Books you can’t put down

[callmemadam]

It’s wonderful to find a book you want to get back to all the time, when you resent every minute you can’t spend reading it. Here’s some recommendations from readers at Abe books. I get a lot of mail from Abe. I’d prefer it if they’d use the energy to update their clunky website.

I notice that someone picks a novel by Somerset Maugham, recently discussed on Cornflower. Last year, I couldn’t put down The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first Flavia de Luce book by Alan Bradley. Three years ago it was The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, which I read during one sleepless night.
A gripping story seems to be the secret. Do you have any 'couldn't put it down' recommendations?

Comments

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

At the moment I am loving the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. I am onto the third book now and it is as utterly compelling as the first two. These are the first books I've read in ages where I will go on reading into the small hours, even though I'm really tired, because I just have to find out what happens next.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I just have to find out what happens next.

That's it exactly! I hope you've laid in a good supply of similar stuff for the next few weeks :-) Robert Goddard is good for thrillers.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I read volume 1 of the Harlem Cycle a couple of weeks ago and absolutely could not put it down as the action just kept on coming. I'd never even heard of the author previously, but wow.

Anything by Tom Wolfe has the same effect.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Don't know the first one. Tom Wolfe: yes.

[ramblingfancy.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I know it's really not a well-written book, but you're unable to put it down just the same. I found Twilight absolutely gripping even though I knew it was rubbish. Oh dear, how embarrassing is that confession! You'll have to knock me off your friends' list now;)

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Never! Though I've no intention of reaading it.

Sometimes They Stay With You ..

[tisfolly.livejournal.com]

I'm reading 'The Thirty Nine Steps' right now as it happens.

My recommendation is 'The Book Thief' by Marcus Zusak. When I was reading it I couldn't put it down and when I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it. I often glance over at it on the shelf and I'm off again, pondering over it all over again.
'The Lovely Bones' was another. I read that years ago now it seems and couldn't put it down or stop thinking about it.

Re: Sometimes They Stay With You ..

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Opnions are so divided over The Book Thief. It's one of those books I feel I ought to try.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Agree, although I do like Greenmantle once you've got through the first chapter.

[minniemoll.livejournal.com]

I once stayed up till about 5am reading the last three or four books in Lorna Hill's Dancer series (not the Wells ones), but I think that was probably more to do with my state of mind at the time than any intrinsic value in the books.

But I do get obsessed with reading any even mildly gripping tale, especially mysteries - I very seldom read them in bed these days, as it inevitably leads to a very sleepy next day.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Yes, I can't imagine Lorna Hill keeping me up! These days, I'm careful not to read thrillers in bed but leave them firmly downstairs.

[(Anonymous)]

I just saw the tv version of The 39 Steps with Rupert Penry-Jones and it was fantastic. I liked it better than the old Hitchcock movie. I read the book a few years back and liked it, but not the second one so much.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I didn't like that version at all; so different from the book. I don't like the Kenneth More film either but quite enjoy the Robert Powell one.

[lethe1]

I read Her Fearful Symmetry recently, and even though for a while it looked like it was going to be a saccharine romance involving a ghost and I found it rather ridiculous in places, I whipped through it in three days all the same.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I expect I'm cutting off my nose to spite my face, but Audrey Niffenegger is one of those authors I have a strong resistance to reading. Don't know why!

[lethe1]

I read some very bad reviews when The Time-Travel(l)er's Wife came out, so I felt no urge to read that. But when I saw the many positive (mainly bloggers') reviews for HFS it sounded quite different and like something I might enjoy. And it was a compelling read, as I said, but not a very good book and I'm not keeping it. I don't think you'll miss out if you keep on resisting! :-)

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip! There's plenty of other books to read.

[lizarfau.livejournal.com]

That feeling of not wanting to put a book down is something I too rarely experience as an adult - I associate it with childhood. As an adult, it's mainly mysteries/thrillers I've felt that way about, though most recently I didn't want to put down Kate Saunders' Beswitched.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I've found that, too. Whipped through Beswitched and also read the three Mayne choir school books in two days.

[gghost.livejournal.com]

Off the top of my head, 'Family Roundabout' (Richmal Crompton),
'The School of Essential Ingredients' (Erica Bauermeister) and the new Flavia de Luce.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

All on my list!

[geraniumcat.livejournal.com]

When I am very weary - as I am now - I like Victoria Clayton and Elizabeth Pewsey. Have you tried either? They aren't really exciting, but I get so absorbed in the lives of the characters. In fact, I think I'll go and find one shortly.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Completely new to me! I'll look out for them.