Absolutely Unputdownable Books

[spacemonkey]

Just interested to know what books mumsnetters found absolutely impossible to put down ...

Here are some of mine:

• Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
• anything by Jane Austen
• Villette - Charlotte Bronte
• Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith
• If This Is A Man - Primo Levi
• His Dark Materials Trilogy - Philip Pullman
• The Wrong Boy - Willy Russell
• Moab is my Washpot - Stephen Fry
• Things Can Only Get Better - John O'Farrell
• The Consolations of Philosophy - Alain de Botton

and (ahem) all the Harry Potters

What are yours?

hoxtonchick, OldieMum, another Rose Tremain fan here. I loved Music and Silence and Restoration. For some reason I keep thinking of her as much older than she is, perhaps because her novels are so beautifully crafted. We all have a lot to thank the late, wonderful Malcolm Bradbury for!
Did anyone else really enjoy Michel Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White (am thinking that Wilkie Collins and Charles Palliser fans might enjoy the seething Victorian metropolis depicted)?
Oh and a colleague put me on to this superb independent publishing house, set up by two women and reissuing neglected 20th century women's writing. If anyone else on here treasures the book as artefact as well as a "good read", they might like to investigate - I really enjoyed the Monica Dickens and the Elizabeth Berridge short stories.
Persephone Books

Marina, thanks for the link to persephone books. I've ordered the books you mentioned.

Persephone books are fantastic. Very beautiful. Their shop is lovely, & they were very nice to ds when I took him there. It's also very near Coram's Fields so the kids get to run around & you get to buy books - perfect!

oooh hoxtonchick, how exciting
I work over in the aldwych, but often over your way (manchester sq this am) so we should meet up & have lunch maybe?

Robertson Davies esp the Deptford Trilogy.

John O'Farrell for laugh-out-loud

Ronald Frame - Sandmouth People

Alison Lurie

I also enjoyed An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain (?) Pears. Just read it to find out what the title means.....

All the talk of the Quincunx just reminds me how I don't get the chance to really get into long books now as I have the attention of a flea. But I would love to read it again.

hello bundle, yes, that would be great. am always up for lunch! i shall e-mail you i think.

poppyknot, you've read it before? Do you know the answer?

This thread is depressing. So many books...so little time

Pre-children I used to read like a demon (worked in a library so unlimited access!)..these days I'm lucky if I manage half a page before falling asleep.

Bought The Red Tent, on jimjam's recommendation, but haven't started it yet. And have been meaning to read Perfume for ages. I do read a hell of a lot of Rev. W. Awdry though

Hoxtonchick and Bundle - I'll be back at work near the Aldwych from late April (I'm on maternity leave at the moment). By then it would be warm enough to have a sandwich in Lincoln's Inn Fields.

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?

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

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!

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.

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.....

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

The MN book club looks great! I won't be joining in until I've read The Quincunx though.

Also got An Equal Music (Vikram Seth) and When We Were Orphans (Ishiguro) to read after that.

Oh and Adrian Mole The Cappuccino Years.

It's no good, I'll have to pack my job in and become a full time reader instead

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

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

Well, I received The Quincunx in this morning's post - it's a big mutha of a book isn't it!

Rae - The Quincunx is available on Amazon. I got a secondhand one from there for under £6 including postage

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

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.

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 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.

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.

Sounds like we have similar taste in books lilibet, so I'll be investigating the books on your list