I absolutely adored Nick Hornsby's 'High Fidelity', not just because it involves music and the obsessions it can create, which I totally understand, but the wry take on the human condition, which you will identify with, even if you don't care two hoots about any band on the planet! Failing that, I know it's fashionable to knock the guy, especially recently, but good stories are still good stories, and Jeffrey Archer's stories are excellent - 'Kane & Abel' makes a good start.
Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy is wothout a doubt the funniest book I have ever read and for years have been able to pick it up and open it at any page, read and get annoyed at any interruption 'til I'm ready to put it down.
Lying by Wendy Perriam has a lot of the ingredients of a good holiday read - sex and Catholicism feature prominently - but, as a thinking book that deals with fidelity and truth (and, of course, lying), it's a cut above the average 'women's novel'. ISBN 0 7206 1128 8 paperback @ �7.99