For some reason I decided to spend some of my at home time reading long books that I always wanted to read but never could find the time. I've enjoyed it but they do take some commitment. I thought I would mention them in case there is someone that also likes long books and is shopping about now for one to take on.
1. Stalingrad, and Life and Fate - A pair of books by a now dead author who was a war correspondent for Tass during WWII on the Eastern Front (Vasily Grossman) This is the best view of the Russian war effort in WWII that I have ever read, and it is on the front lines, not in the command centers back from the shooting. Very realistic. Each of the two books is about 1000 pages, but it reads like a novel. It's copied after the historical fiction style of War and Peace.
2. Against the Day. If you like Pynchon, you'll like this. If you don't like Pynchon, don't even try. Not as good as Gravity's Rainbow, but has all of his characteristics - language, allusions, movement of time and space, travels to places you think are fictional but if you google them, they are real, etc. Another 950 pages or so.
3 Underworld by Dom Dillio - Around 900 pages in which this awarding winning writer pops from story line to story line, of which there are about 7 or 8 in the book. In some ways, reminiscent of U.S. A. by Dos Passos.
4. Middlemarch by George Eliot. One of the great female writers of the 19th century, and maybe of all time in the English language. This is a sweeping tale of a variety of men and women whose lives intersect and separate time and again over a period of years. It raises a lot of 19th century historical issues, but by and large it is a really interesting story of about 860 pages.
5 1Q85 by Murakami. This is a dystopian novel of about 850 p;ages dealing with contemporary Japanese life in two parallel scenarios of the same year. The characters are engrossing and if you can deal with parallel lives in time and space, its great.
6. Betrothed by Manzoni Best Italian book I have read, and mandatory reading for nearly all Italians. A 19th century book dealing with life in Italy at that time, focusing on the Milanese plague in the early 15th century and a romance that is thwarted and then succeeds against efforts of a bad ass nobel and corrupt clergy. About 950 pages.
So those are some long ones that I have taken on this summer that I could recommend. They are not for everyone - you have to be able to tolerate a long story, and that is not very modern I recognize. I am next taking on two more, then over to Japanese mystery stories. I have Jerusalem in mind and also Infinite Jest. We'll see if I get to them.
1. Stalingrad, and Life and Fate - A pair of books by a now dead author who was a war correspondent for Tass during WWII on the Eastern Front (Vasily Grossman) This is the best view of the Russian war effort in WWII that I have ever read, and it is on the front lines, not in the command centers back from the shooting. Very realistic. Each of the two books is about 1000 pages, but it reads like a novel. It's copied after the historical fiction style of War and Peace.
2. Against the Day. If you like Pynchon, you'll like this. If you don't like Pynchon, don't even try. Not as good as Gravity's Rainbow, but has all of his characteristics - language, allusions, movement of time and space, travels to places you think are fictional but if you google them, they are real, etc. Another 950 pages or so.
3 Underworld by Dom Dillio - Around 900 pages in which this awarding winning writer pops from story line to story line, of which there are about 7 or 8 in the book. In some ways, reminiscent of U.S. A. by Dos Passos.
4. Middlemarch by George Eliot. One of the great female writers of the 19th century, and maybe of all time in the English language. This is a sweeping tale of a variety of men and women whose lives intersect and separate time and again over a period of years. It raises a lot of 19th century historical issues, but by and large it is a really interesting story of about 860 pages.
5 1Q85 by Murakami. This is a dystopian novel of about 850 p;ages dealing with contemporary Japanese life in two parallel scenarios of the same year. The characters are engrossing and if you can deal with parallel lives in time and space, its great.
6. Betrothed by Manzoni Best Italian book I have read, and mandatory reading for nearly all Italians. A 19th century book dealing with life in Italy at that time, focusing on the Milanese plague in the early 15th century and a romance that is thwarted and then succeeds against efforts of a bad ass nobel and corrupt clergy. About 950 pages.
So those are some long ones that I have taken on this summer that I could recommend. They are not for everyone - you have to be able to tolerate a long story, and that is not very modern I recognize. I am next taking on two more, then over to Japanese mystery stories. I have Jerusalem in mind and also Infinite Jest. We'll see if I get to them.