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Original poster

What's the Heaviest Book You've Loved and Finished?

86 replies

NotQuiteCockney · 28/11/2006 07:52

For me, it's Infinite Jest. I loved loved loved it, all 8 gazillion pages of teeny tiny footnotes about tennis.

I'm debating starting up with Gravity's Rainbow, or maybe Mason & Dixon again. I loved what bits of Gravity's Rainbow I got through, but I didn't get through much.

OP posts:
Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 28/11/2006 09:30

Ah, yes, Suitable Boy is pretty light, though, really.

Infinite Jest is heavy in both senses of the word, though ...

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acnebride · 28/11/2006 09:23

A Suitable Boy for the actual heaviest, my wrist ached.

For the heaviiiiiest, probably War and Peace. I was very proud of getting through a book on kingship in Medieval Germany, but since I was a history student, it was my job.

lapinrose · 28/11/2006 09:14

Marina likewise! Have read Sartre, Camus, de Beauvoir etc in french but that was a long time ago...

Marina · 28/11/2006 09:09

NQC, I think you would like the French AND the most recent English version of Perec's La Vie Mode d'Emploi though
(and it is weeny Bran)

Marina · 28/11/2006 09:08

Aw come on bran, heavy and heavy often go together! Are you about to reveal a passion for Sophie Kinsella bound in solid lead?
War and Peace every time, although Tolstoy's humane wisdom makes the pages whiz by
I am the proud owner of a good degree in French without ever having read a word of Proust in the original . I shared a flat with two women weeping buckets every week over their Proust model - I did Rabelais, who was a piece of smutty cake in comparison.

bran · 28/11/2006 08:46

Oh dear - I was trying to remember the heaviest book (in kilos) and then I opened this thread. I really don't belong here.

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 28/11/2006 08:44

I have a general policy: No Reading French Books in English.

Unfortunately, the only French books I've managed in French are:

  • Bounjour Tristesse
  • La Grosse Femme d'a Cote est Enceinte (I think?)
  • some other Michel Tremblay
  • Platforme

I keep starting other Houllebecq books, but not quite managing them. I suspect I don't quite understand Houllebecq, and suspect I would hate him in English, as a sexist bastard.

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lapinrose · 28/11/2006 08:38

nqc I think the more recent translation is meant to be closer to the french than the previous one, I think getting through all that in french woudl definitely be beyond me these days (too much teaching GCSE, all Ican do now is buy a train ticket and describe my family)

JackieNo · 28/11/2006 08:14

Definitely couldn't do it in French - but it was fine in English. I employed my tried and tested technique of skipping over bits if they were not so interesting, and got a lot out of it that way.

Original poster
NotQuiteCockney · 28/11/2006 08:11

I keep meaning to read Proust, but I don't think I could read it in English, and I'd probably stuggle in French (given that Houllebecq is a struggle for me in French )

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JackieNo · 28/11/2006 08:10

I have read, and enjoyed, the Proust, Remembrance of Things Past (the 3-volume Penguin version). Not for a while though. Needs a bit of time, I think, which is something I don't have in large enough chunks these days.