Big Books

So, I finished Neal Stephenson's latest. I can't think of anyone to recommend it to--not because I didn't like it (far from it, indeed), but because I can't think of anyone who'd have patience with it. I've read all of his novels save one, and this was by far the most challenging.

It was also 900+ pages. I'm not bragging, mind you (there's no special merit in reading 900 pages in one book as opposed to several smaller ones)--but it did take a long time.

Many of my favorite books are particularly long: Moby-Dick. The Faerie Queene. Tom Jones. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. The War of the End of the World. Infinite Jest. etc. I don't know what it is about my mind that revels in big baggy monsters of books, but there you have it.

So, now it's time for the next book. I could choose to veer from the recent pattern (one long novel, one book of poetry, one scholarly monograph) and pick up a book of nonfiction (one, called Shop Class as Soulcraft, looks like a can't-miss, but I don't have it. Yet). I've got a YA novel that I'd like to get to. Seeing the Harry Potter movie made me want to re-read the last volume in that series. There are three books of essays (one of them by Montaigne, one by Borges, one by David Foster Wallace) I'm considering. Iain Banks, Alastair Reynolds, and Haruki Murakami are calling my name as well.

And then there's War and Peace, which could easily occupy me until Christmas. I wish I could read past midnight every night--but my eyes can never stay open quite that long.

(I should put in hyperlinks for all these titles. But I'm not going to. It's late, and I want to read some before turning out the lights)