BTT: Heavy

Booking Through Thursdays asks:
What’s the largest, thickest, heaviest book you ever read? Was it because you had to? For pleasure? For school?

I actually don’t pay attention to this. I remember getting into an argument in year six with Phoebe over who read bigger books. She was new at the school and was encroaching on my biggest book nerd crown. It was silly when I look back, but social status is really important at that age, and she was already beating me in class – at least I had her beat with books *snickers* but no, that was a silly twelve year old fighting for her place in the world. I don’t pay attention to the thickness of books any more. I think the story is more important than how many pages it flows over. I've probably read about 20 or so books over 1200 pages, but I couldn’t tell you exactly. A lot of them are epic fantasy, others are classics. I have never had to read a book over 400 pages for school or university. I read purely for pleasure, and even at school and university I enjoyed most of the books I had to read (although don’t get me started on Voss or Fringe of Leaves). I am the sort of girl who loves the play of words on the page. Even if I don’t like a book, I can usually find something I like about it. I wasn’t a fan of Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, but I loved his descriptions. I could really get lost in some of those passages. I quoted some of them for Teaser Tuesdays because I was having so much fun with them. I think my ideal length for a book is about 700 pages. I read fast (when RL doesn’t get in the way) so short books end too quickly. It is one of the things I hate about not reading as much epic fantasy as I used to. One thing I do hate about reading thicker books is the weight. I have had wrist injuries, and I have problems with heavy books. That is one of the reasons I refuse to buy hard covers! Thick books can be heavy and unwieldy – I am sure that is okay if you read a few pages a day, but when you read for hours it bloody well hurts! It will be interesting to see how I go with the ereader. It is so small and light, so it will make longer books easier to read.

What about you? What is the largest book you have read?