• Sean@lemmy.worldM
    12·
    3 months ago

    The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkein because there’s no fucking way in hell I will ever finish that shit

  • BallsandBayonets@lemmings.world
    10·
    3 months ago

    Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy; the five-part trilogy if that can count, but even if I was just stuck with the first one it’d be worth it.

    • norimee@lemmy.world
      2·
      3 months ago

      I have the “Triology” as an old omnibus that I bought second hand. It’s huge and very unpractical to read, but it does have all 5 parts in one book.

      I’d take that or Steven Kings The Dark Tower series which I actually have as one long epub file that contains the complete series. That counts as one book too, right?

      I just need as much as possible to read.

  • je_skirata@lemmy.todayEnglish
    10·
    3 months ago

    Probably The Lord of the Rings. I read the entire thing almost ten years ago, and only remember bits and pieces. It’s so long that I could definitely read it multiple times and still learn new information every time I read it.

      • je_skirata@lemmy.todayEnglish
        4·
        3 months ago

        Nonsense, LOTR has been sold as a single volume for a long time now. I have the 50th anniversary edition, which is a single physical book.

    • Subtracty@lemmy.world
      4·
      3 months ago

      Long enough that by the time you were finished, you could return to the beginning and not get bored.

      Alternatively, since it is so serialized, you could read individual chapters/sections and have a satisfying story conclusion. But nothing compares to the way all of the arcs come together for the final conclusion.

  • Berttheduck@lemmy.ml
    5·
    3 months ago

    I think I’d just be sad if I could only read 1 book forever.

    Probably have to go with the suggestion of Wikipedia.

  • drphungky@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    3 months ago

    Either the SAS survival handbook because it’d be one of the most useful books to have completely memorized, or maybe the Bible just to dunk on fundamentalists by quoting obscure passages that contradict each other.

    Neither sounds super fun, but those are the first that come to mind.

      • conciselyverbose@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        3 months ago

        Eh, it’s a mix. There are shorter, lighter cozy mysteries in there, but my favorite series is Karen Rose, and some of her recent books are stretching to 600 pages. There’s a bunch of nonfiction psychology stuff when I can find new ones worth reading as well. (Behave is listed at 790, Thinking Fast and Slow at 499, as my 1A/1B favorites.) A lot is probably closer to 200-300 just by nature of what’s available though.

        Audiobooks at 2x speed 40 hours of work, plus driving, showers, stuff like yard work and other more physical projects all add up. It’s not really an “achievement” as much as it is just valuing that content over music/radio/podcasts, and having a job where not having the stimulation of a book would make my head explode. (I do also have ereaders and use them, but most of the sheer volume is audiobooks.)

        Edit: I kind of use goodreads? the goal is nonsense and I am really inconsistent with adding stuff. I try to do it in batches from my 50 apps eventually. It doesn’t count any programming books, and I don’t track multiple reads (so the several series I read again that I read in previous years don’t count). But if you’re curious those are the books I read for the first time this year. Availability on Libby or Everand are big factors, because I clearly can’t afford to buy that many outright. I like a variety of different (author) voices, so I try to be open minded. I mostly prefer mysteries though.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    3·
    3 months ago

    Dictionary, because I have a compulsion to look up any word I don’t know when reading and I’ll presumably continue reading non-books.