I’ve always been drawn to the allure of a long book. In middle school, I remember lugging around a hardcover copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, proudly turning startled heads as I thumped the book to my desk during break time. I took a certain pride in wading through these long books, feeling that there was something to be gained with literally spending lots of time between the pages. And as I got older, I always made a point of timing my longest books for school breaks.
Last summer, I spent a few weeks in the wild west of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. As each page and each minute passed by, I not only became more immersed in the story, but the general cultural contexts McMurtry was working from. I now know where Ogallala, Nebraska is, and the politics of managing a multi-man cow herd. Building the stamina to engage with a story for such extended lengths allows for an ambient type of learning alongside the facts and figures presented on the page. I now have a grasp for the genre conventions of a western alongside an understanding of horse’s temperaments. Trusting in McMurtry to guide me for these thousandsome pages means trusting that there will be something to be gained by the end of the journey.
While I think long books are wonderful, there is the argument that spending ages with these dense tombs is a waste of time, time that could be better spent reading snappier, more efficiently written texts. The good news is that there’s value to both, and a healthy reading diet mixes the two. During a busy semester, a student may find it easiest to float in and out of quick novels and poetry collections. I find those are the easiest books to pick up during the school year as I can move through them quickly alongside my other schoolwork, but come spring break, it’s time for something a bit more engaging. This past spring break, I traded Miami and Boca Raton for a trip on Melville’s Pequod. And just as Lonesome Dove had before, Moby-Dick transported me to a place and time brand new. All of a sudden, I was floating on the misty Atlantic, placed right in the antiquated minds of crusty, transcendental sailors. The slog through whale taxonomies and intricacies of rigging a commercial whaling vessel led way to breathtaking moments of clarity, moments which meant so much because of the arduous page count journey before.
While I love to read books of all length, a long book lends itself to the escapism many people look for in fiction. In just a few pages (if the book’s good enough…) I’m hooked on a week-long ride where I can see a new world through someone else’s eyes. Spending such extended time with a book may feel tedious at times, but agreeing to spend such time in another author’s style is a great practice in trust. By the end of the book, it feels as if you’re returning from your own journey, taking with you lessons that are much more real than fiction.
Publishing Solutions Group
Publishing Solutions Group values long books for their thoughtful defense of immersive, indepth storytelling in an age of short attention spans. PSG shares a commitment to meaningful content and can support projects like this with comprehensive editorial, design, and production services—helping bring expansive ideas to life with clarity, quality, and impact.
Photo by Atrem Beliaikin on Unsplash.
