I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie

 

As I've expressed in this space in many ways, reading is an important activity for me. It hits people in different ways, but for me it is leisure and habit and education and escape all wrapped up together. 

Of course, what I read is as important as that I read, and of late I've tried to diversify in terms of author perspectives and literary genres. Namely, non-fiction by old white guys is giving way to a plethora of stories and insights. And I am richer for it.

Another way I am trying to mix things up is to mix in very long reads. I typically average a book a week, which usually means a book every 10 days and then a glop of books at different times of the year (e.g. vacation, long trips). Some books are shorter and some longer, but a 250- to 300-page book read at a speed of about 25-30 pages every night works out to about 10 days a book.

Long reads, by contrast, might be several hundred pages, extending my foray into them beyond a week and change. Brothers Karamazov or Power Broker, for example, were practically month-long journeys. I obviously pick high-caliber long reads - who wants to waste that much time with a bad read - but there's something more than just the quality of the book that makes a long read such an immersive experience. 

Reading helps ground me, and being in one title for that long really takes me deep into the read, leaving an impact that touches the rest of my life and leaves a far deeper impression than another title I'm in and out of in barely a week. That makes sense, right?

Don't know if I have the patience to do long reads all the time, but glad to have sprinkled them into my routine. And now I must ask: what's a long read you'd recommend?