The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found in the black company, with. Tolkien as the name of a race of small humanoids in his fantasy fiction, the first published being the hobbit in 1937. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. The book remains popular and is recognized as a classic in childrens literature. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. Interestingly enough, all three books share the same top three words. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, historical. I used the lexham hebrew bible and the nestlealand novum testamentum graece for these word counts. What is the routing and account number for netspend card.
Ive put together word counts for every book of the bible. Beyond creating entire languages for elves and orcs, tolkien was known for making up english words as well. The book was first published on september 21, 1937 and is set in the years 2941 to 2942 of the third age before the events of the lord of the rings. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words.
The ultimate measure of a storys size is its wordcount, however. Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series. There is, of course, the hobbit which was published in three editions 1937, 1950, and 1965. The hobbit, or there and back again is a childrens fantasy novel by english author j. A number of them, including their leader the great goblin, are slain by gandalf and thorin using the swords taken from the trolls. Journey and by extension, parts 2 and 3 of this unnecessary trilogy, but i wound up comparing the density of the hobbit movies, as measured in words in book per second of movie wibpsom. What isnt often considered is the sheer number of words a person who reads the entire series consumes. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Another useful statistic is something called the 95th percentile, but in honor of miracle max, i prefer to call this the mostly less than value.
Martins a song of ice and fire series, is the lengthiest of the five currently released books, with a word count of almost 415. He is the groups resident thief but also becomes their conscience as they fight for. The hobbit has more unique words and a higher unique word density than both the silmarillion and each volume in the lord of the rings. R tolkien that takes place in the fictional world of middle earth, which is the setting of most of the authors works. Is there an ideal length of a movie based on the books word count. For movie length, i simply used the run time for the theatrical version of the movie as listed on imdb. If youre looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then youve come to the right place. How many words are there in the harry potter book series. The hobbit tells a fantastic story of adventure, danger, friendship, and courage, and serves as a prequel to the even more immersive and epic book series, the lord of the rings. Since just comparing the number of unique words in a book does not take its length into account i decided to calculate the percentage of unique words of the whole text. If your story is a melody, its sections make up the underlying beat or rhythm. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the hobbit lord of the rings.
Since just comparing the number of unique words in a book does not take its length into account i decided to calculate the percentage of unique words of the. In this prequel to the lord of the rings, bilbo baggins enjoys a quiet life until a group of dwarves and a wizard named gandalf enlist him in their quest for a dragons treasure. The talk was all of the trade that came and went on the waterways and the growth of the traffic on the river, as the. Jackson made the lord of the rings trilogy with a one book to one film ratio. They include detailed descriptions of when to assign reading, homework, inclass work.
How many pages do the lord of the rings books have. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. First, well look at the number of words for each book in the series. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. The story reaches its climax in the battle of five armies, where many of the characters and creatures from earlier chapters reemerge to engage. The ultimate measure of a storys size is its wordcount, however, so the literary geeks here at foster grant have put together a list of many of. The hobbit lord of the rings kindle edition by tolkien, j. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Word counts of the most popular books in the world. Below are some of the literary elements that i observed. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words.
John palsberg made the dictionary when he was eight years old. On page 52, chapter 3, the swords they they had brought out from the trolls lair were recognized by elrond and he described them to thorin and gandalf as follows. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. For example, agatha christie, one of the bestselling mystery writers of all time, write between 40,000 and 60,000 words per book. The average paragraph length across all the books was 41. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. As you read the hobbit, you might find yourself confidently checking a dictionary for a definition only to find it not there, because with tolkiens knowledge of the fundamentals of language, his madeup words sound real. While these works by tolkien are obviously related, they are very, very different.
The harry potter books are popular, and once someone reads the first book in the series, they often end up reading the entire series. Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts. However, since each tome blitzed the 100,000 word mark the fellowship of. The lesson plan calendars provide daily suggestions about what to teach. The dictionary explains words and phrases that some children will read in the hobbit for the first time. I linked has information on chapter lengths, word appearances, common words. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. I have lost count of the number of times i have read lord of the rings. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. Hobbit dictionary for children here is a dictionary for children who want to read the hobbit.
Does it take longer to read the book or to watch the movie. I want to know because i am 66 of those into my first novel, and i set my goal at 350. So the length of these affects the pacing of your story, and the way the reader experiences it. The first chapter, the unexpected party and flies and spiders are the longest. Initially intended as a standalone story for children, it was later. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category.
And i believe pams book is good enough to one day be in that category. This, thorin, the runes name orcrist, the goblincleaver in the. The oxford english dictionary, which added an entry for the word in the 1970s, credits tolkien with coining it. It was published on 21 september 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the carnegie medal and awarded a prize from the new york herald tribune for best juvenile fiction. The latter tend to have larger, and therefore fewer, pages. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Since then, however, it has been noted that there is prior evidence of the word, in a 19thcentury list of legendary creatures. R download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. The number of pages also doesnt help much, as publishers use different typefaces, page sizes, font sizes, etc. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. For a few examples, lets start on the low end of word count where we have the great gatsby clocking in at approx. On one level, you could argue that word count, or length, is probably the last thing a fiction writer should worry about. Since this was the first book, rowling had more time to edit the book. Do you want the pace to be brisk to the reader and skip in a staccato.
Most people overlook a couple of hobbit books when enumerating how many of these books there really are. Horror is much like mystery in the sense that you dont want to drag these novels on too long. The hobbit seems to be the most negative of all tolkiens books though. Vocabulary from the hobbit learn with flashcards, games, and more for free. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. Im an avid reader, but suffice it to say none of these epic works are on my priority list at the moment bonfire of the vanities is next in my lineup, in case you were curious. How many times longer does it take to read the book. For those who like to keep track of their reading word count or those who want to encourage their kids to read more the harry potter books series is an. The number of pages also doesnt help much, as publishers use. However, since each tome blitzed the 100,000 word mark the. And there is also the lord of the rings which was published in two editions 19545 and 1965 during tolkiens lifetime, but also in at. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster grant uk.
Tolkiens approach, tone, style and intended audience was a different. I didnt know if you meant overall word count, or unique word count. The hobbit is the infamous story of bilbo baggins and his journey to help get the lands back for the dwarves. For book length, i chose to go with word count rather than page count, since theres so much variability when it comes to the number of words that get squeezed onto a single book page. There is a trap, however, in reading the hobbit after reading the lotr. Your job is to write a good story, and that means including all the detail needed to to make it good, and to leave out anything extraneous. How many words in 350 pages typed and double spaced. A vocabulary list featuring the hobbit tolkien ch610. Or are you a visually impaired reader who prefers largeprint editions.
The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. When judging the hobbit, it is tempting to grade it straight against the lotr trilogy. The first book, harry potter and the sorcerers stone, has 76,944 words. Suddenly inspired, he wrote the words, in a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. The vary in length from about ten pages to as much as 30 pages. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. An unexpected journey will have a small number of words per. But i had not read the hobbit or the silmarillion yet, and decided to put an end to that situation. These numbers are pulled from the original languages using logos bible softwareyou can see how i did it below.