of this can seem terribly daunting to me. 

However, right now I'm reading Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, which is a whopping 864 pages. The concept of World War One being told by five families of different nationalities sounded too good for me to resist. I started two weeks ago and am about a third of the way through it. So far I'm enjoying it too much to get negative about its size.

So in the hope that after reading Fall of Giants I might start embracing big books more, here are five massive ones I've been dying to read.


First in the Warbreaker Series
688 pages

Sanderson has such an array of Adult Fantasy books and after listening to The Rithmatist, I"m eager to read his backlist. The premise of Princesses and Gods in a world where magic is obtained from common place objects sounds promising. 


The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons
First in The Bronze Horseman Trilogy
656 pages

Russian history fascinates me. Although I know a lot about the country's 1905 and 1917 revolutions, I know next to nothing about what happened there in World War Two. Plus I always have a soft spot for star crossed lovers.


The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
First in The Kingkiller Chronicle
676 pages

I raved on about wanting to read this book for so long that Mum brought it and read it herself! She's read the first two books back to back so I know they're good.


First in The Outlander Series
850 pages

I admit it was the trailer of the TV series that drew my attention to this. I mean, time travel and the Scottish - what's not to like?? I've been putting off watching the TV seriese until I read this - motivation!


The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
848 pages
Standalone

I think this is the big book on this list I'm most ashamed of not having read. A Manbooker prize winner from my own country! I need to read it ASAP.

Do you like big books? Why/why not?




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