Monday, January 11, 2010

"But it's got too many pages!" Oh boy...


I was thinking today about books and their lengths when I was sitting in my English class whilst my teacher passed around copies of The Great Gatsby. Now, I myself consider The Great Gatsby to be a short novel, it's no Of Mice and Men by any means but it is not a Harry Potter either, but as she passed these out a boy sitting across from me let out a complaint saying, "But it's so long!" to which he got hit with a few 'that's what she saids.'

Now for some reason his exclamation disturbed me, and not because of the jokes that followed it. I understand that high schoolers normally don't enjoy reading, especially reading something not of their choosing, but I think there comes a time when certain excuses don't work.

Now this has got me thinking, maybe my view of books and their lengths is off. I want you guys's opinion so I'm asking the question, "What is the longest book you've ever read?"

For myself the longest book was probably Gone With the Wind, but I have also read all of the Harry Potter books.

How do you guys feel about books and their lengths? Would you rather read something long, something short or something in between? I'm very interested, so leave a comment and let me know!

Thanks guys :]

5 comments:

Just Your Typical Book Blog said...

I guess it doesn't matter to me how long a book is as long as what's in the pages really hooks me. Sure I enjoy short reads some days, but if the book is amazing, I can spend the whole night reading it. The longest book I've read was Stephen King's IT, but I dumped the book about 500 pages in...one day I will tackle it again.

As for The Great Gatsby *shudder*. I hated reading that book in school.

Christina said...

haha I think I may be the only person on the planet who actually liked reading The Great Gatsby in school.

Yesterday when I was sitting in the other English class that fact became apparent. lol

Sara said...

Hmm that's a hard question. I think it really depends on the book, as long as I'm into it I don't really care on the length. Then again there's books I never want to end and books that just drag on and on never getting to the point. The longest books I've read are probably the Harry Potter books and the Twilight series. Great post!

CeeCee said...

Hi Just found your blog and am liking it.
The longest book I've read that I can think of was a trilogy grouped in a paperback with 1000+ pages (The deeds of Paksenarrion- which i don't think any ones heard of)
I never understood why students objected about reading when they now they will have to read and there is a list of texts the class can use. In the time it took to argue they would of been half finished.
Length isn't something I look at.
Seahn

BookChic said...

Length isn't something I tend to look at when it comes to reading a book, but it is something I look at when I'm picking a book, especially since I review said books. Longer books mean less books read, so I usually tend to prefer shorter books or in between. The perfect length to me is around 230-250 pages.

I didn't like The Great Gatsby either or most of the mandatory reading except for Shakespeare and The Scarlet Letter.

The longest book I've actually completed was probably Going Bovine by Libba Bray. I haven't yet read Twilight or HP, so that's why those aren't the longest I've read, lol. The longest book I've started was probably Middlemarch by George Eliot, which was required reading for a college English class I took. I only got like 10 pages in before giving up. SO BORING.

Post a Comment

 
Blog Design by Use Your Imagination Designs all images from the In the Castle and Story Book Castle by Lorie Davison