« previous next »
Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: Books You Could Not Put Down  (Read 665 times)

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline jafo2010

  • Moderator
  • *****
  • Posts: 8,253
  • Dems-greatest existential threat to USA republic!
Books You Could Not Put Down
« on: May 22, 2025, 05:05:06 am »
I am looking for new adventures.  We have all read books that we just could not put down.  Tell us what books fall into that category for you.

For me, the list is short:

1.  Forward to Camelot by Susan Sloate   one of my favorite genre, time travel combined with a dash of historical
        fiction.  The worst of them, I literally could not put it down.  Loved it.  And I got to know the author, who became a
        friend.

2.  Godfather by Mario Puzo   was quite the shocker when I read it.  Loved the movie too.

3. Jaws by Peter Benchley    wow, a real thriller.  When I saw the movie in the theater, it was years before I went into
          the ocean again.  And to this day, I do not like water I cannot see in.  I prefer the gulf, where I can see hundreds of
          feet in every direction
Logged

Offline mountaineer

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 61,944
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2025, 06:06:09 pm »
The first book I could not put down was Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi. I was pretty young when I read it, and was terrified.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2025, 06:28:09 pm by mountaineer »
Logged
The abnormal is not the normal just because it is prevalent.
Roger Kimball, in a talk at Hillsdale College, 1/29/25

Offline Wingnut

  • The problem with everything is they try and make it better without realizing the old way is fine.
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 21,629
  • Gender: Male
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #2 on: May 30, 2025, 06:20:51 pm »
I stayed up all night reading The Exorcist.  Big mistake. 
Logged
You don’t become cooler with age but you do care progressively less about being cool, which is the only true way to actually be cool.

Offline DCPatriot

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 47,393
  • Gender: Male
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2025, 06:26:23 pm »
LOL!

Grace Metalious -PEYTON PLACE.

Herman Wouk - WINDS OF WAR and WAR & REMEMBRANCE.

Robert Ludlum's GEMINI CONTENDERS and CHANCELLOR MANUSCRIPT.

James Michner -CHESAPEAKE

Sydney Sheldon - THE OTHERSIDE OF MIDNIGHT
« Last Edit: May 30, 2025, 06:28:01 pm by DCPatriot »
Logged
"It aint what you don't know that kills you.  It's what you know that aint so!" ...Theodore Sturgeon

The idea that somebody looked at a purple onion and called it a red onion really bothers me.   

"It was only a sunny smile, and little it cost in the giving, but like morning light it scattered the night and made the day worth living" F. Scott Fitzgerald

Offline mystery-ak

  • Owner
  • Administrator
  • ******
  • Posts: 402,381
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #4 on: May 30, 2025, 06:34:19 pm »
Quote from: Wingnut on May 30, 2025, 06:20:51 pm
I stayed up all night reading The Exorcist.  Big mistake.

To this day I have never seen that movie...too afraid  :smokin:
Logged
Proud Supporter of Tunnel to Towers
Support the USO
Democrat Party...the Party of Infanticide

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
-Matthew 6:34

Offline mystery-ak

  • Owner
  • Administrator
  • ******
  • Posts: 402,381
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2025, 06:35:27 pm »
Quote from: mountaineer on May 30, 2025, 06:06:09 pm
The first book I could not put down was Helter Skelter, by Vincent Bugliosi. I was pretty young when I read it, and was terrified.

Yes...scared the shit out of me...creepy crawlers....yikes!
Logged
Proud Supporter of Tunnel to Towers
Support the USO
Democrat Party...the Party of Infanticide

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
-Matthew 6:34

Offline mystery-ak

  • Owner
  • Administrator
  • ******
  • Posts: 402,381
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #6 on: May 30, 2025, 06:46:18 pm »
Any Harold Robbins book....I once loaned The Carpetbaggers to my mom to read.. 888mouth... :silly:
Logged
Proud Supporter of Tunnel to Towers
Support the USO
Democrat Party...the Party of Infanticide

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
-Matthew 6:34

Offline roamer_1

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 35,703
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2025, 08:20:42 pm »
Tolkien. If you've never read it, you're missing out. Seriously, I could argue him as the GOAT (Other than the Bible, of course).

Right up there with him, Donaldson's 'Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever' series - at least the first two trilogies.

If that's all too heavy, Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt stories are a continuation, a series, but each stands alone pretty well, and each is a simply written tale that is guaranteed to be a rollicking good time.

I really liked Anne McCaffery's 'Dragon Riders of Pern' for the story telling - Because it is different. They are short books, but in series, and a grand tale.

Likewise Paul O' Williams 'The Pelbar Cycle'

And of course anything by Louis L'Amour or Zane Grey if you like quickie Westerns. If you have't read the entire Sackett saga, it's good stuff.

Anything Ludlum.

Tony Hileman has a good series about Southwest Indian culture.
Logged

Offline Ghost Bear

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,547
  • Gender: Male
  • Not an actual picture of me
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #8 on: May 30, 2025, 09:18:21 pm »
The first book that I can recall reading in a single sitting was "The Stars My Destination", by Alfred Bester (published in the U.K. as "Tiger, Tiger"). Science fiction from 1958, but it had so many (to me) mind blowing concepts and plot twists that I just had to keep reading it to see what happened next.

I read the final book in the Harry Potter series, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", in a single sitting. Took me 10 hours of reading, only breaking for dinner, but it was worth it.

I'm currently re-reading three books by the great Science Fiction collaborators Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, "The Mote in God's Eye", "Lucifer's Hammer", and "Footfall". I've finished the first two and am just a few chapters into the third book. All three books are very different in setting and topic, but all three have a great setup that builds to a fast-moving and satisfying finish.
Logged
America should be run for the benefit of Americans, not for foreigners, not for corporations.

Offline Bigun

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34,453
  • Gender: Male
  • Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God
    • The FairTax Plan
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #9 on: May 30, 2025, 10:45:00 pm »
I've read so many it's hard to choose but I'll put Shogun, The entire series, at the top of the list then all of the Tom Clancy novels.
« Last Edit: May 30, 2025, 10:50:05 pm by Bigun »
Logged
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline Smokin Joe

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 61,501
  • I was a "conspiracy theorist". Now I'm just right.
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #10 on: May 30, 2025, 10:48:01 pm »
Quote from: Bigun on May 30, 2025, 10:45:00 pm
Shogun! The entire series.
Shogun and Tai Pan were good, but he lost me at Whirlwind. It was a small error, but enough. He had oil rigs "tipping" out of the hole for a bit. They TRIP out. Every time I saw that, >barf<. I couldn't finish.
Logged
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline Bigun

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34,453
  • Gender: Male
  • Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God
    • The FairTax Plan
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #11 on: May 30, 2025, 11:04:01 pm »
Anything by Larry McMurtry is excellent as well.
Logged
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline BobfromWB

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 457
  • Gender: Male
  • Relaxing at the Beach. Love, Bob
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #12 on: May 31, 2025, 08:06:52 am »
Lawrence Darrell

Alexandria Quartet:
Justine (1957)
Balthazar (1958)
Mountolive (1958)
Clea (1960)


-------------------------
Gene Wolf

Book of the New Sun:
The Shadow of the Torturer (1980)
The Claw of the Conciliator (1981)
The Sword of the Lictor (1982)
The Citadel of the Autarch (1983)
The Urth of the New Sun (1987)

Book of the Long Sun:
Nightside the Long Sun (1993)
Litany of the Long Sun (1994)
Caldé of the Long Sun (1994)
Lake of the Long Sun (1994)
Epiphany of the Long Sun (1996)
Exodus from the Long Sun (1996)

Book of the Short Sun:
On Blue’s Waters (1999)
In Green’s Jungles (2000)
The Book of the Short Sun (2001)
Return to the Whorl (2001)


-------------------------
Liu Cixin

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy:
The Three-Body Problem (2006)
Dark Forest (2008)
Death's End (2010)

Baoshu
The Redemption of Time (2011); wraps up all lose ends in Remembrance of Earth's Past.
Logged
Another refugee from Jim Rob's very nasty Russian AI bot farm

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,015
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #13 on: May 31, 2025, 10:16:27 am »
The Mote in God's Eye
Logged
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” Thomas Sowell

Offline MeganC

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,159
  • Gender: Female
  • RUSSIA MUST BE DESTROYED!!!
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #14 on: May 31, 2025, 11:51:05 am »
Quote from: Bigun on May 30, 2025, 10:45:00 pm
I've read so many it's hard to choose but I'll put Shogun, The entire series, at the top of the list then all of the Tom Clancy novels.

I don't know about Shogun but I am with you on Tom Clancy. My favorite book of his was Debt of Honor which I think I read at least five times and enjoyed it every single time.

His other book I liked was Red Storm Rising which IMHO is worth reading today in light of Russia's proposed invasion of the Baltic countries.

Dreadnought by Robert Massie was also a very captivating book.

One of my favorite authors is Stephen Ambrose who wrote historical books but in a novel form. His way of communicating historical events as entertainment really got me going on reading history. I'm sorry more authors won't follow in his footsteps here.
Logged
RUSSIA MUST BE DESTROYED!!!

Offline Smokin Joe

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 61,501
  • I was a "conspiracy theorist". Now I'm just right.
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #15 on: May 31, 2025, 05:40:47 pm »
Quote from: IsailedawayfromFR on May 31, 2025, 10:16:27 am
The Mote in God's Eye

Excellent, as was Lucifer's Hammer.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Logged
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,015
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #16 on: May 31, 2025, 07:09:58 pm »
Quote from: Smokin Joe on May 31, 2025, 05:40:47 pm
Excellent, as was Lucifer's Hammer.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Absolutely.

Now I have to go find my copy of that one and do a reread, too.
Logged
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” Thomas Sowell

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,015
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #17 on: May 31, 2025, 07:12:16 pm »
Quote from: roamer_1 on May 30, 2025, 08:20:42 pm
Tolkien. If you've never read it, you're missing out. Seriously, I could argue him as the GOAT (Other than the Bible, of course).
Terry Brooks is the same way.  Must have copied the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien.
Logged
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” Thomas Sowell

Offline roamer_1

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 35,703
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #18 on: May 31, 2025, 07:15:17 pm »
Quote from: IsailedawayfromFR on May 31, 2025, 07:12:16 pm
Terry Brooks is the same way.  Must have copied the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien.

I'll jot that down...  :beer:
Logged

Offline roamer_1

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 35,703
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #19 on: May 31, 2025, 07:18:21 pm »
Quote from: IsailedawayfromFR on May 31, 2025, 07:12:16 pm
Terry Brooks is the same way.  Must have copied the Lord of the Rings by Tolkien.

Ahh! Shannara! I have read that.  :beer:
Logged

Offline Bigun

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 34,453
  • Gender: Male
  • Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God
    • The FairTax Plan
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #20 on: May 31, 2025, 09:22:01 pm »
Quote from: roamer_1 on May 30, 2025, 08:20:42 pm
Tolkien. If you've never read it, you're missing out. Seriously, I could argue him as the GOAT (Other than the Bible, of course).


I think I've read all of them.
Logged
"I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
- J. R. R. Tolkien

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 14,015
Re: Books You Could Not Put Down
« Reply #21 on: May 31, 2025, 09:55:21 pm »
Quote from: roamer_1 on May 31, 2025, 07:18:21 pm
Ahh! Shannara! I have read that.  :beer:
Hard to stop reading it.

Reminds me of first time binge-watching '24' on TV
Logged
“You will never understand bureaucracies until you understand that for bureaucrats procedure is everything and outcomes are nothing.” Thomas Sowell
Pages: [1]   Go Up
« previous next »