The 2010 Chunkster Challenge

I read about the Chunkster Challenge recently and was completely bummed I missed out on it. Fortunately, it's a yearly thing, so I can participate this time around. I enjoy reading the occasional uber-long novel. Something about dedicating 700 pages of time to one story just gives me a thrill [given that it's a good story and I'm engrossed in it; if I wasn't, I sure wouldn't stick around for all 700 pages].

A chunkster is defined as a piece of adult literature more than 450 pages. I would personally define a minimum as more like 700 pages. It needs to be something I pick up and say, "Ok, I'm really going to do this, and I will feel accomplished when I finish." I've technically read three chunksters this year: The Help, The Poisonwood Bible, and Dreamland, but none of these were a challenge to me. I didn't start them with the mindset that I was about to embark on a long adventure; they were just the next book on my list. With a real chunkster, I'm going to schedule and prepare for it.

I am opting for Level 3 of this challenge: The Mor-book-ly Obese, which is defined by reading either at least 6 chunksters or 3 chunksters of at least 750 pages. This works out well, because there are two definites that have been on my to-read list for a while, and I already have many more options for the third.

1. Coming Home by Rosamunde Pilcher
2. New York: The Novel by Edward Rutherfurd

Other technical chunkster options:

• My Paper Chase: True Stories of Vanished Times by Harold Evans
• True Compass by Edward M. Kennedy
• When Everything Changed by Gail Collins
• The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (also on my Back to School list)
• Swann's Way by Marcel Proust (attempted to read since season 1 of Gilmore Girls)

I'm hoping 2010 will bring me a perfect third option. This challenge runs from February 1, 2010, to January 31, 2011, but I may cheat and start early depending on what's coming up in my reading queue.