Absolutely Unputdownable Books

Have just finished The Little Friend by Donna Tartt and found it unputdownable, like her first one, The Secret History. Other unputdownables:
Bridget Jones (both) by Helen Fielding
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Anything by Iain Banks
The Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

I have taken a plunge downmarket, & am now reading Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann - totally gripping. Oh yes, & I should probably admit my sneaky Jilly Cooper addiction too. But I mostly don't read trash, honest!

Oh yes, what about the 'Over Sea, Under Stone' books! I loved those as a child, and re-read them as an adult. I love mystical King Arthur tyoe things.

The Chronicles of Narnia - children's books, I know, but I'd only read The Lion etc ... as a child and recently got the set in a book sale. I just love the allegory, and the best book has to be the final one, The Last Battle.

Oh I just remembered I liked The Corrections so much actually went to watch Franzen do a reading which was oddly thrilling...

And some more (just because more fun than working)
Rosamund Lehmann
Marghanita Laski
Anything by Jane Smiley but especially Duplicate Keys and Horse Heaven
I Capture the Castle
Franny and Zooey, Salinger
The older Paul Austers
The new Siri Husvedt, can't remember what it's called
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Robertson Davies - all of them
Elizabeth Gaskell
Child in Time: the only really great McEwen - controversial
Middlemarch
The Patricia Highsmith Ripley books
Richard ford: The Sportswriter, Independence Day
Hmm, still thinking...

What a great thread. Agree with all Wilkie Collins fans - there are lots of them and all good reads. Anyone else for Updike (Rabbit books best)?

Hi marthamoo - yes first baby and very nervous I am too!

I love An Equal Music, totally wonderful and very sad book. I also liked A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth - that was my holiday read last year.

I like Blake Morrison's stuff, but don't expect a light read:

As If - about the Bulger trial
When did you last see your Father
Things my Mother never told me

Also recently enjoyed Atomised by Michael Hollebeqc (?) - very odd

The No1 Ladies Detective stuff is good, but the last one not so much.

Halfway thru' Piano Tuner - pretty good.

Have to mention one of the best books I have ever read:

Tapping the Source by Kem Nunn (don't bother with any of his others though)

Just thinking about this book makes shivers run down my spine.

I love all of Barbara Trapido?s books.
Recently finished Life Of Pi and was mesmerised by the imagery. Midnight?s Children (Salman Rushdie) has to be one of my most haunting reads along with the Regeneration trilogy (Pat Barker). I read Dave Gorman?s books for a lighter read and loved them - they are both one night books and are great for a one off long flight or journey. Not intellectually stimulating, but good reads.
I am now in the middle of John Simpson?s latest book about Saddam Hussein and finding it heavy going, so tragic and gruesome but helping me come to a better understanding of some of the issues behind the recent nightmare in Iraq.
I try to alternate fiction with factual books to keep a balance, don?t have much of a preference bt. the two.

Hoxtonchick and Marina - another Robertson Davies fan here! (My DH too!)

I have looked everywhere for quincunx and can't get it, but on your recommendations I have jsut bought:

The Surgeon by T Gerritson
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
When we were orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro

My hubby now groans when I come on this site as he knows what I'm like with books

Hope they are good everyone and feel free to recommend more if you can think of somewhere to put em cos I refuse to put them in the attic.

Hejust hopes you don't start one on music cos I love that too

Lucy, ooh the new books - I miss that! First baby? Come back in the bar sometime soon.

Twink, another Sher fan, we'll soon out number the Quincunx ones

I saw Richard Third, and have seen him in other stuff and am really annoyed that I cant get to Othello

Marthamoo - I work in a library too so have access to all the lovely new books when they come in Have read The Red Tent and can really recommend it although as i'm 8 months pregnant I did have to cross my legs for a lot of it.....

Ooh Spacemonkey, I thought I was the only fan of Year of the King ! It was the first book I read when I cried at the end because I never wanted to finish it.

It was my O'level English Lit play & I saw Sher & RSC perform it at the Barbican and have been hooked on theatre ever since.

I DID know but owing to a huge amount of memory loss after DD 1 and 2, I will be able to read it as if for the first time..........sorry!

It was still then in the summer of 02. I wasn't there last year.

fab oldiemum, hoxtonchick...now the weather's getting better - is that lovely tent place still in in lincoln's inn, that does nice salads etc?