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[Frumple]

I raise you Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time'.
15 books for a total of ~12,000 pages.

Around 3.3 million words, checking on it. Largest book's less than 400k, though. I'll give this much, I can't recall any singular fanfics that match the entire series on their own, of the top of my head. There's definitely a few series of fanfics that can, but not solo acts. It's very possible there's one matching it I'm not aware of, though. The world of fanfiction can be a terrifying place.

The Malazan Book of the Fallen stuff actually tops WoT by about 20k words, though :V

[TD1]

WHEEL OF TIME, WHOO!

Sorry, what were we talking about??

[Tack]

I raise you Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time'.

Around 3.3 million words, checking on it. Largest book's less than 400k
The Malazan Book of the Fallen stuff actually tops WoT by about 20k words, though :V

Actually it's about 4.4 million words. (From a completely unimpeachable source >.>)

That being said, Prattchett's Discworld series has got to be a lot, and his individual books are generally quite short.
Are we going for 'length of book' or 'length of series'? Would a single-volume edition of LOTR count?

Edit: I find it weird that talking too long in an emotion thread about anime, 40k, too hoo or anything like that will make people be like 'Getriddovit!', but we've been going on about books for pages and nobody cares.

[Flying Dice]

I'd say both the length of the whole and the length of discrete volumes is important, as is total writing time. WoT took ~13 years to finish, Pratchett wrote Discworld novels continuously for something like 33 years and only stopped because he died. Both are pretty damned impressive.

[Frumple]

Mm... yeah, I had seen the 4.3, too... guess the 3.3 was from an earlier point or somethin'. Saw it labeled as the official count by a couple different search hits, but eh.

The full count of discworld 1-39 is apparently around 3.6 million words. Prachett wrote some other stuff, too :V

None of the LotR stuff is very large, though. Whole trilogy's less than 500k words. No individual book in it breaches 200k. It's pretty puny as the megaliths of word count masses go.

[Tack]

Yeah, but nobody is going to write a book that large without breaking it down into multiples.
Branden Sanderson is doing well for himself, but his are all multiple small series of generally large books.

WoT took ~13 years to finish.

Holy cow that's quick!

[Frumple]

Book, probably not -- simple physics means books over a certain size are incredibly difficult to bind and ridiculously clumsy to use regardless -- but other formats... that's a different thing. I'm pretty sure there's at least one or two fanfics that are listed as over 2 million words for a single work (there's several that's over 1m), and who knows how many original works published online of similar or greater length... a digital format lends itself much better to that sort of endeavor.

Basically, I wouldn't say "Nobody." At best, nobody yet. And I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find a piece that the author considers singular that's over 3-4 million words. If there's not now, give it another decade. Digital publishing still hasn't been around all that long. It'll come.

[Tack]

Digital Publishin'... Ain't... Books.

[Dutchling]

^

it's the smell that counts, not the text

[Dutrius]

15 books? I thought there were only 14. Oh, right. I haven't read the prequel book yet.

[Frumple]

Digital Publishin'... Ain't... Books.

Ha! It is that outlook, sahib, that is why you will never achieve girth. It is only the digi-worddong that can achieve arbitrary size! Your glue and thread can only wail and gnash their teeth in envy, despairing at their inability to please the reader at genuine length. Your physical books are like aids -- pleasing to catch, but short lived and ultimately the bringer of their own downfall. Data is the way of the pasty white mechanical future! Embrace it, as it embraces the world.

...

Seriously though, books are great, too. They just have their unfortunate limitations, that will in time necessarily lead to their downfall in the (entirely fabricated, nonexistent) word count arms race. Love them as you should, but be ready to leave their embrace for the future on the binary sea ♥

[Dutrius]

I find books easier to read than words on a screen. Could be the whole contrast thing though.

[TD1]

Books are better in everything bar portability. And, if you're hard of sight, the ability to enlarge the words. That is all. They are cheaper because they are less, so that is hardly a benefit.

[Tack]

The point being that fanfics have it easy in their ability to write gigantic works only because of that media.
I imagine in the future that there'll be authors unpopular enough to get 'digital-only publishing', but at the end of the day, each book sells for $X. More words don't equal more $, therefore books are liable to get Shorter, rather than larger - digital and physical both.

But yes, whilst books can only last a thousand years or so, digital works will last as long as we have the machines around to read them.
Clearly only doomsday preppers would own books.

But in seriousness, my dream-house contains a library. There will be a fireplace, and a set of large suede chairs, not a television in sight, and my children will either learn to love reading, or avoid it like the plague. Win/Win.

[Frumple]

I find books easier to read than words on a screen. Could be the whole contrast thing though.

F.lux (or an equivalent) and changing the background/text color helps mitigate that tremendously. After that, it's just a matter of getting used to it.

Personally, I'm long past the point that it's easier for me to read on a computer, due pretty close to entirely to the zoom feature and the mentioned color alterations. Large text at will with a more pleasing color contrast, me hearty. Black text on a white background, even the faded, yellowish white that books end up being with time, is one of the worse color contrasts for reading, imo. Just reversed is much more soothing, and a less strident contrast even more so. I use a grey text on dark blue background, m'self.

---

And yeah, Tack, the cost thing is why the genuinely tremendous works are probably going to be limited to commercially unpublished/unpublishable works -- or, at the very least, digital -- because of the lack of fiscal motivation. Without that incentive to break things up or push out shorter works, stuff can get as large as the author wants it to. Alternate publishing methods -- see stuff like Worm, web serials in general-- are another potential bypass to that.

And aye, I'd probably have a library, too, because despite the fact I read almost entirely on the computer these days, I still have and fully intend to maintain a physical collection. I like physical books, they're just considerably less convenient for me at this point, especially since I was gifted an e-book reader. Portability, ease of reading, largely cost (due to the mountains of (legal, even!) free material)... it's all good stuff from here on out, digital wise.