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Original poster

Best book you've ever read, that you absolutely couldn't put down?

81 replies

PollyPocketLucyLocket · 03/01/2020 06:38

I'm looking for suggestions. Inspired by another thread about getting love of reading back.

I would rather like something that made you feel some emotion. I'd love one that is so chilling, it keeps you stuck to your chair over fear Grin

Sad ones would be good too. Just to balance it out, which books have made you laugh, or feel positive?

OP posts:
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buckeejit · 18/01/2020 23:32

The blue castle-L M Montgomery

funmummy48 · 18/01/2020 12:18

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It is fabulous. I couldn't put it down. I think it's probab!y THE best book I've ever read.

VenusClapTrap · 18/01/2020 12:13

Eek typo - “beat me TO it”

PPopsicle · 18/01/2020 12:02

The Handmaids Tale

Cobblersandhogwash · 18/01/2020 12:02

Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada

VenusClapTrap · 18/01/2020 08:22

I came on to say Wide Sargasso Sea but see someone beat me too it. I was lent it by a colleague; started reading it on the train home, finished it at 6am the next morning, in one session, start to finish. Literally could not put it down. Went in to work that day and handed it back to her, and we spent all morning talking about it.

I’ve never done that with a book before.

rosegoldwatcher · 12/01/2020 17:08

Precious Bane by Mary Webb - it is beautifully written (once you get a rhythm for the Shropshire dialect,) pulls at the heartstrings with pity and hope for Prue Sarn and has a happy ending.

winterinmadeira · 12/01/2020 15:51

Pride and prejudice
Bonfire of the vanities
Girl on a train
The secret history

All very different and yet enthralling in their own ways

neversleepagain · 12/01/2020 15:43

Educated by Tara Westover
Women in the White Kimono

Loved both and couldn't put them down.

PuddleglumtheMarshWiggle · 12/01/2020 09:22

I've enjoyed a lot of the books mentioned here but my best ever was Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. It's science fiction but the author states that it didn't have to be set in space. His original concept was an entirely different setting. I read it in 2 days and still love it 30 years later.

Howmanysleepsnow · 12/01/2020 00:51

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.
It’s Jane Eyre from the mad wife’s point of view and is the most striking and beautifully written book I’ve ever read.

Ellmau · 12/01/2020 00:41

Dorothy Dunnett, Lymond chronicles - series of six books, starts with The Game Of Kings. Brilliant historical novels, very emotionally intense particularly the last book.

pallisers · 11/01/2020 23:30

I also loved Susan Howatch The Starbridge Chronicles. - 6 in the series

Yes! I loved these. And the St Benet ones too. Really really engrossing.

yellowsun · 11/01/2020 22:55

Just listened to Home Fire after reading this and thought it was excellent.

pallisers · 11/01/2020 22:42

Nearly anything by Anthony Trollope sucked me in but I especially loved The Last Chronicle of Barset, Can you Forgive Her? and The American Senator. He writes lovely heroines/anti-heroines.

Many of Stephen Kings are unputdownable (and I came to him very late - thought I wouldn't like him). The Shining, The Dead Zone, and Misery particularly. I listened to Misery on tape and I screamed out loud in the car at one point.

I read Pride and Prejudice straight through when I read it first. My uncle in his 60s was given a copy of Jane Eyre and stayed up all night to finish it - he called me saying "why didn't you tell me the classics were like this?"

I never wanted A God in Ruins to end. I loved Gilead and there is an american writer, Cheryl Mandelson who has written a trilogy set in NYC which is lovely lovely lovely.

HollysTeflonSeptum · 11/01/2020 22:40

The Yellow Wallpaper - C Perkins Gilman
The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
The Stand - Stephen King
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
Wolf Hall/Bring up the Bodies - Mantel
Burial Rites - Hannah Kent
Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller

All a bit spooky and gothic, all favourites, all rereads.

MangoM · 11/01/2020 22:35

My tip is Headhunters by Jo Nesbo. Thriller with some dark humour thrown in.

FamilyOfAliens · 11/01/2020 22:26

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn - a fantastic thriller that I couldn’t put down.

elmosducks · 11/01/2020 22:14

Kite runner. I couldn't go to sleep.

GreekOddess · 11/01/2020 22:04

Dracula!

ilovepixie · 11/01/2020 21:59

Intensity by Dean Koontz. It's not the "best" book I've ever read, but the story is very chilling. It's one of those you can stop reading because you HAVE to see what happens next. It's no literary masterpiece to be sure, but it's a great read. Very much like a movie playing in your mind and very freaky.

Very scary book.

Satsuma2 · 11/01/2020 21:46

The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye was a book I wasn't able to put down.

dementedma · 11/01/2020 21:45

Another vote for Middlesex
The Magic Cottage is terrifying. I was scared to go to sleep
On the Origins of Findo Gask made me laugh like a drain.
The Night Circus is another favourite

ClaudiaNaughton · 11/01/2020 21:39

The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith I couldn’t put down and I didn’t want it to end.

happytobeheresparkl · 11/01/2020 21:39

Flowers in the attic trilogy
Women who think to much
Delirium