Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers sharing lists on various book topics. For Tuesday the 5th of November 2019 participants in Top Ten Tuesday are supposed to list the Top Ten Books That Give Off Autumn Vibes. However, I am going to be posting up a Top Ten list I put together last week but couldn’t post due to my internet being down (the ultimate horror in this day and age). For last week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants got a Halloween freebie, meaning that I can make a Top Ten List on any topic of my choosing. While this list should probably have been Halloween themed, I am honestly not a massive fan of the horror genre, so I would struggle to produce any sort of list that would require at least 10 horror books. That being said, I would strongly recommend a few horror books such as Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant, or some of the Joe Ledger books by Jonathan Maberry such as Patient Zero, Code Zero or Assassin’s Code if you want a scary read. Instead, I decided to list the longest novels I have ever read (if you are desperate for a Halloween theme you could say that they are scary long). This is a bit of a continuation of the Top Ten Longest Audiobooks list that I did back in March of this year (and which I might do a follow-up list of in a few months).

In order to work out what was the longest book I ever read, I decided to go off the total number of pages contained within a book. I went through the longest books in my personal collection and took down the number of pages. I also went online to Goodreads to work out the page count of some books I borrowed from the library or previously owned. That means that in most cases, I am going of the versions that I have at home or using an online word count for the version I think I read, and hopefully this accurately reflects most printings of that book. I realise that this is not the most scientific method for working out which is the longest book I have ever read, especially as a number of factors such as formatting, font and print size could all come into play here, but I am personally happy that this is a mostly accurate way of working this out.

This list will only feature books that I have physically read and completed (so none that I have only listened to on audiobook), and hopefully it produces an interesting and varied list. Before I even started collecting the data for this, I had a few predictions about which books will be at the top (I assumed a few of the Ken Follett books I have read are going to make an appearance). There is also likely to be some crossover with this list and my Top Ten Longest Audiobook list, as I would have read the physical copies of several books the first time, and then relistened to them on audiobook. Let’s have a look and see which book tops this list:

Top Ten List:

1. Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan – 1011 pages

2. Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett and The Shadow Rising by Robert Jordan – 1007 pages

3. The Fires of Heaven by Robert Jordan – 989 pages

4. Tombland – C. J. Sansom – 866 pages

5. Inheritance by Christopher Paolini and Mistress of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurst – 860 pages

6. Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb – 853 pages

7. Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb – 838 pages

8. Servant of the Empire by Raymond E. Feist and Janny Wurst – 827 pages

9. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon – 825 pages

10. Winter of the World by Ken Follet – 819 pages

This turned out to be a pretty intriguing result for me. I am a little surprised that the Robert Jordan books took two of the top three spots on the list. It has been a very long time since I read Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series, but I honestly do not remember them being that long. The rest of the books on the list are not a massive surprise, though. Follett has created some amazingly long historical fiction novels over the years which, despite their length, are all incredible reads that always find a way to hook the reader. The same could be said of C. J. Samson, and there is a reason that both he and Follet made my Top Ten Auto-Buy Authors List. I am also not too surprised that some books by Raymond E. Feist (another autobuy author of mine) and Janny Wurst’s Empire books made it in, same with Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle books. While they seemed like smaller reads when I was younger (possibly because I wanted to power through them as soon as I got them), they all scored fairly highly on my Top Ten Longest Audiobook list, so I figured they would have a high page count. Assassin’s Fate and The Priory of the Orange Tree were books I reviewed in the Canberra Weekly, and I am glad they made the cut. Not only were they pretty epic reads, but it was good to see some more recent books I have read make the list.

While I enjoyed figuring out the top ten, I am still curious to see where some of the other books I read fit in my overall ranking. So as a bit of bonus material, and because I already spent all that time working out how many pages there were, here are the next top 15 books as an Honourable Mention.

Honourable Mentions:

11. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan – 814 pages

12. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling – 766 pages

Well I am glad at least one Harry Potter book made the cut. These always seemed so massive when I was kid, but in reality, they are not that big compared to some other books that are out there.

13. Brisingr by Christopher Paolini – 763 pages

14. The Twelve Children of Paris by Tim Willocks – 754 pages

This one is a blast from the past that I haven’t thought about for a while. This was a bloody and gruesome action-packed historical novel that made for a fun, if rather violent, read.

15. Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb – 752 pages

16. A Column of Fire by Ken Follett – 751 pages

17. Pilgrim by Sara Douglass – 749 pages

I am not too sure how popular the late Sara Douglass was outside of Australia, but this book was part of a great fantasy series I got into when I was younger, mostly because they were one of the few major series available in my school’s library. I think several books in The Wayfarer Redemption series make the top 25 cut, and they excellent and enjoyable series to check out.

18. Starman by Sara Douglass – 733 pages

19. Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King and Owen King – 718 pages

20. The Great Hunt by Robert Jordan – 705 pages

21. Eldest by Christopher Paolini and Magician by Raymond E. Feist – 681 pages

22. Battleaxe by Sara Douglass – 674 pages

23. Enchanter by Sara Douglass – 672 pages

24. The Shining City by Kate Forsyth – 661

The Shining City is a fantastic entry from Australian author Kate Forsyth. Forsyth is probably best known these days for her historical dramas; however, some of her earliest works included two excellent fantasy series, which featured some outstanding novels, such as this book, of which I was a massive fan.

25. Hawk Quest by Robert Lyndon – 658

Another exciting historical adventure. Hawk Quest was a wide-ranging epic that followed a small group of adventurers through medieval Europe and the Middle East, as they attempt to capture a rare hawk to help pay a ransom.

Now that added some variety to the list. I am not at all surprised to see more from Feist, Jordan, Paolini and Follet, but the addition of all those Sara Douglass books was a bit of a blast from the past. Some of the other books, such as Sleeping Beauties, Hawk Quest and The Shining City were a nice treat, and I think it is fair to say that I have read a good collection of long novels in my life so far. I would definitely recommend each and every book on this list to anyone who is looking to sink their teeth into a nice, massive book, as all of these books are highly enjoyable. This is probably going to be an ever-evolving list that I will hopefully add to each year, especially as I read more and more long books. For example, just today I received a copy of Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward, which clocks in at a whopping 768 pages, and which, when I read it, will replace Order of the Phoenix’s at number 12 on this list. In the meantime, let me know what you think in the comments below; I am curious to know the longest book that you have ever read.