tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post111772222029917316..comments2024-03-29T15:45:04.867+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: The charm of Big BooksJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-69538156782786801892009-09-28T09:23:56.196+05:302009-09-28T09:23:56.196+05:30There's immense satisfaction when you finish w...There's immense satisfaction when you finish with a BIG book, but it's tough to get started - for some of the reasons you mentioned. Invariably, something interesting comes along. The only BIB book I've read is Middlemarch and I took 3 months to finish it! It's a book that's tough to read at one go, partly because as you've said above, authors wrote in episodic form and their stories appeared weeakly or fortnightly in magazines at that time. This prompted the authors to increase the numbers and sometimes even succumb to popular demand. So though Middlemarch is a monumental achievement and a wonderfully enriching read, it is also a bit tedious to see the constant shift in narrative and the long-winding descriptions.<br /><br />Apart from that, I haven't really read a very long book. It scares me. I have Don Quixote, which I left after reading 50 odd pages. I intend to take it up again someday. <br />Meanwhile, I have a brand new copy of Suitable Boy, which again I'm hesitating to take up. Is it really very good?sandhyanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-1163612708499992402006-11-15T23:15:00.000+05:302006-11-15T23:15:00.000+05:30The fat book of all fact books in my reading is ...The fat book of all fact books in my reading is undoubtedly "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" And at an impresionable age at that.Was it ever that such an evil could have been perpetuated by a single man without the active cooperation of the man on the street in Germany? Somehow coercion or anti-semitism would not simply explain away the horrors of the Holocaust.There is something essentially beastly and destructive in the people.And that we find such ghastly parallels in the 21st century also is absolutely frightening.<BR/>So what has this got to do with fat books? Ask William Shirer.Mahdevhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12348384661455344530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-1118053409697717122005-06-06T15:53:00.000+05:302005-06-06T15:53:00.000+05:30yep its reassuring to know.. that you were with ea...yep its reassuring to know.. that you were with each of the characters on their adventures and transformations and went through the huge book and now can recall your favourite bits as and when you want.. its somehow a sense of achievement.Janakihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06068622582534965333noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-1117733054279642692005-06-02T22:54:00.000+05:302005-06-02T22:54:00.000+05:30Fat books I remember having read: Lord Of The Ring...Fat books I remember having read: Lord Of The Rings, Norman Mailer's The Naked And The Dead. On Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell now.Tridibhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18324851679164286161noreply@blogger.com