If I tell you some books I have loved, can anyone recommend something I would like?

[BlameItOnTheBogey]

Books that I have most enjoyed are; To kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, A Town Called Alice. YOu get the picture. I really want to read a Good book. Not one that is forgettable as soon as you put it down.

Any suggestions?

Any other Neville Shute, especially, On The Beach, Far Country and Trustee for a Tool Room, thinkhe also wrote The Pied Piper which was an amazing book.

recently The letters of the Mitford Sisters I really enjoyed

Daphne du Maurier

William Boyd - Any Human Heart, or any of his.

Have you tried looking your books up on Amazon and they suggest books for you.

Very good usually - gets me everytime.

I love all those

ones i enjoyed John Irving: A prayer for Owen Meany, The Hotel New Hampshire
Paul Auster: the book of illusions
Isabeelle Allendre - anything really

will keep thinkig

Thanks so much for all the replies. I know MN would come up trumps. Am off to look up the ones recommended on Amazon now. I haven't even heard of most of these which is great!

I did try using the Amazon suggestions thing but it is thrown by the fact that I have bought loads of random books for family members (e.g. 'how to do flicky hairstyles in 3 easy steps' for my 9 year old niece, or 'build your own paper dinosaur from a toilet roll' for my 4 year old nephew) so it keeps recommending really bizarre things.

Cold Comfort Farm as well is brilliant.

have you read the time travellers wife...i forget the author but could never forget the book....

or The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini.

both fantastic {in my opinion...}

Round the Bend is my favourite Nevil Shute by a very long way.

I second The Time Traveller's Wife - but be prepared for some serious sobbing.

Have you tried Jane Austen? You get used to the language within a couple of pages and they are great reads.

And I can't recommend John Le Carre often enough - he's a superb writer.

And some F Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby or Tender Is The Night for starters.

Tender is the night is fabulous
If not now when? by Primo Levi
The Corrections by Jonathan Frantzen

Have to say that I thought the Time Traveller's Wife was a steaming pile of hokum tho

Oooh good more recommendations. Yes have read the Kite Runner and a Thousand Splendid Suns. Both are really fabulous and made me bawl. I haven't read Time T's wife and might look that up for my next read. I never really got on with Jane Austen for some reason. Cold comfort farm I have heard of and will also look up (and I clearly need to look at other N Shute's as well). Thanks so much for taking time to reply. I love reading and it's so hard to find a truly brilliant book.

Brave New World by Alduous Huxley

The Third Man or Our Man in Havana or The End of the Affair by Grahame Greene

Peyton Place by Grace Metallious

The Robber Bride or The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Birdsong by Sebastian Faulkes - superb

Have you tried TC Boyle?
The Tortilla Curtain is brilliant.

also Dostoevsky.

try the literature map it's fab

al the authors closest to the middle are the most similar

You see Our Man in Havana is one of those brilliant books that once you have read it you feel sad because you have finished it and can't ever read it for the first time again. The others I don't know and am adding to my list to research on amazon. Have read Birdsong and I did like it, but I didn't really love it.

Thanks for the recommendations though.

x post with more people. Night nope haven't tried Boyle so will look at that too. ggirl, haven't clicked on your link yet but am really hoping it's going to give me loads of brilliant suggestions, so thanks v much!

The Human Stain, Philip Roth.
The Rotters Club and The Closed Circle, Jonathon Coe

The Song as it is Sung by Justin Cartwright.

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

That literature map thing is fascinating - but some of the links are dodgy.

Marian Keyes is linked to Sophie Kinsella

BlameIt - another suggestion - Rachels Holiday by Marian Keyes if you havent already read it. Account of recovering from drug addiction, wrapped up as chicklit.

iris murdoch
evelyn waugh

Either the Grapes of Wrath or East of Eden by John Steinbeck, based on your previous.

You won't forget either, they are both brilliant. GoW is particularly apposite right now. East of Eden you can lose yourself in.

I also loved the Corrections, and Rachel's Holiday.

ggirl that map is brilliant!

thanks

Nope, sorry I give up. Patrick Sußkind is the nearest author to Enid Blyton

the only thing they have in common is that I loathe them both