Gayle and Nicole endeavor to recommend the best big books to read over the upcoming holiday season and get stopped up by the philosophical considerations they take when considering a big book. Why read? Pleasure or accomplishment? They want the book that are thoroughly engrossing and hard to put down, but find psychological blocks in committing to starting a long book.
Gayle discusses her yearly reading goal and the opportunity cost of reading big books, and they both agree that it’s super easy to prioritize the shorter books before settling down with a tome. Plus, what they’re reading and Gayle’s rundown of Curtis Sittenfeld’s novels-which ones to read, and which ones to skip.
The Philosophy Of Reading A Long Book
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
The Secret History by Donna
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A Place For Us by Fatima Farhan Mirza
What We’re Reading (And Finished Reading)
One Day In December by Josie Silver
The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
One Day by David Nicholls
Vox by Christina Dalcher
A Cloud In The Shape of The Girl by Jean Thompson
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance and The Art of Living by Ryan Holiday
The Farm by Joanne Ramos (pub date May 7)
Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders
All The Big Long Books
The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton
Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Narrated by Kristoffer Tabori)
Free Food For Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Night Film by Marisha Pessl
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffennegger
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Eligible: A Modern Retelling off Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld