I honestly don’t know what #3 would since mine technically don’t work. What are yours? 1. Shantaram 2. Shogun 3. I want to say Lonesome Dove or Pillars of the Earth as I think both were initially written as stand alone only for the author to realize their popularity and write follow-ups later.
I'm not really sure what fits the criteria of epic but these are all stand-alone novels that I would consider in my favorites list: 11/22/63 Watership Down The Kite Runner
I'm not sure how much of what I've read would count as an epic, but Shantaram's absolutely my favorite book of all time
Reading Cloud Atlas due to this thread. I'm only about 1/4 the way in and man it's got me on the ropes. I really dig it but have zero idea where the hell it's going.
All I can say is keep on trucking. Its been 5-6 years since I’ve read it. I still can’t decide if I loved it or hated it. However it was a challenge to read, and I was proud of myself for finishing it.
Which story are you on? The second one (letters to zedelgheim) is where it really picked up for me. Robert Frobisher is one hell of a character. I remember practically needing a thesaurus at some points in the first story, pacific journal of adam Ewing
That's my favorite story so far too. I'm on Timothy Cavendish now. I read it on my phone and it's nice to just be able to highlight the word and instantly get the definition. Still confuses my phone every so often though. Fancy ass words.
Cloud Atlas was fucking awesome. Can't put it in my personal top 3 but it may be some of the finest writing I've consumed. Worthy of it's own the thread for discussion IMO. Appreciate those who listed it above and turned me on to it.
It was a book club book from September 2012. Thread: https://www.the-mainboard.com/index.php?threads/september-2012-book-club-cloud-atlas.113469/
Just finished Shantaram and really liked it. I couldn't put it down for the last 3rd of the book. It's funny but I have no desire to read the sequel, I'm content to let the story end where it did.
Great seeing the love for Brothers Karamazov, makes me want to re-read, haven't since high school. Great Expectations Tale of Two Cities (there's others I like more but I can't think of them) Lonesome Dove would be on here but I don't consider it a stand alone, though someone said earlier it was intended that way, I wasn't aware of that.
Watched The Gentlemen with the wife this weekend. She didn't know Charlie Hunnam so I IMDb'd him to tell her everything he's done and Shantaram was listed as a TV show. While I'm excited about it becoming a show, that motherfucker is waaay too pretty to play Lin.