I rotate through different genres, fiction vs non-fiction, etc. This also includes inserting a longer book (1000+ pages) in the mix. However, I don't want to invest my time in a book and not like it - especially one that size - so I'd like know your thoughts on these books. I'm open to other suggestions, but these are books I already own.

Centennial
Gone With the Wind
London
Roots
Lonesome Dove
David Copperfield
Ben-Hur


If it helps any, Pillars of the Earth is my favorite book of fiction - World Without End was solid. I also loved Shogun and Lord of the Rings (skipping argument on whether its one or three books).

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Lonesome Dove

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I would start here if you haven't read it.

Then read Comanche Moon and Dead Man's Walk. Don't read Streets of Laredo.

Titan by Ron Chernow. Biography of John D. Rockefeller.

Lonesome Dove
Gone with the Wind
The Stand- Stephen King

For a beast non-fiction book if you're interested in history: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

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Count of Monte Cristo

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One of only two books I've ever read and thought that the movie was better. Jurassic Park was the other (not that the book Jurassic Park was bad; but I'd only gotten around to reading it more than a decade after watching the movie, so the movie was gonna be hard to dislodge.)

The Winds of War followed by War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk. It's about WWII with the first book leading up to Pearl Harbor.

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Count of Monte Cristo

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One of only two books I've ever read and thought that the movie was better. Jurassic Park was the other (not that the book Jurassic Park was bad; but I'd only gotten around to reading it more than a decade after watching the movie, so the movie was gonna be hard to dislodge.)

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I've said the same thing before in this forum and was chastised; I am right there with you on my JP book experience. My other "movie was better than the book" was Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

LBJ biography series by Robert Caro. Four books that are really interesting and really long.

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Count of Monte Cristo

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One of only two books I've ever read and thought that the movie was better. Jurassic Park was the other (not that the book Jurassic Park was bad; but I'd only gotten around to reading it more than a decade after watching the movie, so the movie was gonna be hard to dislodge.)

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I've said the same thing before in this forum and was chastised; I am right there with you on my JP book experience. My other "movie was better than the book" was Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

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Jaws is another example

Go out and find The Company by Robert Littell. Clocks in around 900 pages.

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Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times called it "a perfect little gem, the best Cold War thriller I've read in years," and the praise kept coming with critics hailing Littell as "the American Le Carr" (New York Times) and raving that his books were "as good as thriller writing gets" (The Washington Post).

For his fourteenth novel, Robert Littell creates an engrossing, multigenerational, wickedly nostalgic yet utterly candid saga, bringing to life through a host of characters-historical and imagined-the over 40 years of the CIA-"the Company" to insiders. At the heart of the novel is a stunningly conceived mole hunt involving such rivals and allies as the MI6, KGB, and Mossad.

Racing across a canvas that spans the legendary Berlin Base in the 1950s-the front line of the simmering Cold War-to the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the Bay of Pigs, the Afghan war, the Gorbachev putsch, and other major theatres of operation for the CIA, The Company tells a thrilling story of agents imprisoned in double lives, fighting an enemy that was amoral, elusive, formidable.

Littell tells it like it was: CIA agents, fighting not only the good fight, but sometimes the bad one as well. Littell also brilliantly lays bare the warring within the Company to add another dimension to the spy vs. spy game: the battles between the counterintelligence agents in Washington, like the utterly obsessive real-life mole hunter James Angleton, and the covert action boys in the field, like The Company's Harvey Torriti-the Sorcerer-a brilliant and brash rule breaker and dirty tricks expert who fights fire with fire, and his Apprentice, Jack McAuliffe, recruited fresh out of Yale, who learns tradecraft and the hard truths of life in the field.

As this dazzling anatomy of the CIA unfolds, nothing less than the world's future in the second half of the twentieth century is at stake. At once a celebration of a long Cold War well fought, an elegy for the end of an era, and a reckoning for a profession in which moral ambiguity created a wilderness of mirrors, The Company is the Cold War's devastating truth, its entertaining tale, its last word.

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As one Goodreads member astutely put, this novel is to the CIA what The Godfather is to the mafia. If you have any interest in historical fiction, the cold war, and spy stuff, I cannot recommend a better book. Especially if you are looking for something relatively long.

Also, I too loved both Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. If you're a Follett fan, and I'm assuming you are, you should also check out Fall of Giants, which clocks in around 960, and also goes exceedingly well with watching Downton Abbey, though don't let that dissuade you if you don't care for that show.

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Ken Follett's magnificent new historical epic begins, as five interrelated families move through the momentous dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for women's suffrage. A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man's world in the mining pits....An American law student rejected in love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House.... A housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with a German spy....And two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution.

From the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty, Fall of Giants takes us into the inextricably entangled fates of five families--and into a century that we thought we knew, but that now will never seem the same again....

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On the off chance you tried Fall of Giants and did not like it, you will probably not care for The Company. They are similar, generally speaking.

Is London the one by Edmund Rutherfurd?

If so, I loved his books. And how the area and families develop over time with real historical happenings.

London is good if you like the whole Royalty aspect to British History.

I appreciate all of the suggestions! I'll be on the lookout for some of those other books.


MW03,
I'm leary of Fall of Giants. Maybe I'm just being wimpy and not wanting to start a trilogy of books totaling over 3,000 pages, but more so its his wonderful/horrible writing. While Pillars of the Earth is my favorite novel, I hated it the entire time I read it and was mad at Follett because I got so into the characters and felt like I was on a never ending roller coaster ride of emotions. Everytime something good happen, something bad sent them spiraling back down. I don't normally get invested into the characters to that degree and I'm not sure if I can take that again! I looked at it at Half-Priced Books yesterday even and just put it down. I'll wait until I need to be worn out or someone confirms that it's not as exhausting as Pillars.

I'll probably try The Company first. That sounds terrific.

Tanya,
Yes, that's the one. And I like the historical royalty stuff (from a historical standpoint, not the paparazzi stuff). I just heard about this book recently, but it came highly recommended.

Does anyone have a translation suggestion for Count of Monte Cristo? I've read that its really important on Three Musketeers, so I'm curious if it is for this one, too.

I haven't read any of his books, but I know a lot of people love Neal Stephenson who's known for his long and complex novels. I've seen his name pop up on here from time to time as well.

Lonesome Dove
Titan
Atlas Shrugged
Count of Monte Cristo

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Count of Monte Cristo

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One of only two books I've ever read and thought that the movie was better. Jurassic Park was the other (not that the book Jurassic Park was bad; but I'd only gotten around to reading it more than a decade after watching the movie, so the movie was gonna be hard to dislodge.)

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I've said the same thing before in this forum and was chastised; I am right there with you on my JP book experience. My other "movie was better than the book" was Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

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Jaws is another example

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Forrest Gump

I hear you. I really enjoyed Fall of Giants and Winters of the World. I haven't started Edge of Eternity, though. The reviews has been disappointing.

The good news about The Company is that it's an entire story contained within a single book, which is hard to find these days. Portions of it also loosely follow the life of real-life spook chief James Jesus Angleton. To that end, I would suggest you avoid wiki'ing him until after you've enjoyed the book. I realize that's a bit like saying "don't think about elephants" but you'll be better served if you can restrain yourself and just enjoy the knowledge that the characters are at least shadows of real people.

I have no doubt that you'll enjoy it.

I'm a big Follett fan myself, but you may want to be careful about the Fall of Giants trilogy if you're sensitive about historical revisionism. His earlier works are more balanced. Edge of Eternity is anti-Reagan propaganda. If that bothers you, you probably won't enjoy it.

If you're interested in WWII "The Forgotten Soldier" by Guy Sajer is a great choice. Its a true story of a German soldier on the Eastern front. I found it almost impossible to put down.

It's amazing what those soldiers went through in Russia.

the longest book I ever read was about 980 pages.

the first book had published, just a few months ago, is right at about 1,000. It's part one of a fantasy trilogy that totals just over 2,000 pages.,

I really enjoyed Fall of Giants but unfortunately it seemed the trilogy got worse by the book. Winter of the World was good not great, and Edge of Eternity was average or below in my opinion. I like most of Follet's other stuff that I've read.

Also agree with the JP opinion above, but as was said, it would be an uphill battle reading the book when I was 20 something vs the nostalgia of seeing the movie when I was like 10 years old.

I had to carve out 3 months to get through 'Infinite Jest', but it was well worth it and would definitely recommend.

I haven't seen any of the count of monte Cristo movies, but I can't imagine how much you'd miss out on from the book. I was amazed at the end of the book how many story lines there were that seemed to have nothing to do with anything but in the end we're all tied up into the story. Great book.

Les Mis on the other hand I'm struggling through...

If you're into long books, at some point you have to read War and Peace. It's actually one of my favorite books, but it is a battle.

I've always enjoyed the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan. His first book eye of the world is probably one of my favorite books. His books are massive tomes.

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Count of Monte Cristo

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One of only two books I've ever read and thought that the movie was better. Jurassic Park was the other (not that the book Jurassic Park was bad; but I'd only gotten around to reading it more than a decade after watching the movie, so the movie was gonna be hard to dislodge.)

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I know I'm continuing an off-topic tangent, but I'd add A River Runs Through It to that list. Book was meh, but the movie was amazing.

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If you're into long books, at some point you have to read War and Peace. It's actually one of my favorite books, but it is a battle.

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A "battle" is the wrong word. It's a war of attrition.

I've only read Atlas Shrugged. It's a fantastic idea, but the book itself needed an editor more than anything I've ever read. Should have been about 1/3 the length.

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If you're into long books, at some point you have to read War and Peace. It's actually one of my favorite books, but it is a battle.

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A "battle" is the wrong word. It's a war of attrition.

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That's how I feel about Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I've been "reading" that one for about a decade.

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I've only read Atlas Shrugged. It's a fantastic idea, but the book itself needed an editor more than anything I've ever read. Should have been about 1/3 the length.

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1/3 the length would have been The Fountainhead.

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I've only read Atlas Shrugged. It's a fantastic idea, but the book itself needed an editor more than anything I've ever read. Should have been about 1/3 the length.

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That book exists and is called The Fountainhead. It's far more enjoyable than Atlas Shrugged. Sure it's not the complete philosophical treatise that Atlas is, but I'd say it's a much better book for it.

EDIT: I posted as soon as I read Ulrich's response without reading the rest of the thread. Seems like some other people feel the same way.