BIG FAT BOOKS CHALLENGE TOTAL

Post on here when you have read a BFB so we have a running total of the BFB's we have read between us.

BFB Challege totals so far..
2014 78
2015 77
2016 63

so lets set a new record in 2017 !

>3 bryanoz:, Thanks for those stats mate, I have a good feeling for this year.

Yes, let's reverse that downward trend!

1. Mark Twain: Historical Romances, 1031 pp

Just finished my first, Mark Twain: Historical Romances (Library of America). It's a holdover from last year, when I read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court for the 3rd quarter 2016 Reading Through Time (Arthurian) and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc for the RTT 4th quarter (medieval). The first quarter of this year for RTT is the 16th century, for which I read The Prince and the Pauper, which concludes my reading of this LoA volume.

ETA: Actually, all three of these are rereads, but it's probably been forty years if not more since I read them.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

3. Hérétiques by Leonardo Padura, 714 pages.

The central part is a historical novel, the third part is a mystery, and the first part is a bit of both. It's about a Rembrandt painting, refugees, corruption, identity, freedom, and a lot more. I recommend it.

4. Sheer Abandon by Penny Vincenzi, 720 pgs.

5. Shogun by James Clavell. A re-read, just as good as it was in the 1980's. 1192 pages 5 stars

6. James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales I; The Pioneers, The Last of the Mohicans, The Prairie (Library of America) 1347 pp (including reread of Mohicans)

7. Barkskins by Annie Proulx ; 721 pages.

8. Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie; 672 pages.

9. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon, 849 pages 5 stars

10. The Leatherstocking Tales, Vol. 2: The Pathfinder / The Deerslayer (Library of America), 1051pp, 3½***

11. The Panther by Nelson DeMille, 654 fast pages of exciting fun

12. Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson, 656 pages. About 135% of everything I wanted to know about Steve Jobs and Apple. I finished a week ago and forgot to post.

I read this one several years ago and thought it was terrific. I went on to his Peter the Great, which as I recall was also riveting, but with lots of military parts. Of course, that's what happens in history books -- they have to follow history.

13. Le Lecteur de cadavres, that is The Corpse Reader in English, by Antonio Garrido, 751 pages. A page-turner set in 13th century China.

14. Die Kinder des Prometheus by Hermann Parzinger. 848 pages. A non-fiction history of humans before the invention of writing.

15. Middlemarch by George Eliot, 880 pages

16. God is an Englishman by R.F.Delderfield, 672 pages.

17. The waking fire by Anthony Ryan, 684 pages.

18. Herman Melville: Typee, Omoo, Mardi (Library of America) @ 1333pp

19. The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk ; 728 p

19. The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk ; 728p

20. The Eight by Katherine Neville 610 pages

21. Herman Melville, Redburn, White Jacket, Moby Dick (Library of America) 1438pp – but I only claim 770pp on this volume since I didn't reread Moby Dick, having just recently reread it in a Norton Critical Edition along with the supplementary materials.

22. Barchester Towers Book #2/6 by Anthony Trollope. A difficult read due to length and mostly bickering of clergy. 716 pages 3 stars

23. Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy, 816 pgs.

24. Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon Sanderson ; 672 p.

25. Written in My Own Heart's Blood by Diana Gabaldon 842 pages 4 1/2 stars

26. Henry James: Novels 1881-1886 (Library of America) ... Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, and The Bostonians. 1249pp, 4****

27. The Gulag Archipelago Volume 1 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 704 pages.

28. Louder Than Hell by Jon Wiederhorn ; 718 pages.

29. A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz ; 711 pages.

30. The Complete Greek Drama (vol. i), ed Whitney Oates & Eugene O'Neill Jr, 1186pp. No doubt quite good in its day (1938), but these translations are now terribly dated.

31. Theirs Was the Kingdom by R.F.Delderfield, 896 pgs.

32. A Strangeness In My Mind by Orhan Pamuk. 599 pages.....does this slip in?

I'm sure if you count the title page, the dedication page and other loose leaves, it's 600 pages!;)

Agreed !

33. Charles Dickens, Bleak House 880pp

34. He Knew He was Right by Anthony Trollope 872 pages 4 1/2 stars

35. American Gods by Neil Gaiman, 682 pages.

36. The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer, 758 pages

37. The Depford Trilogy by Robertson Davies, 825 pages. The three books of the trilogy are: Fifth Business; The Manticore; and World of Wonders.

38. Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb, 752 pgs.

I don't see anything which tells me what qualifies as a BFG.

Can someone tell me?

A big fat book has at least 600 pages. It's that simple.

39. The Warriors by John Jakes, 695 pages.

OK, thanks, Montarville. Here are the BF books I have read so far this year (the pages do not include the index, since I do not read the index):

5436. Cardozo, by Andrew L. Kaufman (read 14 Jan 2017) (712 pages)

5443. The Pursuit of Power Europe 1815-1914, by Richard J. Evans (read 19 Feb 2017) (726 pages)

5454. Romantic Outlaws The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft & Mary Shelley, by Charlotte Gordon (read 26 Mar 2017) (National Book Critics Circle Award fpr biography for 2015) (627 pages)

43 - Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel by John Stubbs 752 pages.

>52 mabith: How was it? I've got Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World (2013) by Leo Damrosch and need to get around to reading it. I've seen this Stubbs biography on the shelves at B&N and I've been thinking about it, but so many books, so little time, especially when I haven't gotten to Damrosch yet.

>53 CurrerBell: For me the Stubbs was just too exhaustive for my interest level, and didn't really bring the subtitle to the fore of the narrative in a meaningful way. It's in there, but Stubbs wants to tell you every single detail in great depth so the thesis gets rather lost.

44. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House The First Five Novels (BN Classics Edition) (The Little House on the Prairie) 618pp

44 BFB books read by the end of April put us well on track to hit the magic 100 mark at the rate we are reading BFB's.

45. Le Roman du piano (in English Pianoforte: a Social History of the Piano), by Dieter Hildebrandt, 609 pages.

46. The Charm School by Nelson De Mille, 671 pgs.

47. The dragonbone chair by Tad Williams. 783 pages.

48 - A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, 603 pages

49. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb; 838 pages.

50. Glory Boys by Harry Bingham, 613 pgs.

I think we have done really well reaching 50 BFB's by the end of May, I really think we will reach the magic 100 mark this year.

51. The economy and material culture of Russia by Richard Hellie. 671 pgs.

52. John William McCormack A Political Biography, by Garrison Nelson (866 pages plus index) (read 6 Jun 2017)

53. Willa Cather: Later Novels (Library of America), 988pp. I'd already read Death Comes for the Archbishop and didn't reread it, but that's less than 200 pages in the volume.

54. Villette by Charlotte Brontë. 622 pages in the Penguin Classics edition.

edited for touchstone

55. London by Edward Rutherford; 830 pgs.

56. Die Unterwerfung der Welt by Wolfgang Reinhard. 1648 pages.

Congrats everybody! Doing great! Lots of chunksters read! I don't see another on my horizon till Gabaldon's new one comes out, hopefully this year!

I've just finished up Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions, 2d ed) @688 (reread of PL itself, original read of the supplementary materials), but I'm not going to claim it until I've finished the 150-200 pages of substantially different supplementary materials in Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Editions, 3d ed) as well. Then I'll claim both as a single doorstopper. I'm also reading them for the second quarter (April-June) Reading Through Time group's 17th-century reading. This year, incidentally, is the 350th anniversary of the 1667 publication of PL so I'm doing a bit of a Milton read and reread, considering I don't expect to be around for the quatercentenary.

57 - The Duke's Children By Anthony Trollope - 707 pagex

58. John Milton, Paradise Lost (Norton Critical Edition), 2d ed 688pp & 3d ed 624pp

I'm crediting the two of these as a single book since there's obviously a great deal of overlap, not just in PL itself but in some of the supplementary materials. But the non-overlapping parts – primarily the "Modern Criticism" materials – make them both worth reading in combo.

59. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, 1,024 pgs.

60. The Gulag Archipelago Vol 2 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 752 pages.

>75 mabith: That in my TBR pile, just getting the energy to begin it!

>76 Tess_W: It's SO readable, and feels lightened due to all the dark humor in the writing.

61. Anna Karenina, 964 pages

62. Rebus: The Lost Years by Ian Rankin, an omnibus edition that includes Let It Bleed, Black & Blue, and The Hanging Garden. The whole thing came in at 832 pages.

63. The witchwood crown by Tad Williams. 721 pages.

64. Continuing with my Milton marathon, Milton's Selected Poetry and Prose (Norton Critical) 681pp

65. The Lawless by John Jakes, 794 pgs.

It's looking good to reach 100 BFB's by the end of the year, well done to everyone so far.

>82 johnsimpson: And we've already beaten last year's total!

66. Fortunes of War: The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning, 924 pgs.

67. Marathon The Pursuit of the Presidency 1972-1976, by Jules Witcover (read 27 Jul 2017)
656 pages plus index

68. Emma by August Lafontaine. 628 pages.

69. The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens; 848p.

70. Natalie Koch - De stad van de alchemist - 696 pages
71. Robin Hobb - Het lot van de moordenaar - 938 pages

72. Bleak House by Charles Dickens - 989 pages
73. Villette by Charlotte Bronte - 622 pages
74. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray - 809 pages
75. Underworld by Don DeLillo - 832 pages

76. Gordon Teskey, The Poetry of John Milton 610pp. Note that this is not an anthology of Milton poetry but a critical study by the Harvard professor who is the editor of the third edition of the Norton Critical Paradise Lost.

77. The Stand by King - 1141 pages
78. Game of Thrones by Martin - 864 pages

I thought I had read more but apparently those were from last year. Sorry, I should have joined then!

81. The Rest is Noise, by Alex Ross, 695 pages

82. De vloek van de magiër by Karen Miller 639 pages

I definitely think we are going to hit the magic hundred BFB's this year, thank you all for contributing so far.

83. The Prince of Darkness 50 Years Reporting in Washington, by Robert D. Novak (read 16 Aug 2017) 639 pages not including index pages

84. De onsterfelijke troon by Stella Gemmell 621 pages.

85. The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin, 910 pages

86. Pour sûr by France Daigle, 747 pages.

87. Al wat schittert by Eleanor Catton 830 pages.

88. James Anderson Winn, Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts 816pp

89. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton 832 pages.

90. Weaveworld by Clive Barker; 752p.

91. Barkskins by Annie Proulx 736 pages

92. 5497. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, by Ulysses S. Grant (read 4 Sep 2017) I have intended to read this work for over 20 years and finally have done so. It is full of interesting material, including an account of Grant's life before he went to West Point and quite a detailed account of his time in the Mexican War and a brief account of his time out of the Army when he was a clerk in Galena. When the Civil War broke out Grant returned to the Army and by ability rather than political pull advanced in position. One gets the idea that he was indeed an able officer--I know, he wrote the book--but the fact of his successes cannot be denied. Some of the account of military action is deathly dull but the account of much and of Grant's opinions is full of interest. The book does not cover anything of Grant's life after 1865, though he does mention that he was president. I for one am glad he was on the right side in 1861 and stood by his country and opposed the people who were trying to destroy the nation and preserve slavery, He is unequivocal in saying that slavery was the cause of he Civil War and is not fooled by the claim that the South was resisting aggression. The South wanted slavery to be secure and feared that slavery would be restricted by Lincoln. There can be no doubt about that. 798 pages

93. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope 800 pages Been awhile since I read a BFB!

94. David McCullough, John Adams 751pp. I should also have another BFB finished in a few days, a Norton Critical.

95) Outlander by Gabaldon. 896 pp. My guilty read this weekend :)

96. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions) 616pp (with supplementary material included)

97) Dragonfly in Amber by Gabaldon - 976 pages
98) Voyager by Gabaldon - 1072 pages

99. The Crimson Petal and The White by Michel Faber - 864 pages

>112 floremolla: Woo-hoo! Now who's gonna make it the big ONE HUNDRED? (Won't be me. I've got some more doorstoppers on tap, but not this soon.)

>114 Schmerguls: I know, I was slightly disappointed not to have got the hundredth! Won't be me either. Still got three-and-a-bit months of the year to go... hope we're not stopping at 100!

Hopefully John will list the 100th Big Book, and no stopping, 125 next !

Exciting! I don't think I will be doing a fat book before somebody does no. 100

100. De twaalf koningen van Sharakhai by Bradley P. Beaulieu 607 pages.

Yeah!

Congratulations Connie on posting the 100th BFB for 2017, thanks to all who have been reading the big ones and posting them on here. Onwards to 125 hopefully, I have not got a big read going this month, too much going on in family life sadly but I hope to start a biggie for October and I will let you know my choice soon.

>117 floremolla: Yay! Well done everyone, and congrats to Connie for the 100th BFB of 2017! I'm aiming for three or four more before the end of the year, with Tom Jones and Wild Swans already lined up.

The fourth quarter of this year will be the Napoleonic era on the Reading Through Time group. I may just hunker down and have a go at War and Peace.

Thanks for the congrats!

Yeah, Connie, congrats!

>119 connie53: I may just do a reread of Tom Jones myself. I've got an old Norton Critical Edition, and I do like the Nortons for their supplemental material. The Norton looks to be 934pp.

101 - Drums of Autumn by Gabaldon. 876 pages

102 De acht by Katherine Neville 671 pages.

103. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland ; 752p.

104) 1001 Arabian Nights by Scott. 2202 pages - yikes!

>127 Yells: I downloaded a free kindle version, took a quick look at it and decided it was more than I was willing to commit to! Definitely a long term reading project. Did it feel like a worthwhile endeavour now that it's finished?

If you have the same Kindle version I have (Delphi Classics), it includes several translations. I didn't realise that until I was halfway through the first one. I had originally planned to tackle Burton's but read Scott's instead. It looks to be shorter (not sure if it's missing stories or not) and it was definitely more readable.

I must admit, I did a little happy dance when I finished last night.

Lol, I know the feeling. Mine is 'Translated from the Arabic with Copious Notes' by Edward William Lane. I don't know where he stands in the hierarchy of translators of this work but it was free from Project Gutenberg which makes it a winner.

105. American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps (Library of America) (ed Peter Straub) 750pp

106. Testament of Youth by Brittain (612)

107. Richard Nixon The Life, by John A Farrell. 700 pages plus an index. Published this year. I finished it today,

108. The Woman in White by Collins (635). So good... I spent much of the day enthralled.

109. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding - 871 pages - comic masterpiece of 1749 - a five star jolly romp for me!

110. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, 688 pages

111. The Children's Book by AS Byatt, 896 pages.

112. Patricia Highsmith: Selected Novels and Short Stories, 644pp

113. Vor dem Sturm by Theodor Fontane, 924 pages.

114. 5511. The Republic For Which It Stands The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896, by Richard White (read 10 Nov 2017)
901 pages not including the index.

115. Hour Game by David Baldacci, 721 pgs.

116. Margaret Atwood, The Edible Woman / Surfacing / Lady Oracle 699pp in a three-fer edition.

This brings me to nineteen doorstoppers for the year, and I'm hoping to add a twentieth with War and Peace before the New Year. Not bad, considering that my total last year was thirteen.

C'mon, all, still hoping we hit 125!

Well done, and good luck with the Count. It took me several months to finish that.

>141 floremolla: good work!

117. The Core by Peter V. Brett ; 864 pages.

I've read 2, America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon for a total of 1474 pages.

118.

5515. Greater Gotham A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, by Mike Wallace (read 29 Nov 2017)

1052 pages plus bibliography, References, and indices.

120. The angry tide by Winston Graham, one volume of the Poldark saga. 612 pages

>148 Montarville: thanks!

>147 bryanoz: I think you should be 120 with The Angry Tide. America's First Daughter (>145 nrmay:) shows up as 587 pages, short of 600, which makes Outlander (at 850 pages) the only BFB in >145 nrmay:, so Outlander is 118.

Then Greater Gotham (>146 CurrerBell:) becomes 119.

Then your The Angry Tide becomes 120 in >147 bryanoz:.

I think?

121. The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein ; 925 pages.

122. Russie, réformes et dictatures by Andreï Kozovoï; 617 pages of text, plus many more for the bibliography, the index, etc.

123. The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy 736 pages 3 1/2 stars

124. The Whitest Flower by Brendan Graham ; 624 pages.

125. His Dark Materials by Pullman. The trilogy is 1220 pages.

>153 mabith: Congratulations on 125! I expect to be adding a couple more before year's end (and one of them is War and Peace).

126. Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow 784 pages

>154 Yells: - thanks! I will try to finish one more before the year ends. Oddly enough, I didn't even start the two that I was thinking about when I first joined (Suitable Boy and Infinite Jest). Might need to bump those up the list for the beginning of 2018.

Oh, and War and Peace is fantastic! I can't believe it took me so many years to get to it.

127. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace (trans Pevear-Volokhonsky) 1273pp

128. Wordsworth's Poetry and Prose (Norton Critical) @761pp

ETA: That makes 21 for me for this year. I'm planning to get started quite soon on another (Brontë biographer Juliet Barker's Wordsworth biography) , but even if I start it before the New Year, I won't be finishing it until next year's challenge.

129) Blonde by Oates - 754 pages.

I may have another one if I can motivate myself to finish From Here to Eternity. I am halfway through and kind of waiting for something to happen.

130) From Here to Eternity by Jones. Done! 851 boring pages of it....

Is anyone setting up a BFB Challenge for 2018? (Or maybe it's already been set up and I've overlooked it.)

It's up and running!

>162 connie53: Do you have a link to it? I can't find it.

>164 CurrerBell: How do I join it? It's got a Netherlands (nl) LT domain and I can't find a "Join this group" link. And I can't find anywhere to "star" topics (or even to respond on threads).

>164 CurrerBell: >165 connie53: OK, I got it solved. I should be using https://www.librarything.com/groups/2018bigfatbookschall

I'm Dutch, so the link sent me to the Dutch site but for me it worked so never gave it any thought. Glad you found it!

131. The Nix by Nathan Hill at 752 pages. The Nix was my favorite book in 2017 and one of my favorites in a long time. I've recommended it to my book club and anyone else who will listen to me.

132. Hunh, I read The Nix in March and forgot to count it. I agree, it's really good.

133. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 624 pages.

134. La Bête creuse by Christophe Bernard, 717 pages. I received it for Christmas.

OK, I read 10 bi fat books in 2017, and all are listed The fattest of the ten:

5515. Greater Gotham A History of New York City from 1898 to 1919, by Mike Wallace (read 29 Nov 2017)

It had 1052 pages plus bibliography, references and index. I know it is not the fattest listed. Has someone determined the fattest of the year?

>172 Schmerguls: not everyone's has stated the number of pages in their books but it looks like >69 MissWatson: might have edged it with Die Unterwerfung der Welt at 1648 pages. Well done, Birgit!

Are we doing this again in 2018? If so, does that mean nobody has read a big fat book yet this year? Yesterday I finished reading Wilson by A. Scott Berg. It has 701 pages plus an index. Is it number 1 for 2018?

http://www.librarything.nl/topic/281093

We are here in the 2018 group!