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

Misery by Stephen King was the book I couldn't put down.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller was one of the funniest, but I do have a warped sense of humour!

Duncton Wood (no body has ever heard of last one but it's a bit like watership down)I I have. In fact I had a clear out in the house recently and just forced myself to.send it and "The Stoner Eagles" to the charity shop😀

The Stand
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
Anno Dracula Kim Gordon - I loved the concept.
Watcher Dean Koontz (Actually a lot of DKs books are more clever and insightful than people would think while they are dismissing the genre)
Servant of the Bones Anne Rice.
Diary of a Nobody is very funny (and a bit sad too.)
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
1984 George Orwell
Watership Down

Dark Valley (Joe Donnolly)

Started reading in the bath. 4 hours later I was still in there, still reading. Hadn’t even added more hot water I was so engrossed. Also, one of the only books that has brought me to tears.

Larry McMurthy 'Lonesome Dove'
Marcel Pagnol 'Jean de Florette'
Donna Tartt 'The Goldfinch'

@longhaulstress You are the first person I've seen to suggest "These is My Words" It truly is an amazing book but nobody has ever heard of it.
If you want sad OP I'd also put "A Song for Issy Bradley" by Carys Bray on the list. Couldn't put it down.

The Siege by Helen Dunmore. Harrowing in parts but couldn't put it down.

Second Middlesex - not read it for a while but it is definitely compelling and keeps you reading.

Anything by Kate Atkinson, but maybe starting with the Jackson Brodie books (Case Histories is the first one).

Half of a Yellow Sun - by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

For chilling and page turning any of Lisa Jewell’s recent books, especially Then she was gone and the most recent ‘The Family Upstairs’.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

Also agree about Home Fire for something that makes you cry, another one is Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout.

I loved Middlesex too although I didn't read it for ages as I thought it was about the county.

Any Human Heart
The Heart's Invisible Furies
Tall Chimneys

Belgravia by Julian Fellowes

The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford

A Tree grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

@Blackforesthotchoc

I know, i hated it, but it had to happen, downsizing meant I just had to get rid of them all - but I just couldn't quite do it. I have 2 shelves now. One for fiction and one for non fiction. I used to have well in excess of 500 books. I did it bit by bit. Grouped them into similar tastes and gave them away as freebies through Facebook. So at least I felt they were going to a good home

Couldn't let my Pratchett's go though.

I second A Little Life. It hurt my heart to read it! All The Light We Cannot See is a wonderful book too. I also really enjoy Patrick Gale as an author. Very tenderly written. I love these threads.

@Khione - I've thought about doing this hit getting rid of the books seems somehow personal in a way that getting rid of other things doesn't. I know I should do as most of them won't actually be read again...

Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides. Amazing book

Duncton wood (no body has ever heard of last one but it's a bit like watership down)
@TinklyLittleLaugh @Blackforesthotchoc
The guy who wrote the Duncton Wood chronicles has written an amazing book about disabled people called Skallagrig. I thoroughly recommend it.

Also wanted to recommend Skallagrig. I've recently downsized and got rid of about 500 books (only read on Kindle now). I've only kept my full Terry Pratchett collection and Skallagrig as fiction books.

I also loved Susan Howatch The Starbridge Chronicles. - 6 in the series. She also wrote Penmarric which I think had a television adaptation.
Also loved the the Winston Graham, Poldark novels years ago before the TV version.

I am Pilgrim
My lovely wife
Price and prejudice

Obviously (see my username) I second/third anything by P G Wodehouse (the Psmith books are genius, as well as Jeeves & Wooster and the Blandings Castle books). Also Jo Nesbo, very chilling although I found the later Harry Hole books a bit formulaic. The first two were fantastic.

The Bernie Gunther books by Philip Kerr are really great if you like detective novels / novels set in the 1930s and 1940s. Anything by Robert Harris and John Le Carre who just gets better and better.

Classics-wise, I love Madame Bovary, anything by Jane Austen, Emile Zola, and A Tale of Two Cities and Little Dorritt by Charles Dickens.

I am Pilgrim, a spy thriller which I could NOT put down. Chilling in an “oh fuck me this could actually happen” way.

@EnthusiasmIsDisturbed Yes to Dark Matter, really scary. Her second one, Thin Air is just as good. Have you read it?

Blackforest The guy who wrote the Duncton Wood chronicles has written an amazing book about disabled people called Skallagrig. I thoroughly recommend it.

For funny I loved Marian Keyes This Charming Man (which also has a serious storyline).

Dracula
Home Fire
Birdsong
The Secret History
The Interestings
Madame Bovary
Ghost by Robert Harris
Rebecca

are all ones I remember not being able to put down.

These is my words by Nancy e Turner.
Was/is just incredible.

A suitable boy, Rebecca, Watership down, Duncton wood (no body has ever heard of last one but it's a bit like watership down)

Margot you are my type of people, Jeeves and darling buds of may are absolutely my go to feel good gentle humour books.

I just finished Swan Song as recommended on another thread and couldn’t put that down, chilling dystopia.

I like the Lee Child books for gripping action. Also Ben Aaronovitch’s Rivers of London series (the novels not the graphic books).