Long Nights: Musing Mondays

Another Musing Mondays prompt from Should be Reading:

What is the longest book you have ever read? How long did it take you to read it?

Thanks to the crazy last two weeks of school for my three girls, I've missed the last two Musing Mondays. But, I'm back!

Although I'm not sure it is THE longest book I've ever read, Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth has to be close. At just under 1,000 pages (980), it is massive. But I loved it. Book length can be a tricky thing. Too long, and some readers get scared off. Ken Follett could have easily broken up The Pillars of the Earth into two books.

Plus, book clubs tend to shy away from lengthy books because the members usually only have a month to read the chosen book. I read The Pillars of the Earth for a book club, and it was all I could do to finish. And I'm a fast reader. But it was worth every single long night.

For a lengthy book to be successful, it has to be jam-packed and evenly paced. If there are too many dull moments, and I look to see that I'm only 15% done, I might not make it. With a shorter book, I'd probably still finish and not give up.

Do books over a certain page number scare you off?