... It's probably not really the longest work of literature, but it took me nearly two years to get through it all. ... All approximately 2200 pages of it.

The Three Kingdoms, which probably nearly everyone at least knows about as a classic tale of an actual period in Chinese history in which the land was in a continuous state of division and war (about 150-300 AD from my best estimate; it was an extraordinarily long book and there are even a few of the more important details I'm not remembering accurately), beginning from the time when the current Han dynasty was threatened to be overturned by a group of rebels called the Yellow Turbans, to the time when one of three major provinces Wu, Shu, and Wei, established in the ensuing times of war over who - though once loyal to the Han - would turn on each other in a tumultuous stream of alternating alliances and betrayals in the several generations to follow, would eventually conquer the other two and establish a new reign as what I believe to be called the Jin dynasty.

Now, this is probably a serious niche reading that only those who can actually stay awake through page after page of campaigns, conquests, character dynamics and traits stated as fact rather than explored by the opinions and mindset of the writer, will find any value in this work. I'm fairly certain I have one of the more unorthodox and casually-translated version of the book, and I still was pleased to become absorbed in this area of Chinese culture by the end of it all. It's amazing to find how extraordinarily disciplined and fiercely loyal nearly all warriors whose lives were described at length in the tale from each of the three warring kingdoms, and it is captivating to see both sides of astonishing humanity and cruelty show through in each of them according to the the gravity of their situation, without bias from the author. The Three Kingdoms is a work of non-fiction, after all.

I may not understand or remember everything I've read over the course of the two or so years it took to finish this, but I was intrigued. There were many memorable characters - all very real as far as it is established - especially those such as Imperial Uncle Liu Xuande and legendary warrior of the long flowing beard Guan Yu whom I unknowingly grew up with through the Dynasty Warriors fighting game on the PS1. ... And even these two, whom if anything are probably seen as the most honorable and virtuous of heroes in the history of Wu, Shu, and Wei, had their moments of dishonor and war-hungry villainy. the history accounted in this book is nothing if not complicated for the very reason that there is no distinct line of good and evil, or even oppressed and tyrannical. And of course, through reading you inevitably get a glimpse into the ways of the Chinese (for that time, anyway; I don't keep up with world history or its present condition at all, I admit)


So, there's my recommendation for this infamous literary work, and take it from someone who admits to hardly have ever read a piece of non-fiction in the twenty-seven years of his life of generally enthusiastic reading.

My Lord, SK. 2200 pages is a muhfuggin' monster! But I've always felt kind of a passing interest because of the Dynasty Warriors games.

You should look up Larry Gonick, he wrote a world history...


...in comic book form.

And yes it is as epic as that sounds.