by Robyn Rohde

No that’s not just a song parody; In my case it’s also true. I didn’t realize until recently, though, just how true it is. I started my big book journey with “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry. I remembered watching the miniseries back before streaming was a thing and people actually had to watch a show when it aired or not at all. I’ll admit I was hesitant to get too excited about 843 pages of aged white men lamenting their glory days “taming” the Old West.

I was wrong.

Unlike my memories of the miniseries, McMurtry tells an engaging, thought-provoking, at times heart-wrenching tale with flawed characters making very human mistakes but also coming to grips with a time that changed without them. This is not a story romancing a by-gone era. Set in the late 1870s, “Lonesome Dove” is wild, brutal, and unfair, but full of heart, connection, and redemption. I loved it so much that I consumed approximately 2,624 more pages to complete the whole four-book saga.

Riding the enjoyment of my first shelf trophy, I dived head first into another former miniseries memory: “Roots” by Alex Haley. At a whopping 912 pages, this one took me a little longer but undoubtedly was just as enlightening. Originally published in 1976, the Pulitzer Prize winner tells the story of the author’s family lineage for seven generations—from the child taken from Africa by slavers to the present day. As a Caucasian, reading this book inspired by the lived experience of so many unwilling immigrants was deeply uncomfortable at times. 

The beautiful writing style told from the different perspective than my own reminded me that once we know better we have to do better. Also, seeing the highlights of the United States early history rings true that we always have and still do have more in common than different. The shared love, dreams, and community are woven in to our country’s DNA.

My next chunky classic undertaking is sending me to France for “The Count of Monte Cristo” by Alexandre Dumas. A wrongful imprisonment, daring prison escape, and obsession for revenge comprise my next 1,276 pages of reading.

So maybe you other readers can’t deny, you might like big books too.