Thread: The best books....

.. i have ever read are as follows:

The Husband - Dean Koontz
Gone - Mo Hayder
Forever Odd - Dean Koontz

These books had me gripped from the beginning, it takes a lot to make me stick to a book once i pick it up and these ones in particular are a great read. I just finished Gone by Mo Hayder, I won't ruin it but it was edge of the seat reading and the ending was not as i thought.

Hard to say what the best books I've ever read are. I tend to think in terms of authors rather than individual books, and recently read books tend to stand out more.

Of late, Jose Saramago has impressed me greatly (Blindness, Death At Intervals, All The Names).

So has Kobo Abe (The Box Man, Woman In The Dunes).

And Herta Muller (The Passport, The Appointment)

Philip Roth (Everyman, Indignation)

Kurt Vonnegut (anything by Vonnegut)

Saramago's Blindness probably stands out as one of the very best I've read.

The two qualities you mention, having a book grip you from start to finish and take you somewhere unexpected, those are excellent qualities. I'd add a third, which is that a really good book makes you feel something, resonates in some way.

I mentioned it elsewhere, but the best book in the English language (in my opinion) is The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey. I know, it doesn't seem like it should be, but it really is. I read it last year and it changed everything for me. I recommend it to everyone. It's a beautiful book.

Always and Forever was a good book....and Match Me If You Can, was great!