In which I start to put into writing something I've puzzled over for a long time: what is it about long books? https://natemeyvis.com/long-books/
Number of words is definitely more stable, but also harder to know. The ones I can remember: In high school _Godel, Escher, Bach_ was transformative. Salman Rushdie's novels aren't as long as that, but they're long, and I loved both of the ones I read. [1/N]
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I'm only ~1/8 through _Abe_, but it's probably going to be the best book I read this year. I read _Infinite Jest_ cover-to-cover twice. _A Prayer for Owen Meany_ was long (many words per page; >236K words) and completely wonderful and I'll probably reread it someday. [2/N]
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_RN_ (Richard Nixon's memoirs) is 1136 pages, says Amazon, and I loved it. _Love in the Time of Cholera_ is ~150K words. I really enjoyed both Franzen novels I read (~175K and ~200K words). The six Knausgaard memoirs put together are ~1M words; I loved the first five. [3/N]
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