Need some opinions.

[Ban my account ffs!]

I recently purchased Tolstoy's War and Peace.  I'll admit I'm a bit intimidated by its 1450 pages of small print.

I've asked two people what they thought and they told me they didn't like it.

I'm guessing this is the type of book that you pick up and read a hundred pages or so and then put it down for a month.

What do you guys think about it (if you've read it)?

[Хahar 🤔]

The most boring book I've ever read.

[Sensei]

The best part of reading that book was telling people I read the book.

[Хahar 🤔]

The first 50 or so pages aren't that bad, though.

[The Mikado]

The most boring book I've ever read.

Um...aren't you 13?  And you've read War and Peace?

Hell, I couldn't get through Fielding's Tom Jones at 18, and that's only 900 pages paperback.  War and Peace is half again that length.  (Gave up Tom Jones around page 300)  I did read Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment all the way through...excellent.

Only Tolstoy I've read is The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which I loved, but it's a novella!

[Jake]

Don't read it. If you want ~1450 pages of interesting, but philosophically deep(ish) literature try Robinson's Mars Trilogy if you haven't read it. About the same length and (I'm betting) quite a bit more interesting.

[Gabu]

I like Book-A-Minute's condensed version of War and Peace:

"History controls everything we do, so there is no point in observing individual actions. Let's examine the individual actions of over 500 characters at great length."

[Ban my account ffs!]

I like Book-A-Minute's condensed version of War and Peace:

"History controls everything we do, so there is no point in observing individual actions. Let's examine the individual actions of over 500 characters at great length."

Somehow I knew you of all people would condense the book into a couple sentences.

I think I'll just read it bit by bit and see where that goes.

I have about a bajillion books on my docket.

[Gabu]

Somehow I knew you of all people would condense the book into a couple sentences.

I didn't do the condensation; I just related what the website Book-A-Minute (very funny site, by the way) wrote.

[CultureKing]

I actually liked it... though my advice to you is to write down the character names on a note card along with their main traits and such because there are ALOT of characters and they can get confusing at times. Otherwise a good book, I had never read that much about the Napoleanic era so it was interesting to read about.

[MODU]

I never read it.  It's probably a great book, but since I don't have the patience to sit down and read something that big, I'll never know.

[Хahar 🤔]

The most boring book I've ever read.

Um...aren't you 13?  And you've read War and Peace?

Hell, I couldn't get through Fielding's Tom Jones at 18, and that's only 900 pages paperback.  War and Peace is half again that length.  (Gave up Tom Jones around page 300)  I did read Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment all the way through...excellent.

Only Tolstoy I've read is The Death of Ivan Ilyich, which I loved, but it's a novella!

Well, when I was 10, I was at my grandparents' for two weeks, and I had nothing to do. So, I picked up the fattest boook I could find, and started reading. I usually like historical fiction, so I thought it would be good.

[WalterMitty]

if you want read something over 1000 pages that is actually interesting, try 'what it takes' by richard ben cramer

[Хahar 🤔]

Since we're recommending long, good books, why not The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer? The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was also good.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Since we're recommending long, good books, why not The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer? The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was also good.

I'm going to read the Shirer book some time soon.  I was really disappointed when I took a course on the Nazi period and that book was not included.

[Хahar 🤔]

Since we're recommending long, good books, why not The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer? The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire was also good.

I'm going to read the Shirer book some time soon.  I was really disappointed when I took a course on the Nazi period and that book was not included.

Can you give any good books that were included?

[Ban my account ffs!]

I'll tell you what we read:

Backing Hitler by Robert Gellately.  Deals largely with the forces behind Hitler and focuses on the Gestapo and the rise of the Nazi party, but not directly with Hitler.

Hitler and Nazi Germany:  A History by Jackson J. Spielvogel.  A rather concise history of the rise of Hitler in the Nazi party and the rise of the Nazi party itself.

Between Dignity and Despair:  Jewish Life in Nazi Germany by Marion A. Kaplan.  This is a really good portrait as well as a more detailed selection of memoirs, diaries, and interviews of Jewish people in Nazi Germany. 

The 'Hitler Myth':  Image and Reality in the Third Reich by Ian Kershaw.  Excellent book.  It does an awesome job of looking at the myth surrounding Hitler and his almost god-like, iconic place in Nazi Germany.

The Nazi Years:  A Documentary History edited by Joachim Remak.  This is mostly primary sources including propaganda, letters, etc. from the period.

Voices from the Third Reich by Johannes Steinhoff et al (too many to put here)... this is mostly a book of interviews and submissions of everybody from those stuck in concentration camps to Nazi officials to soldiers in the German army.  Another very good source and very interesting.

[Frodo]

I recently purchased Tolstoy's War and Peace.  I'll admit I'm a bit intimidated by its 1450 pages of small print.

That's nothing.  I've read Henry Kissinger's 1,521 page long White House Years -voluntarily, I might add. 

[Verily]

Another good book on the rise of Nazism is The Nazi Seizure of Power, which focuses on a single town in Germany (Northeim, specifically).

[Хahar 🤔]

Thanks for all the books! I'll chack them out.