Great books, unputdownable!

[isj032]

Has anyone ever read a book which has seemingly stuck to your fingers, rivetted you to your seat and generally gave life to dead wood.
Your favourite books please...
I really enjoyed Terry Pratchets' Discworld series until i read enough to think him contemptuous. Anyone read anything a little deeper? Something old and challenging maybe, like the library staff whom i had to blow dust off before they could see me to the door without useful advice!

[speedyvic]

Anything by Dean Koontz. I read his books within 2 nights. His Frankenstein books are the best, can't wait till the next one's out.

[isj032]

I've read the one with the clown (forget the title), although i really enjoyed that too, Koontz has a knack for sentiment, and a little of false memory, couldn't get into that one. I'll keep an eye out for monsters next time i'm at the library, literally frankenstein?
"can't wait till the next one's out" - I'll bet they say that all the time at the library, poof

[willa]

Not deep or profound, but immensely enjoyable: anything by Washington satirist Christopher Buckley, including Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, God Is My Stockbroker, No Way To Treat a First Lady, and Florence of Arabia.

Can't put 'em down until they're done.

[mandimoo]

phillip pulmans His Dark Materials trilogy - Northern Lights, Subtle Knife andAmber Spyglass. Supposedly for older children, but when I read them in my early 30's they became my favourite books. I find it hard to believe children would grasp some of the concepts in those books. before this my faves were early stephen king and also some clive barker - great and secret show, everville (these 2 are a series If i remember) and weaveworld. never read any terry pratchett though, so dont know if these would be more challenging.

[spudqueen]

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Indian In The Cupboard/Return Of The Indian/The Secret Of The Indian/The Mystery Of The Cupboard by Lynne Reid Banks
Anything by Thor Heyderdahl
David Copperfield and A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Harry Potter
The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

[spanner7853]

Time Travellers wife by Audrey Niffennegger and Memoirs of a Geisher by Arthur Golden, Tell No One by Harlan Coben and Perfume by Patrick Suskind.

[robbo82]

Donna Tartt- The Secret History
Luke Rhinehart- The Dice Man
Mark Haddon- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
Paul Auster- New York Trilogy
Stephen King- The Stand (or pretty much anything by him)
Ken Kesey- One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
Emily Bronte- Wuthering Heights
Daphne Du Maurier- Rebecca
Wilkie Collins- The Moonstone
Raymond Chandler- The Big Sleep
Joseph Heller- Catch-22

[Senga 2]

Totally agree with robbo. How about A suitable Boy; romanitas; The God of Small Things; The Lovely Bones; anything by Christopher Brookmyre, Glen Duncan, Douglas Coupland or try some of the classics i.e Poe, Thackery, Dickens.

[Trillipse]

look for tibor fischer - the thought gang, the collector collector, under the frog; some of the other stuff isn't quite as great. also some martin amis stuff is v good - other people, the information, money.

don't know if it would be your cup of tea, but charles bukowski is good reading - post office, women, factotum.

also, a great book whose author i can't recall or be bothered to look up, The (or An) Innocent Millionaire. very cheesy but pleasant.

[helliebobs]

The Secret History - Donna Tartt
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
The Wasp Factory -Iain Banks
Ask the Dust - John Fante
Hunger - Knut Hamsun
Kitchen - Banana Yoshimoto
The House of Sleep - Jonathan Coe
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

[Octavius]

I actually find most books unputdownable, especially as I tend to read about a book a week on the tube. I like most 'sword and sandal' books (and TP Discworld as well). So....

Conn Iggulden - Emperor Series (4 books)
Bernard Cornwell - Not the Sharpe stuff, but the Grail Quest trilogy (Vagabond, Harlequin & Heretic) and the Warlord chronicles.
Valerio Massimo Manfredi - anything really (except - do not waste any part of your life reading The Oracle)
Tom Sharpe - any (but Ancestral Vices was particularly good imo)
Robert Rankin - dark humour but very good esp. The Brentford Trilogy
And one other that I really enjoyed and I am looking forward to his new book (A Spot of Bother) is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

[raysparx1]

Two books that I thought were great reading were,

Addict by Stephen Smith,

A very "Addictive" book describing how a man fought his way back from the brink of drug addiction and it is a true account.

Angelas Ashes by Frank mcCourt,

True story of poverty in Ireland,very good read

[jump79]

Not a book but a play, "A taste of honey"- Shelagh Delaney

'The sound and the fury'-William Faulkner