Top Ten Tuesday #180

Hi all! I hope you’ve had a good week since my last TTT, I have an essay due next week, so safe to say I am very close to meltdown right now, thank you for bearing with me and I promise, I will be posting more after my essay has been submitted on Thursday as I have several things I’ve been meaning to post but I just haven’t had time to write yet!

Anyway, I’m taking a brief break from essay hell today to give you guys another Top Ten Tuesday, (my 180th!), thanks to Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl. Today we’re talking Longest Books We’ve Ever Read. I have to admit, a shudder goes through me when I discover a book is longer than 500 pages because a) most books I don’t feel need to be that long and b) I have such little time to read at Uni that I tend to go for shorter books these days. Still I have read some hefty tomes over the years, so here we go, the longest books I’ve ever read:

1. Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix-JK Rowling-766 pages

766 pages probably doesn’t seem like a lot, especially since I have Priory and Kingdom of Ash on my TBR, both of which are longer, but it definitely felt like a lot when I read this as a teenager! The Order of The Phoenix was my least favourite Harry Potter book, although there were great parts of it, like “Have a biscuit Potter” and Fred and George’s big exit and Dumbledore’s Army, I just felt like it was a LOT longer than it needed to be.

2. Empire of Storms-Sarah J Maas-693 pages

The first and not the last instance of Sarah J Maas on this list, she writes some hefty tomes (honestly, I am still slightly scared of the sheer size of Kingdom of Ash). I always feel like Sarah J Maas books never really need to be as long as they are, there’s always at least 100 odd pages of filler to be found, but Empire of Storms felt a lot better paced than some of the other books in the series have been! I’m so excited (and scared) to see what happens in the last book.

3. A Conjuring of Light-VE Schwab-666 pages

It pleases me so much that this book comes in at the Devil’s number! A Conjuring of Light was a beast of a book, but unlike some of the other books on this list, it really didn’t feel like it. VE Schwab is the queen of pacing, and she knew exactly when the book needed to pick up and the moments where it could afford to be quieter, which meant I was never bored reading this (very important when you are likely to be reading a book for several weeks). This is one of my favourite series finales ever, it tied up everything really well (whilst still leaving threads for the new sequel series!) and I felt really satisfied (and sad) when it was over.

4. Tower of Dawn-Sarah J Maas-664 pages

Yup, Sarah J Maas is at it again. It’s hard to believe that this 664 page tome was originally supposed to only be a novella! Like many of the other books in the series, this probably didn’t need to be 600+ pages long, but I digress. I was actually pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book, I thought I wouldn’t like it because I’m not a massive fan of Chaol, but he wasn’t anywhere near as infuriating as he has been in the past in this book and I really loved getting to see the whole new location of the Southern Continent.

5. Queen of Shadows-Sarah J Maas-645 pages

This book nearly killed me. It’s basically 6oo pages of planning, interspersed with a couple of chapters of action. Don’t get me wrong, it’s important in the sense that the things that happened in this book needed to happen in order for the narrative to progress, but I reckon this book could have lost a good 200 pages without losing any of the important bits!

6. Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire-JK Rowling-636 pages

Honestly, I do not remember The Goblet of Fire being this long, but I did read it when I was younger and paid less attention to how lengthy a book was, so that’s probably why. This is my favourite Harry Potter book, you get the Triwizard Tournament, The Yule Ball and our first real introduction to Voldemort, it’s basically the turning point for the whole series!

7. Kingdom of The Wicked-Derek Landy, Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince & Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows-JK Rowling-607 pages

Yup, I’m doing a 3 in one, because these three books all had the same page count and I didn’t want to waste the remainder of my list on 3 books that were all the same length. Kingdom of The Wicked is the seventh book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, and honestly, I have to say I can’t really remember what happened in it, it wasn’t the most memorable of the series! The Half-Blood Prince, I think I liked, although I’ll be honest, my memories of it now are mostly of the teenage romance drama, which I’m pretty sure they hammed up in the film! The Deathly Hallows, I did enjoy eventually, but OH MY GOD THE CAMPING. I thought it would never end!

8. The Dying of The Light-Derek Landy-605 pages

Honestly, I do not remember the Skulduggery Pleasant books being so long! Probably because they have quite short chapters, so they never feel as long as they actually are. It’s been a while since I read the final Skulduggery Pleasant book, but I do remember it being a great, if slightly gruesome, final book (and even then, it wasn’t actually the final book, because Derek Landy pulled a bait and switch on us and we now have a continuation series).

9. Mortal Coil and The Last Stand of Dead Men-Derek Landy-604 pages

The 5th and 8th books of the Skulduggery Pleasant series respectively, both clock in at just over 600 pages. Mortal Coil was quite a fun book as it’s the first book where you get a real taste of Darquesse and the Remnants taking over everyone was pretty cool. The Last Stand of Dead Men is one of my favourite books of the series, as it’s really exciting and a great build up for the final battle in The Dying of the Light.

10. Death Bringer-Derek Landy-603 pages

This was a great instalment of the Skulduggery Pleasant series, as it focuses a lot on Necromancy, as Valkyrie gets more and more embroiled in the study of it, and we also get to see Lord Vile for the first time (I think, it might have been in Book 5) which is a really important point for the rest of the series.

What are the longest books you’ve ever read? Do we share any? Let me know in the comments!

Next week’s topic is Bookstores/Libraries I’d Love To Visit which should be a fun one, as I’m always looking for pretty bookstores/libraries in other countries that I’d love to go to. I’m not going to be posting until next Tuesday as I’m needing to focus on my essay which is due next Thursday, so enjoy the rest of your week!