Reading is generally understood to be good for the brain. And now The Everett Herald just ran an article about how exercise helps the brain as we age. So what better time to round-up some books that give you a workout just from hefting their brick-like mass. OK, the article’s emphasis is on cardiovascular activity, not doing curls with hardcovers – but free weight training has perks of its own. You eBook readers are only cheating yourselves!
Here are some of the heavyweight contenders for this year’s fiction crown. At over 900 pages we have:
The Crippled God by Steven Erikson (913 pgs)
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami (925 pgs)
A Moment in the Sun by John Sayles (955 pgs)
The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss (993 pgs)
And tipping the scales at over 1000 pages each are:
A Dance with Dragons by George R.R. Martin (1016 pgs)
The Instructions by Adam Levin (1030 pgs)
Reamde by Neal Stephenson (1044 pgs)
Parallel Stories by Péter Nádas (1133 pgs)
Are there fat novels from 2011 I’ve overlooked? What is the fattest book you’ve ever read? And what’s your take on the long novel in this age of info bombardment and one-sentence tweets?
