We learned a valuable lesson about long books the year our friend Tim tackled Shogun. We say the year because it took him about that to read the thing. As he pointed out, there were a lot of words. On the other hand, our friend Jim is taking the first two books of the Baroque Cycle to New York with him and planning to buy the final installment while there (when we say taking, we mean he will be hauling the books as part of his carry on material). He understands the flight is only five hours — he’s preparing for the worst. Plus books are like portable weights.
Especially books by Neal Stephenson.
According to Publisher’s Weekly, big books are in this season:
Whether it’s a debut novel or a veteran writer’s swan song, the style for fall is unmistakable. Out: the little gem. In: the sprawling epic.
What does this mean for us? Well, we have to clear out last season’s lightweight four hundred pagers to make room for the thicker, heavier books dictated by fashion. Why Southern California is required to follow East Coast trends, we’ll never know — we’ve just entered prime summer reading season, and now all we can find are books geared toward colder climes. When things get nippy in February, we just know we’ll be seeing nothing but so-called beach reads.
But we remain a slave to fashion — already we’ve invested in 1800 pages of reading material (that equals two books) and have only just begun to shop. We just hope that some our purchases will be classics — books that remain in style from year to year.
- Supersized Fiction: How Many Doorstop Novels Are Too Many? (Note: subscription required — they have free trial subscriptions)
3 responses so far ↓
Brenda Coulter // Sep 13, 2004 at 6:21 am
On the off chance that I’m not the only crank out here, I will offer a suggestion:
When you post a link to a news article, perhaps you should mention that it can be viewed only by subscribers to that website. When this reader wants only to cast a quick glance over an article you have discussed, she hates clicking on a link, waiting for a page to load, and then being informed that access is granted only to site subscribers.
Please, Booksquare. Don’t aggravate us like this, especially on a Monday morning.
booksquare // Sep 13, 2004 at 8:03 am
You’re right — that was really bad of me. I do try to remember to note this, but have to be more diligent. Mondays are rough enough without facing avoidable aggravation.
Brenda Coulter // Sep 13, 2004 at 9:05 am
Bless you. Just as long as you’re trying. 😉