What’s the longest book you’ve ever read?
The longest book I’ve ever read is The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien — around 1,178 pages if you count the three volumes as the single novel Tolkien intended.
I read it when I was thirteen. I was at Mowden Hall School in Northumberland – a boarding school for boys, 110 of us. No TV, not even radios were allowed. Reading became our great escape, our biggest adventure. I remember older boys lost in its pages for weeks, sometimes all term. I picked it up when I was eleven: too young. I tried again when I was twelve; I still struggled. Eventually, with my own copy a thirteent birthday present, I settled into. It took all term. I took it with me on the Christmas Carol Tour the school choir did. I’d finished before we went home for Christmas. I could disappear into Middle-earth for hours, following Frodo and Sam out of the Shire, through Moria and across Mordor, without wondering how many pages were left.
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