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Book to keep me busy

 
Stan James
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I seem to need BIGGER BOOKS. The last few I brought home barely kept me disconnected from annoying reality for more than a day. Something like The Baroque Trilogy but hard sf would be nice. Gregory Benford have anything over 1,000 pages lately?
 
Darya Akbari
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How about Leoluca Orlando's Fighting the Mafia and Renewing Sicilian Culture?

 
Darya Akbari
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... or Sir Peter Ustinov.



He not only was a great actor, he also was great thinker with a philosophical sense and a great humanist.
 
Guy Allard
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Do you like non-science fiction stuff?

When I saw the 1K+ pages I immediately thought of Michener.

And he has many that are strictly < 1K but push it pretty hard.

Like history? If so, there is a huge amount of material available .

Guy
[ November 15, 2007: Message edited by: Guy Allard ]
 
John Smith
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With its 4,000 pages, "In Search of Lost Time" would keep you busy for a while: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812969642
 
marc weber
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Have you read Samuel Delany's Dhalgren?
 
Christophe Verré
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Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series.
 
Jim Yingst
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Within hard SF there aren't nearly as many books of that length. And I haven't really been keeping up with most of the authors in that genre. Two that might be worth checking out are Peter Hamilton's The Reality Dysfunction and sequels, and Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space and sequels. I don't think any of the volumes are over 1000 pages, but they're at least half that, and each series as a whole is well over a thousand. I haven't read them, but I've heard good things, and thought that someone should try to answer the question with a hard SF answer. (Though I don't know if either is as hard as Benford.)

As far as fantasy is concerned, I'd recommend George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones and sequels before Robert Jordan's books. Or Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel has garnered a lot of praise recently.
[ November 15, 2007: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]
 
Bert Bates
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Well you can't beat Pynchon for length AND density - Gravity's Rainbow ought to slow you down
 
Christophe Verré
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I was only recommending Robert Jordan for the length I got tired after 5 volumes or so.
 
Sonny Gill
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He he, I know that feeling. Every once in a while I want to find a book/series that takes me to another world, leaving the reality far behind

The books that quickly come to mind are Dune series, LOTR and other books by Tolkien, Asimov's Foundation series, the Ender and Ender's shadow series by Orsan Scott Card.

Revelation Space books Alistair Reynolds kept me pretty busy for a while, but after the 4th book or so, I started to get tired of the whole 'Space Opera' business.

Talking of long books, Have you read Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke?
I wasn't sure I'd like it, and it looked awfully long, but it is a real fun read, definitely recommended.

Let me walk out to my book shelf, and see what else is there -

Hyperion books by Dan Simmons - Really good, but first 2 books are much better than the last 2.

And Vernor Vinge; If you haven't read his books, you got to. Really good stuff. One thing rather rare in SF is aliens that are really, fundamentally different from how humans are. Vinge does that well IMHO. Liked his Fire Upon the Deep and A Fastness in The Sky. Still waiting for the local borders store to get more of his books.

And finally the Uplift books by David Brin, and the Galactic Center books by Gregory Benford. If you read all books in the series in a go, it should keep the reality away for a while
 
Darya Akbari
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I'm sure you know Jerry Weinberg

 
Burkhard Hassel
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Not a thousand but 896 pages:

The Swarm, by Frank Schatzing.


I really liked it!




Shipping weight should be 2.9 pounds.



Yours,
Bu.


(and there are also some algae appearing in the book!)
 
Stan James
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Thanks, there are some good ideas in there!

I used to read LOTR over Christmas break every couple years, but now I have the movies.

I just reread Dune (first time since it was new) beause my son read it. I might have to dig up the rest of the series.

I read Dhalgren many years ago, was thoroughly confused the whole time, wanted to throw it away but couldn't, only remember the orchid weapon and some very kinky sex. WTF was that about?

Hadn't thought about Michner. Wonder if the wife has any I haven't read.

Shogun would qualiify here but I'm not ready for that again. Wish I could read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy for the first time again.
 
marc weber
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Originally posted by Bert Bates:
Well you can't beat Pynchon for length AND density - Gravity's Rainbow ought to slow you down

I really need to read that. Looks like a good winter coffee shop book.
 
Burkhard Hassel
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Originally posted by Stan James:

I just reread Dune (first time since it was new) beause my son read it. I might have to dig up the rest of the series.


Funny, I also reread Dune just two weeks ago. Not the first reread since it was new, but since I read it the first time (~1980).
Spicy novel, but I don't think I will read the other ones too.

Yours,
Bu.
 
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