Another look at our 100 best books

The 10 Longest*

1,088 pages: Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
843: Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
827: Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
734: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
659: The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
639: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
630: And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
612: The Absolute Sandman Volume 1, Neil Gaiman (2006)
611: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
599: Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
* Based on first editions

Hit-or-Miss Casting in Film Adaptations

Bridget Jones’s Diary
Mark Darcy
Bridget’s love interest is ”quite tall” and a bit awkward; looks good in a suit (but unseemly in a bad ”diamond-patterned” sweater).
VS
Actor Colin Firth
Firth is quite tall and a bit awkward; looks good in a suit (but unseemly in a bad reindeer sweater).
Verdict: Most faithful to the book

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter
By year 4, Harry Potter was a ”skinny boy of 14” with ”puzzled” green eyes and ”untidy black hair.”
VS
Actor Daniel Radcliffe
By the release of the fourth film, Radcliffe was an athletic boy of 16 with bright blue eyes and untidy dark hair.
Verdict: Fairly faithful to the book

Holes
Warden Walker
Camp Green Lake’s malicious warden is a ”tall woman with red hair,” whose arms and face are ”covered with freckles.”
VS
Actress Sigourney Weaver
The elastic actress is a tall woman with auburn hair whose face and arms appear to be freckle-free.
Verdict: Not so faithful to the book

The Da Vinci Code
Robert Langdon
Dan Brown’s blue-eyed hero — a graying professor with ”dark stubble…shrouding his strong jaw and dimpled chin” — seems to be channeling Harrison Ford.
VS
Actor Tom Hanks
Hanks’ hazel-eyed, stubbleless, long-haired take on the character seems to be channeling John Travolta circa Pulp Fiction.
Verdict: Least faithful to the book

10 Books That Spent the Most Weeks on the ”New York Times” Hardcover Best-Seller List
166 weeksThe Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
148 weeksHarry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
66 weeksThe Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
61 weeksCold Mountain, Charlie Frazier
56 weeksThe Bonfire of the Vanities, Thom Wolfe
52 weeksInto Thin Air, Jon Krakauer
49 weeksAmerica (The Book), Jon Stewart/The Daily Show
44 weeksPresumed Innocent, Scott Turow
39 weeksBacklash, Susan Faludi
39 weeksLove in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez

Five Prolific Writers

Joyce Carol Oates: 119 books
Ruth Rendell: 70 books
John Updike: 61 books
Stephen King: 60 books
Margaret Atwood: 54 books

Oprah-Blessed Titles

The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
OPRAH NO. 35

The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
OPRAH NO. 43

The Road, Cormac McCarthy (2006)
OPRAH NO. 57

Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
OPRAH NO. 59