I Like Big Books ….

What’s the longest book you’ve ever read?

I think blogging may have ruined my enjoyment of the bigger books. I used to love immersing myself in books that could double up as doorstops, but since I started blogging I’ve found it more difficult. Blog tours and commitments to blogger groups or book clubs have to take priority over my own reading. At first I did lots of blog tours, mainly to get to know other bloggers and organisers and I’ve made some lovely friends. It was also a good way of getting used to receiving proofs and to refresh my skills. Reading and reviewing to a deadline felt like something I hadn’t done since university and I still get so excited when bookmail arrives. I was so grateful, to Anne Cater particularly, who took a chance on an unknown and very green blogger right at the beginning. Mood reading had to take a back seat and even then it’s been shorter novels because of the short time I had between deadlines. It’s so easy to be influenced by the bookstagram treadmill and get caught up in followers, the latest proof or trend in book stacks or flat lays and forget why you started this in the first place – sharing the books you love.

Long novels take time. I need to set aside a few hours to really pick up the threads of a story and fully immerse myself in its world. I have tried to read longer novels by reading in short sessions between my other commitments but it’s too difficult. Either I don’t get long enough to really connect with the story and lose heart or I get confused between the two novels. It’s one novel at once for me these days. I have a pile of long novels waiting to go but they have to wait for holidays when I have no other distractions. Here are three long novels I’ve read more than once.

I LOVED this beautiful book by Jodi Picoult exploring the theory that Shakespeare’s plays were written by a woman, Emilia Bassano. At 540 pages it’s weighty but such an easy read that I was able to finish it on a birthday weekend away in Port Sunlight. Emilia struggles to be taken seriously as a playwright, instead she’s expected to marry and stay at home. Despite this she keeps writing, takes a lover and yearns to get her words on the stage – maybe if she finds a man willing to be the ‘face’ of her work she will finally hear her words on the stage.

In modern day New York, student playwright Melina Green finds that even in the 21st Century her words will struggle to make the stage, when the power is held by men. Inspired by the life of her ancestor Emilia Bassano, Melina takes a lesson from history, and submits a play to a competition under a male pseudonym . . .

As Melina discovers more of Emilia’s extraordinary life in Elizabethan England, she is determined to right the wrongs of the past – and finally tell her story.

Two women – centuries apart – are both forced to hide behind another name.

But can either make their voices heard?

Depending on the edition, Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell comes in at between 782 and 1024 pages so it’s a whopper! This book gave me the feeling of being a child again and luxuriating in the detail of this fantastical novel. With an incredible opening where the statues of York Minster come to life, it’s soon clear to the reader that lengthy description is the only way to bring magic to life. My favourite sections include the terrifying ball where the fairy gentleman takes Mr Norrell’s resurrected woman every night and the scene on the beach where a grounded ship is recovered by the incredible spectacle of sand horses summoned by Mr Strange. Amazingly it never feels like a slog.

The year is 1806. Centuries have passed since practical magicians faded into the nation’s past. But scholars of this glorious history discover that one remains: the reclusive Mr Norrell, whose displays of magic send a thrill through the country. Proceeding to London, he raises a beautiful woman from the dead and summons an army of ghostly ships to terrify the French. Yet the cautious, fussy Norrell is challenged by the emergence of another magician: the brilliant novice Jonathan Strange. Young, handsome and daring, Strange is the very antithesis of Norrell. So begins a dangerous battle between these two great men which overwhelms that between England and France. And their own obsessions and secret dabblings with the dark arts are going to cause more trouble than they can imagine.

Coming in at 864 pages this is a brick of a novel and I adore every last page. It’s one of my all time favourites and its heroine, Sugar, may be one of my literary heroes.

Gripping from the first page, this immense novel is an intoxicating and deeply satisfying read. Faber’s most ambitious fictional creation yet, it is sure to affirm his position as one of the most talented and brilliant writers working in the UK. Sugar, an alluring, nineteen-year-old whore in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs Castaway, yearns for a better life. Her ascent through the strata of 1870’s London society offers us intimacy with a host of loveable, maddening and superbly realised characters. At the heart of this panoramic, multi-layered narrative is the compelling struggle of a young woman to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. The Crimson Petal and the White is a big, juicy, must-read of a novel that will delight, enthral, provoke and entertain young and old, male and female.

A few other long reads..