#Top 3 longest books I’ve ever read!

Si Dieu existait, il serait une bibliothèque. » Umberto Eco

Robert Bolãno – 2666 (1184 pages)

1. This is the ONLY book that made me physically exhausted.
2. It was praised to the high heavens…an I wanted see what the hype was all about.
3. With a half hour per day, this will take 30 days to read.
4. Believe me you cannot endure more than 30 minutes a day!
5. There are two major, intertwined plot threads in 2666,
6. one about a series of gruesome rapes and murders
7. in the fictional city of Santa Teresa, Mexico,
8. ..and the other concerning an obscure German writer with the
9. improbable name Benno Von Archimboldi.
10. Roberto Bolaño was dying of liver failure when he was working on 2666, though
11. he had nearly completed the novel before his death in 2003 at the age of 50.
12. A Race Against Death….
13. Many critics and writers felt that 2666 was written in a race against time,
14. with the shadow of death evident in the novel’s powerful and bleak themes. 

St. Augustine – The City of God   (1184 pages)

It is a book that influenced Western society more powerfully than perhaps any other book except the Bible.

Good News: This massive classic book has been on my bucket list for years. Is it possible to get through 1186 pages of St. Augustine? Well, I finally forced myself to read a book a day (22 books). It is the only way I could finish it.  I’m glad it is done and dusted. It is NOT for the fainthearted.  What is The City of God? I finally got my answer: it is more of an ideal that humans should strive for rather than a particular place or institution. It is an argument against paganism in favor of Christianity.

Bad News: I was not always thrilled to start my reading day with this book. It drains so much energy from me…and I just want to move on to another book.

Bad News: I slowly collaped like a cold soufflé while reading Books X-XXII. It felt like a retelling of the Old Testament up until the coming of Christ. Books XX-XXII are a final attempt to convince us that The Last Judgement, Hell and Heaven are real.

Good News: After a few books I learned that you cannot absorb every single word in this book. Each book has plusminus 25-35 chapter summations, so read that carefully, read/skim the text and draw a succint conclusion for yourself.

Personal:

1. It’s the final countdown…the end of an important journey.
2. Today I’ll say goodbye to St Augustine.
3. Now if I can only find the coffee mug with the logo:
4. “I read The City Of God.”
5. #ThereMustBeCoffeeInHeaven, right?
6. PS: If you want to read St. Augustine….I’d  recommend “Confessions”
7. ….it was 100x better than this book…and shorter! (324 pg)

William L. Shirer – The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1264 pages)

1. William L. Shirer ranks as one of the greatest of all American foreign correspondents.
2. He was correspondent in Germany for the Chicago Tribune and later for  CBS
3. …in the late 1930s that his reputation was established.
4. This book is a classic…it is an AMAZING READ…or a Audio book:  57 hr 13 min.
5. I listened to it during my morning walk
6. I never REALLY studied WW II in high school  and wanted to finally learn what was happening.

   Conclusion:

   1. The best description of this book
   2. …was written by H. Trevor-Roper
   3. a British historian at Oxford University
   4. who reviewed the book or the New York Times:
   5. “Light on our century’s  darkest night
   6. the awful story of Hitler’s Germany is movingly told
   7. and masterfully studied.”
   8. I could not improve on this statement if I tried.
   9. What I can add are my thoughts while reading the book.
   10. This classic of non-fiction had been on my bookshelf for decades!.
   11. But the sheer size of the book intimated me…and I never read it.
   12. If I can give any advice
   13. …read this book because it is so insightful.
   14. The only way I managed to do
   15. ..it was using the audio book.
   16. I set out with Hitler, Goebbels, Himmler, Göring  and  a cast of
   17. …characters on my morning walks.
   18. I let Shirer’s words drift into my mind hoping I would learn a
   19. little more about Hitler, his rise to power and his
   20. …dreams of a pure nation that would rule the world!
   21. I wrote down a few notes  after every walk.

   Last thoughts:

   1. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich has become more than
   2. …just another work of history.
   3. It has acquired the reputation as the best-selling historical work
   4. ever written in modern times.
   5. It is based on captured  German secret documents.
   6. Don’t wait as long as I did to discover this book
   7. ….read it soon!
   8. Remember…
   9. Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.‘
   10. (George Santayana, philosopher )

   

   War correspondent, W. Shirer