- The Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien
- Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
- His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
- To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
- Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
- Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
- Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
The Sun-Sentinel's Off the Page blogger weighed in recently with her 50 favorites to counter those of the Miami Herald's book blogger.
I have to confess I am nowhere near close to having read most of these books from any of these lists. My excuse that’s no excuse: I'm a very s-l-o-w reader.
I may as well face it--there are books I should read that I will just never get around to.
This got me to thinking, though, about the books I did mange to speed my way through, day into night, sometimes skipping meals because the story was more engrossing than food. The literal page-turners. The books (and this is the real test) that made me want to call in sick, because I was either exhausted from lack of sleep (a form of illness, it could be argued), or still reading and unable to tear myself away.
Some of these books might be considered "potboilers" - books of low quality. I would disagree. Any book that makes us forget ourselves and our troubles for a bit is a good thing, as Keith blogged about yesterday. Here are some of the page-turning, make-me-late-for-work books I remember, then, in no particular order:
Salem's Lot – Stephen King
The Stand – Stephen King
The Exorcist – William Blatty
And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
Bridget Jones' Diary – Helen Fielding
Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
Double Indemnity - James M. Cain
Mildred Pierce – James M. Cain
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
– Mark Twain
Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Rosemary’s Baby – Ira Levin
The Stepford Wives – Ira Levin
On the Road – Jack Kerouac
I'm forgetting some good ones, I know. What would you add?
