You may have guessed from the lists of books I mention here every other week that I’m a quick reader. But it’s also true that I have a strong preference to shorter fiction, which plumps up the numbers of books read. But much of the past two weeks since I last popped in here were spent reading a 784-page novel, so I thought it would be interesting to talk about big books, and why I tend to avoid them. But first, the roundup!
Roundup
Music
After a slow start, we’ve finally gotten into the 2026 new music calendar. Last week saw new releases by long-established artist A$AP Rocky, the recently-established Madison Beer, and the new ingenue, Baby Nova. Yesterday’s most interesting drops for me were Katie Tupper’s debut album Greyhound and the new release from Louis Tomlinson, How Did I Get Here?. Of all of thesethese, I was particularly impressed by the Baby Nova album; she’s definitely one to watch. All that said, the big news of the past two weeks music-wise was definitely the announcement of the new Harry Styles album and the drop of the pre-release single “Aperture.” The song marks a big departure from his previous sound, but it’s by far my favourite of Styles’s solo ventures to date.
Albums
- Greyhound (Katie Tupper)
- How Did I Get Here? (Louis Tomlinson)
- Shhugar (Baby Nova)
- Don’t Be Dumb (A$AP Rocky)
- locket (Madison Beer)
Songs
- “Aperture” (Harry Styles)
- “Imposter” (Louis Tomlinson)
- “Whitney” (Katie Tupper)
- “Slicked Back” (Zach Bryan)
Reading
As I mentioned in the introduction, the past two weeks were dominated by a single big read, with a few shorter books thrown in for variety.
- Every Day Is for the Thief, by Teju Cole (2007)
- Arsene Lupin, Gentleman Thief, by Maurice Leblanc (1907)
- Walk the Blue Fields, by Claire Keegan (2007)
- Is This a Cry for Help?, by Emily Austin (2026)
- Lost Lambs by Madeline Cash (2026)
- Sun House, by David James Duncan (2023)
- The Artist and the Feast, by Lucy Steeds (2025)
In Focus: On Big Books
This week I finished David James Duncan’s 2023 release, Sun House. This was his first novel since his 1992 release The Brothers K, which is an all-time top-five favourite of mine, so I was very excited to read it. However, at a whopping 784 pages, I was a bit daunted too. The thing is, I just don’t generally like big novels. First, it’s just a matter of efficiency in my reading list. There are so many books out there I want to read, I’d prefer to read three or four books in the same time it takes me to read a doorstop like this. But the biggest reason is that, I very very rarely read a book over 500 pages and think it wouldn’t have been better served by being shorter.
One of the most consistent aspects of my personality is what I call my essentialism. I’m definitely not a minimalist – the point isn’t to have as little as possible – but I want what I have or experience to be as much as it needs to be, and no more. It’s consistent in my design aesthetic, in my liturgical sensibilities, and in my literary preferences too. I want my books to be as long as they need to be to tell the story they’re telling. And something that tells a really powerful story succinctly is much more impressive to me than a sprawling epic. So yeah, most big books I read I’m left thinking they could have been improved by significantly shorter.
While I had high hopes for Sun House because Duncan has been a very successful author for me, and at 645 pages, The Brothers K was itself a long novel. Sadly, Sun House fell into all the long book traps: scenes that don’t contribute to the overall plot, repetitions of ideas or plot points, adding important characters halfway in, pacing problems, and just an overall need for a strong edit. I almost feel like it could have been two or three separate and more contained novels very easily. What’s most infuriating for me is that the book’s themes are important, brilliant, and timely, and the problems with it prevented it from being an all-time favourite. As it is, I can only recommend it to the most patient readers.
Matthew Root 