The book you just couldn't put down

Mink

I know there are very similar threads about, but I thought this was a fairly precise book category.

So what book could you just not put down (or was a bit mentally painful when you did) & then you were horrified when you finished it and didn't know what to read next???

A. Carruthers

Alexandr Solzhenitsyn 'Cancer Ward'

Blazer

James Patterson's "Kiss the Girls".
Borrowed it off a mate once night because the tv was crap and he was raving about it.
Started reading it and couldn't put it down...cue almigthy fight over who got to read the book that night I won but it cost me a week's dish washing for it.
Well worth it..

Denerick

Jeffrey archer, 'as the crow flies' Read it all through one sleepless night. Archer is at his best with blockbusters...

lemon_sherbert

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I read pretty much non stop on a family holiday, and was constantly being given out to by my parents for ignoring everything about me but the book, while they had paid to cart me half way round the world! I still reread it every year, one of my favourites.

chenguin

Empress orchid - Anchee min
I was absolutely captivated by this book. Once I started reading it, that was it. Every spar second I had I was reading this book.

orangecake

The Magus by John Fowles was unputdownable. As was Perfume by Patrick Suskind. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami was read in about two days while glaring and shouting angrily at any who dared interrupt me! On Chesil Beach had a similar effect but luckily it was short so I only had to remove myself from the human race for a day.

Frowzy

"Seven steps to Eternity" by Stephen Turoff

and

"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Seabold

r3nu4l

Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

Denerick wrote: »

Jeffrey archer, 'as the crow flies' Read it all through one sleepless night. Archer is at his best with blockbusters...

I have this on my bookshelf, bought it in a charity shop as I'd never read any Archer before. Thanks to your recommendation Denerick, it's next on my list

Mink

orangecake wrote: »

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami was read in about two days while glaring and shouting angrily at any who dared interrupt me!

I found this at home the other day (someone left it in the gaff) so will definitely give it a crack, thanks for the recommendation

Mink

[quote=Frowzy;59289056
"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Seabold[/quote]

I'm reading "The Time Travellers Wife" by Audrey Neffenegger & absolutely love it - can't put it down. One of the reviews on the cover compares it to Lovely Bones so I'll probably get a copy of that soon

buck65

Ham on rye - Charles Bukowski

UpCork

'The Book Thief' Markus Zusak
'We Need to Talk about Kevin' Lionel Shriver
Both books by Khaled Hosseini 'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'.

These are 4 books that I read that really afffected me and that even now, long after reading them, I still think about.

cecilwinthorpe

UpCork wrote: »

'The Book Thief' Markus Zusak
'We Need to Talk about Kevin' Lionel Shriver
Both books by Khaled Hosseini 'The Kite Runner' and 'A Thousand Splendid Suns'.

These are 4 books that I read that really afffected me and that even now, long after reading them, I still think about.

I've just finished A Thousand Splendid Suns and have just started We Need To Talk About Kevin and I have The Book Thief lined up for my next read

2 books that i couldnt put down were "My Sisters Keeper" and "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult.

John

r3nu4l wrote: »

Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

Must have been difficult not putting that one down, it weighs a ton!

I absolutely devoured The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I still get chills thinking of it.

Mink

A Quiet Vendetta by RJ Ellory

It's like Goodfellas, some sort of family movie, romance & Fidel Castro Cuba mixed together. Great book

Persiancowboy

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - an absolutely fantastic story and read. The Secret History by Donna Tartt was anoter book that you just can't help getting totally lost in.

paddyb125

Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time:D

raptorman

Spares by Micheal Marshal Smith

Quality

John wrote: »

I absolutely devoured The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I still get chills thinking of it.

I Read the road when I was heavily pregnant:eek::eek:. Must say I thought it was a great book.

I also loved "A thousand Splendid suns" and I think everyone should at sometime should read "the boy in the striped pyjamas."

hatful

James Frey "A million little pieces" and "The beach" by Alex Garland are my 'fast food' literature that I couldn't put down.

Books you can't put down....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/mar/17/robert-rankin-stephen-king

intermittentmay

The end of Mr. Y, by Scarlett Thomas. Amazing.

John

Quality wrote: »

I Read the road when I was heavily pregnant:eek::eek:.

:eek: indeed, THAT scene must have been really disturbing!

intermittentmay

paddyb125 wrote: »

Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time:D

Absolutely wonderful.

cashback

hatful wrote: »

James Frey "A million little pieces" and "The beach" by Alex Garland are my 'fast food' literature that I couldn't put down.

Books you can't put down....
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/mar/17/robert-rankin-stephen-king

I found the same with the Beach, the chapters are short and I would always think to myself 'Just one more'.

HAPPYGIRL

A long long way by Sebastian barry.

osarusan

The Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.

The World According to Garp by John Irving.

The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe.

The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

There are dozens, if not hundreds more, but these are a few that spring to mind.

Brown.Eyed.Girl

Frowzy wrote: »

"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold

I agree. I'm reading Almost Moon at the moment and I'm finding it a bit of a let down compared to this.

pikachucheeks

Memoirs of a Geisha.

Loved that book!

rororoyourboat

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

mrsdewinter

pikachucheeks wrote: »

Memoirs of a Geisha.

Loved that book!

Love it too. Bought it in galway before boarding the bus to dublin airport where I was flying off to amsterdam. Had the book read before I got to schiphol. It's funny: it's quite flawed but I still reach for it when I can't sleep

FruitLover

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. It's a reasonably hefty tome, but I flew through it, and was still hungry for more by the end.

ReacherCreature

Recently 'Apache' by Ed Macy and 'In The Company Of Heroes' by Michael Durant. Brilliant books by Helicopter pilots.

Miskatonic

Persiancowboy wrote: »

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova - an absolutely fantastic story and read. The Secret History by Donna Tartt was anoter book that you just can't help getting totally lost in.

Agree with you there on The Historian, excellent book. I read (or struggled through!) The Little Friend by Donna Tartt and that really just put me off reading anymore of her books.

Probably the most recent one I just had to keep reading was the Time Travellers Wife.

Alfasud

Mink wrote: »

I know there are very similar threads about, but I thought this was a fairly precise book category.

So what book could you just not put down (or was a bit mentally painful when you did) & then you were horrified when you finished it and didn't know what to read next???

The book "Where Are You Now" by Mary Higgins Clarke was such a read

silvine

The Historian? Ugh I hated that drawn out drivel.

The Road was very hard to put down. Also A Year on the Killing Streets and War and Peace (after the first two hundred pages)

Mink

pikachucheeks wrote: »

Memoirs of a Geisha.

Loved that book!

+1 Loved it

UpCork

There are several books that I have to say, I would have cancelled something very important if I had to, in order to sit down and finish them. Also, these books I also read in a very short period of time as they were so engrossing.

In no particular order they are:

"We Need to Talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver
"Star of the Sea" by Joseph O' Connor
"The Book Thief" by Marcus Zusak*
'The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
"The 19th Wife" by David Ebershoff
" A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini.

I have read many, many other 'good' books, but these six I would class as 'excellent' books and are the ones that I have thought about for some time after reading them.

CelineLarr

Uhmmmm ......when I finished the Harry Potter series, I did feel like my reasons for living had diminished somewhat ...lol!

Other books I was addicted to, read impatiently and then was bitterly unhappy once finished are:
The Secret History
We Need to Talk about Kevin
The Thirteenth Tale
The Time Traveler's Wife
Special Topics in Calamity Physics

I'm sure there are others, but these stand out :rolleyes:

CelineLarr

Miskatonic wrote: »

Agree with you there on The Historian, excellent book. I read (or struggled through!) The Little Friend by Donna Tartt and that really just put me off reading anymore of her books.

Probably the most recent one I just had to keep reading was the Time Travellers Wife.

Yay to the Time Traveler's Wife, but bad choice on reading The Little Friend first. The Secret History is her masterpieces and you really do have to read it. I seriously disliked The Little Friend!

UpCork

CelineLarr wrote: »

Yay to the Time Traveler's Wife, but bad choice on reading The Little Friend first. The Secret History is her masterpieces and you really do have to read it. I seriously disliked The Little Friend!

Have never read any Donna Tartt books.

I read 'The Time Traveller's Wife' over a year ago and I'm still undecided as to whether I like it or not. At times I thought it was great, at times badand then disturbing. But maybe what I'm missing is combining all these factors together and making it great

oxygen_old

I might get lambasted for this, but I think people are naming brilliant books they liked, instead of page turner books that the couldnt put down. For example, any gripping thriller, say a bourne book is a page turner. Its not as good as, for example, Star of the Sea, but more page turnery than star of the sea. Thats the way it is written.

The absolute most addictive page turner I read was The Day after Tomorrow by Allan Folsom (nothing to do with the rubbish movie). I remember reading that book over a weekend, and its a big one 700+ pages afair. Its literally the most unputdownable book Ive read, not the best, but the most unputdownable.

And then after all that, bam, the ending f**king rocks. Rocks socks.

In case its not clear I recommend this book highly.

Hermy

oxygen wrote: »

I might get lambasted for this, but I think people are naming brilliant books they liked, instead of page turner books that the couldnt put down. For example, any gripping thriller, say a bourne book is a page turner. Its not as good as, for example, Star of the Sea, but more page turnery than star of the sea. Thats the way it is written.

The absolute most addictive page turner I read was The Day after Tomorrow by Allan Folsom (nothing to do with the rubbish movie). I remember reading that book over a weekend, and its a big one 700+ pages afair. Its literally the most unputdownable book Ive read, not the best, but the most unputdownable.

And then after all that, bam, the ending f**king rocks. Rocks socks.

In case its not clear I recommend this book highly.

On that subject - and I'll probably be banned for saying so - The DaVinci Code was a great page turner!:o
But regarding tales well told The Summer of Katya by Trevanian was unputdownable.

damselnat

Any of the Harrry Potter series....I'm sure some records must have been set how quickly I devoured those tomes....though I'm not sure how much it counts, as some of that was racing my friends to be the first to know the ending!
It's a long time since I've read a book I really couldn't wait to get back to...oh how I miss sneaking novels inside my schoolbooks!

getz

i found a old book in a shop it was from 1866 the book its called -;the life of charlotte bronte; it is by ec gaskell .it opened my eyes to the victorians, i often now go to haworth where charlotte and her sisters lived just so i can understand how life was at that time-

Lovecat

I read The Beach by Alex Garland when I was in Irish college on Cape Clear...the weather was perfect so it seemed very fitting. I couldn't put it down for the three days I was reading it and all my friends were giving out to me for being antisocial!
Another brilliant (and unsung) one is I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak; I read it through twice in one week. The only other person I know who's read it is the friend who lent it to me.

Blush_01

getz wrote: »

i found a old book in a shop it was from 1866 the book its called -;the life of charlotte bronte; it is by ec gaskell .it opened my eyes to the victorians, i often now go to haworth where charlotte and her sisters lived just so i can understand how life was at that time-

I love Mrs Gaskell - she has a fantastic writing style. I thought North and South was a page turner.

Sebastian Barry - Secret Scripture, Gregory David Roberts - Shantaram, Stephanie Meyer - The Host, Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex and Jasper Fforde's first three Tuesday Next books were all recent page turners for me. I couldn't put them down. I also loved Donna Tartt's The Little Friend and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. Whether they're critically acclaimed or not, once I really started reading those books and found my rhythm I devoured them. They were all compulsive reads in their own way. (Or maybe I'm just a compulsive person...)

Blush_01

Lovecat wrote: »

Another brilliant (and unsung) one is I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak; I read it through twice in one week. The only other person I know who's read it is the friend who lent it to me.

I've only read The Book Thief but that was another serious page-turner. I've read it a few times since, and each time I find myself going back into the book like I did the first time and burning a trail through it!

satcie101

Cain and Abel

Victor McDade

Wonderland Avenue - Danny Sugerman

He also wrote Jim Morrison's autobiography (No one here gets out alive) but his own was a better page turner IMO. Fantastic stuff.

turgon

savemejebas wrote: »

He also wrote Jim Morrison's autobiography