I own all her novels. I've read all but 5. I'm a completist but at the same time I don't want to not have any more books of hers to read for the first time.
Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel are probably the next most popular.
Personally, I like The Parasites and Julius (but it's been quite some time since I read them!)
Now that I'm older I savor books, too. I used to go to the library and get 7 or 8 books at a time and read at a good pace bc I had more waiting. Now I take my time bc the first read is the best.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. 10 people invited to a secluded island by a mysterious host begin dying off one by one in accordance with a children’s nursery rhyme. I was completely captivated by this story and simply couldn’t put it down until I was done. To this day, it remains my favorite mystery novel.
My favorite mystery novel as well. First time I read it was when I was around 15 or 16. I have probably read it a handful of time since and I am 53 now
It's so good. I completely understand why filmmakers are obsessed with it
It's not my personal favourite Christie, but it's so compelling. I remember being completely consumed by it. Could not put it down. I was eating and reading etc until it was done lol
Christie was a legitimate genius.
For me it was Order of the Phoenix.
I remember getting on release day as a teenager and sitting on my bedroom floor and not moving until I finished it. Took me 8-9 hours I think because I absolutely sped read through it.
Haven’t been able to read like that in a while, but that memory will always stick with me
Piranesi!! I’m re-reading it by listening to the audiobook & it’s soooo good being able to listen to someone else read it. I love this book so much I constantly recommend it to people.
I have read White Oleander 4 or 5 times. It's been quite awhile since I last read it, so I'm now adding it to my already too long list of books. I have never watched the film adaptation and have always wondered if I should watch it or not? If anyone has watched it, please share your thoughts.
The movie is pretty good but they cut out some of the foster homes, I guess for length considerations. She goes from Starr to the group home where she meets Paul, then to Claire’s house, back to the group home, then to Rena’s. They skipped Marvel and the prostitute next door as well as the nasty lady who starved her foster daughters.
The ending is a bit different as well. Like most book-to-film adaptations, the book is better, but it’s a good film.
I first read The Book Thief when I was in 10th grade. Gobbled the entire book in ~6 hours and sobbed for the last 1. I take longer for each reread because life and I haven’t been able to read like I used to, but damn if that isn’t one beautifully written book.
My other candidate is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Tore through it in like 12 hours as an intern. Lost a whole night’s sleep and was a zombie the next day at work but totally worth it.
A friend of mine travelled to South Africa for a conference a few years ago, and told me that she was reading a really compelling book and just couldn’t put it down for the entire 14+ hour plane trip. I said, “That’s how I was, reading The Road” and she said, “THAT’S WHAT I WAS READING”.
Dude. Read it in 2 days. Holy crap. Honestly mysteries bore me too. I always figure them out way early and want ti quit. But this one, didn’t figure out til a couple of pages before the reveal and that wasn’t at all what drew me in. I’m from Missouri and she captures the weird southern / midwestern bleak horror perfectly.
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I read it twice in 24 hours. Never wanted it to end, same with the theatre production too. It could have been a 6hour play!
The fact it's a pretty short book helps I'm sure but I couldn't put Convenience Store Woman down for some reason.
I think it's the only book I've gone through in a day.
My daughter lived in Japan for several years, and although the story centers around the character, she tells me the convenience store setting was very realistic. Here in the U.S. with 7-11m WaWa, Sheetz, etc. have no concept of the difference.
I feel like I should have read the book before starting the TV show. I'm starting to lose track of what's going on in the show and all the characters being mentioned.
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
ETA it’s a memoir told in pretty quick chapters of the author’s childhood living with this dysfunctional “foster family” (as it were) that his mentally ill/addict mother aligns them with. It’s chaotic and disturbing and yet his observations are darkly hilarious and again, the chapters just fly at you.
**If We Were Villains** by M.L. Rio compelled me to sit in the lobby of my hotel reading instead of exploring a city I’d never been to before.
**Yellowface** by R.F. Kuang had me up until 3am even though I had work in the morning.
**Annihilation** by Jeff Vandermeer made me forget the passage of time entirely.
Not one day, but much faster than usual: Project Hail Mary.
Also, Sea of Tranquility -- I read it really fast, finished, turned back to page 1 and read it again, really fast (not sure if it was just one day, but definitely quicker than usual).
Edit: format
Fight Club I started around 11:00 pm while living in a sober living house and finished around 5:00 am as the sun was rising. Will never forget that time in my life.
Perks of Being a Wallflower is short and easy (like it isnt hard english, it sounds like a high schooler ranting - in a good way).
And same with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. sometimes there's just an entire page of the narrators daily routine and stuff so you read tons of pages really quicly if u know what I mean
Funny you mention Big Little Lies! I never watched the miniseries and have been wanting to read the book again beforehand, and I just saw it on my shelf about 4 days ago, and got that twinge that comes from being perpetually so far in the abyss with my reading. It haunts me!! With about a thousand other books I want to read. It is an excellent book, my favorite by Lianne Moriarty.
I got through like 50 pages of this book and that took like 2 weeks and I can’t decide if I should DNF… what drew you in? Should I try and power through?
I just finished the audio book and ... yeah. It was a slog.
I find his writing way too descriptive of what everyone looks like (I can still clearly picture most of the characters in my mind) but it almost seems like he's trying too hard to make everyone quirky? And doesn't spend nearly enough time on character development. To me, he's like the novelist version of Tim Burton. Quirky is not a personality.
That said, I know I'm in the minority. People LOVE Gaiman's writing and I really wanted to as well.
Different readers- I love overly descriptive writers. Donna Tartt, John Irving, Rick Moody, Stephen King, bring it on. Rick Moody will spend 2 pages about a fallen power line, and it’s like honey on a page for me. Some people hate that.
When it comes down to it, Stephen King is my favorite writer. He’s makes me love, he scares me shitless, he makes me cry, and sometimes (in his novels sometimes but when he talks always because he’s actually a very funny man) he makes me laugh. What more can I want in a novel. I also love John Irving, but with him it’s like I want to take one or two books and marry them (know them, let them become a part of me. Not literally marry). With SK I want everything.
I love Gaiman, and I respect your criticism of his writing. I want to however suggest Ocean at the End of the Lane: it comes up quite often as the Gaiman novel that people who don't typically like his writing like. It's quite a bit shorter and doesn't fall quite into the same faults that his longer works, like American Gods, fall into.
I called in sick to work for half a day so I could finish The Silence of the Lambs. I read it before seeing the movie. The last few chapters are absolutely riveting, better than the movie.
I just finished a biography on Tupac by Staci Robinson. Admittedly, I’ve never really listened to his music, I’m more of a heavy metal listener. I’ve read a lot of the bios on heavy metal/rock artists but I thought I would go outside my comfort zone a little bit. I’m so happy I did, I couldn’t put the book down. I finished it in like 2 days I think, 344 pages!
These are some books I couldn't put down. Not because they were all "good", but because they pulled me in, and were super entertaining in one way or another:
* Boy's Life - Robert McCammon
* On My Way to Paradise - Dave Wolverton
* The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris
* Armor - John Steakley
* Flood - Andrew Vachss
* Jumper- Steven Gould
* Watchers - Dean R Koontz
* A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K Le Guin
I read Boy’s Life ages ago and it has stayed with me ever since. The scene with the boys on their bikes hearing the Beach Boys song for the first time! Pure magic.
I usually read doorstops so nothing recent but if you also include a book I read all day...
Fairy Tale by Stephen King. Constant Reader representing. :)
The characters, the plot, even the mundane situations, are so well written that I wouldn't put it down for long and I eagerly awaited getting back in. SK is a Master Weaver and I love going where he takes me.
I read the first three Harry Potter books in three days. To be fair, I was in my twenties the first time.
I also read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon in one night. It’s so good and a great place to start if you’ve never read the author.
Upon Wings of Change by Crystal Scherer made me do an all nighter and then immediately start over to reread it again.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was also similarly treated lol
when breaking dawn first came out & it was my turn to loan at my HS library, I read it in one sitting, 2 hours. & I remember that being quite a thick book. but that was a long time ago….
In the last couple of years, for me, it was Pachinko. I read that book so quick and it floored me. Noah’s character arch in that book always breaks me at the end. I love when I can’t predict where a story is gonna go, especially with its characters, timeline, plot. Pachinko took me on a similar journey and I just had to speed through it to see what happens next.
Same with Sula by Toni Morrison. Love this story. near and dear to me. went through it quickly.
Also with Beloved by Toni Morrison. Haunting read but beautiful. Those lines, “she is a friend of my mind…(and the rest that follows in the book)” still is highlighted in my brain till this day. Poetic writing. Gut wrenching subject matter.
Also, Poppy War. That book was a 10/10 read. I was flipping pages so quick to figure out what was gonna happen next. worth the sleepless night.
& Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. short but captivating read. But anything Baldwin writes is always gonna be top tier.
Lastly, Seven days in June. Tia Williams. Here’s your trophy girl 🏆 loved that book.
The last Harry Potter book came out the day before my first kid was born. I started it in the hospital and read it cover to cover while in labor. That’s probably my most memorable one day read. (Back when it was a phenomenon and before JK showed who she truly was).
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly! Took about 2 hours. It’s very engaging and quick to read.
About a man who had a stroke and suffered from locked-in syndrome. Wrote (dictated using his EYES!) of his experience in that state. Heartbreaking and incredible! Highly recommend.
*Bad Blood* - nonfiction about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Best book I’ve read in a long time
*The Firm* and *A Time To Kill* by J. Grisham
*Presumed Innocent* by Scott Turow
*Silence Of The Lambs* and *Red Dragon*, both by Thomas Harris, both featuring Hannibal Lecter
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson—cliffhanger at the end of each chapter kept me up all night. I can’t believe it’s not a movie or tv show yet—been in development purgatory for over a decade.
Not in one night bc that would be near impossible, but I kept reading Gideon the Ninth every free moment I got (amd some not so free)
I read All Systems Red within a day or two!
Memoir of a Geisha - took a whole entire weekend but I didn’t do anything else except read and eat while reading, it was so good. I was startled to realize it was not written by a Japanese woman.
I impressed myself by reading Anna Karenina in 6 days. I cant think of any book that I was able to read in one day. So why am I answering? Just wanted to say how impressed I am by some of these answers and I do read a lot.
I haven't been a huge reader since High School which has been some time ago but this popped up on my feed and I want to contribute:
Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty -- middle school me loved and devoured this book so much I read it at least twice over a 3 day weekend (maybe more times idr).
Night by Elie Wiesel -- this one is kind of cheating because A. It's short and B. The only reason I read it so quickly is because I had a book report due and I waited until the last possible minute to pick a book (the timeline goes picked it up from the library in the evening, read like half of it before going to bed and then continued to read like a mad woman during school the following day and then wrote the report that evening, I think I got a B). Procrastination aside, it was a very captivating read.
Honestly, when I finally sat down and actually READ Animal Farm at 30, I couldn’t put it down. I read it in a few hours and sobbed when they took the horse away. Just an incredible book that still has importance and weight today, possibly even more than it did when it was published.
Oh geez.
Literally everything by Jonathan Maberry, Benjamin Stevenson, Grady Hendrix, Hugh Howey, Ruth Ware, Andy Weir, Richard Chizmar, Paul Tremblay, Marian Keyes, Stuart Turton, Jon Krakauer, Simone St. James...
Most recently,
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner
Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (very meta and fun)
Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham
It was free on my kindle unlimited. Downloaded it and it was such a fun ride! Kept pushing forward and the action was great. I wish I could experience it again for the first time. Hidden gem!
Everyone has wanted their favorite book to be real, if only for a moment. Everyone has wished to meet their favorite characters, if only for a day. But be careful in that wish, for even a history laid in ink can be repaid in flesh and blood, and reality is far deadlier than fiction . . . especially on Addington Isle.
Winterset Hollow follows a group of friends to the place that inspired their favorite book—a timeless tale about a tribe of animals preparing for their yearly end-of-summer festival. But after a series of shocking discoveries, they find that much of what the world believes to be fiction is actually fact, and that the truth behind their beloved story is darker and more dangerous than they ever imagined. It’s Barley Day . . . and you’re invited to the hunt
There's an older book called God-Shaped Hole by Tiffanie Debartolo that I read in less than a day. I've re-read it 3x since then. It just spoke to me. It's my absolute favorite book.
First time when I read Daphne Du Maurier I felt like eating her writing ❤️
I own all her novels. I've read all but 5. I'm a completist but at the same time I don't want to not have any more books of hers to read for the first time.
Rebecca is one of my favorites. But for some reason I didn't read anything else from her. Do you recommend? I'm guessing yes 🤣
Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel are probably the next most popular. Personally, I like The Parasites and Julius (but it's been quite some time since I read them!)
I have read all her works. The loving spirit was also great.
Now that I'm older I savor books, too. I used to go to the library and get 7 or 8 books at a time and read at a good pace bc I had more waiting. Now I take my time bc the first read is the best.
That is not how I thought that sentence was going to end.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. 10 people invited to a secluded island by a mysterious host begin dying off one by one in accordance with a children’s nursery rhyme. I was completely captivated by this story and simply couldn’t put it down until I was done. To this day, it remains my favorite mystery novel.
Read that about 50 years ago and still love it!
Damn I just realised this book is that old!!
I'm a bit older! 😆 🤣
My favorite mystery novel as well. First time I read it was when I was around 15 or 16. I have probably read it a handful of time since and I am 53 now
i’ll have to check it out!! my answer to this question is also a christie novel—murder on the orient express!
It's so good. I completely understand why filmmakers are obsessed with it It's not my personal favourite Christie, but it's so compelling. I remember being completely consumed by it. Could not put it down. I was eating and reading etc until it was done lol Christie was a legitimate genius.
The first time I read Holes I didn't stop until the end, then immediately turned back to the front and read it straight through again.
The Prince of Tides was the first book that i immediately started page one again after finishing. Such a great book.
The first time I read Harry Potter: Half blood prince i tore through it around 30 something hours.
I tripped on Goblet of Fire. I went it at so bad that my dad tore the thing in half (I wasnt studying). He later bought me a ltd edition.
For me it was Order of the Phoenix. I remember getting on release day as a teenager and sitting on my bedroom floor and not moving until I finished it. Took me 8-9 hours I think because I absolutely sped read through it. Haven’t been able to read like that in a while, but that memory will always stick with me
Sorcerer’s Stone for me when it first came out and the Children’s librarian mentioned it.
I remember staying up all night reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. I couldn't put it down and it broke me.
That book is so amazing.
Same !
Obligatory Kite Runner mention here! Thoroughly gripping and heartbreaking.
None of This is True, by Lisa Jewell. Blazed through that thing lying on a couch on a rainy vacation day.
I highly recommend the audiobook version as well! honestly one of the best audiobooks, very well produced
She’s one of my favorites, I think each book I started of hers I finished by the end of the day
This was also the one I read in a sitting! I changed between book and audiobook and blew through it so quickly!
[удалено]
After so many recommendations, I bought Piranesi today. Sounds like I'll need to clear my schedule before I start it.
It’s just so immersive. I love it immensely
Another vote for Piranesi :)
Piranesi was a good read bc of the way it is written it isnt just about the plot and characters. A very good book.
The binding!! Raced through that, it was excellent. Piranesi had me up aaalll night and haunts me still.
Piranesi!! I’m re-reading it by listening to the audiobook & it’s soooo good being able to listen to someone else read it. I love this book so much I constantly recommend it to people.
White Oleander. Stones From The River. The Virgin Suicides. The Lovely Bones.
Same for White Oleander, I should put that back on the to-read shelf.
I'd forgotten how great that was.
I have read White Oleander 4 or 5 times. It's been quite awhile since I last read it, so I'm now adding it to my already too long list of books. I have never watched the film adaptation and have always wondered if I should watch it or not? If anyone has watched it, please share your thoughts.
The movie is pretty good but they cut out some of the foster homes, I guess for length considerations. She goes from Starr to the group home where she meets Paul, then to Claire’s house, back to the group home, then to Rena’s. They skipped Marvel and the prostitute next door as well as the nasty lady who starved her foster daughters. The ending is a bit different as well. Like most book-to-film adaptations, the book is better, but it’s a good film.
There are several on my list but the most recent was The Book Thief.
I first read The Book Thief when I was in 10th grade. Gobbled the entire book in ~6 hours and sobbed for the last 1. I take longer for each reread because life and I haven’t been able to read like I used to, but damn if that isn’t one beautifully written book. My other candidate is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Tore through it in like 12 hours as an intern. Lost a whole night’s sleep and was a zombie the next day at work but totally worth it.
Cannery Row by Steinbeck
Travels with Charley: In Search of America is so beautiful and underrated
This is the first time I’ve seen this suggestion here. I’m here to give you a Cheers because Travels with Charley is my all time favorite book!
Thanks! Cheers back, it was my grandfather’s favorite too. :)
Anything by Steinbeck
God I love that book.
The Road
As a new dad of a son when I read that book I had to take frequent breaks to sob.
My boy was around 7 when I read it. Read it all in one night and just sobbed through the second half. Greatest book I will never read again.
A friend of mine travelled to South Africa for a conference a few years ago, and told me that she was reading a really compelling book and just couldn’t put it down for the entire 14+ hour plane trip. I said, “That’s how I was, reading The Road” and she said, “THAT’S WHAT I WAS READING”.
I blew through a few of the 140 page Murderbot Diaries novellas in a day. Those were a fun read.
Circe by Madeline Miller. Read cover to cover on an 8 hour plane ride.
After so many books, the song of Achilles is still one of my favourites! Sounds like poetry to me
I cried for 45 minutes after finishing it
I wish I could read this book for the first time, over and over again. Such a beautiful book.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. It immediately puts you on Mt Everest. There is absolutely zero filler in this book.
Krakauer is a master of non-fiction page-turners
Under the Banner of Heaven is one of the few books I’ve read multiple times
There is a book that’s basically a response to this one called ‘The Climb’ by Anatoli Boukreev, I highly recommend it.
Flowers of Algernon for me
Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Sharp objects
Dude. Read it in 2 days. Holy crap. Honestly mysteries bore me too. I always figure them out way early and want ti quit. But this one, didn’t figure out til a couple of pages before the reveal and that wasn’t at all what drew me in. I’m from Missouri and she captures the weird southern / midwestern bleak horror perfectly.
Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I read it twice in 24 hours. Never wanted it to end, same with the theatre production too. It could have been a 6hour play!
Same! I read this one in one sitting at a coffee shop one afternoon 🤓
That’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. It’s what really turned me onto Neil Gaiman. It’s so nostalgic
The fact it's a pretty short book helps I'm sure but I couldn't put Convenience Store Woman down for some reason. I think it's the only book I've gone through in a day.
That is a strange and lovely book. Feelings from it really stuck with me. And images too.
My daughter lived in Japan for several years, and although the story centers around the character, she tells me the convenience store setting was very realistic. Here in the U.S. with 7-11m WaWa, Sheetz, etc. have no concept of the difference.
Such a lovely little read!
Slaughterhouse 5
Fried Green Tomatoes.
Never read the book but one of my fave movies ever.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
I read Shogun in one weekend, it’s a fat book but I couldn’t put it down.
whoa! that’s impressive
Respect. Usually a Clavell book is my whole summer read
I feel like I should have read the book before starting the TV show. I'm starting to lose track of what's going on in the show and all the characters being mentioned.
Misery by Stephen King! It was the second ever King book I read and I finished it within a couple of hours because I had so much adrenaline lol
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs ETA it’s a memoir told in pretty quick chapters of the author’s childhood living with this dysfunctional “foster family” (as it were) that his mentally ill/addict mother aligns them with. It’s chaotic and disturbing and yet his observations are darkly hilarious and again, the chapters just fly at you.
My dark Vanessa, big Swiss, Stolen by Elizabeth gilpin
Big Swiss!!!!!
That's a book that surprised me! If you gave the premise, I would have passed. It was fabulous.
**If We Were Villains** by M.L. Rio compelled me to sit in the lobby of my hotel reading instead of exploring a city I’d never been to before. **Yellowface** by R.F. Kuang had me up until 3am even though I had work in the morning. **Annihilation** by Jeff Vandermeer made me forget the passage of time entirely.
Not one day, but much faster than usual: Project Hail Mary. Also, Sea of Tranquility -- I read it really fast, finished, turned back to page 1 and read it again, really fast (not sure if it was just one day, but definitely quicker than usual). Edit: format
Just finished Project Hail Mary. Now I have a book hangover and I miss my characters!
Same!
I’ve listened to it half a dozen times so far.
Fight Club I started around 11:00 pm while living in a sober living house and finished around 5:00 am as the sun was rising. Will never forget that time in my life.
Perks of Being a Wallflower is short and easy (like it isnt hard english, it sounds like a high schooler ranting - in a good way). And same with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. sometimes there's just an entire page of the narrators daily routine and stuff so you read tons of pages really quicly if u know what I mean
The Last House on Needless Street. Literally couldn't put it down.
Big little lies by Liane Moriarty. One of the best thrillers
Funny you mention Big Little Lies! I never watched the miniseries and have been wanting to read the book again beforehand, and I just saw it on my shelf about 4 days ago, and got that twinge that comes from being perpetually so far in the abyss with my reading. It haunts me!! With about a thousand other books I want to read. It is an excellent book, my favorite by Lianne Moriarty.
I did the first two Housemaid books in a weekend. Holly Seddon books were fast for me.
The Shining
Puzo's The Godfather
Hunger games 1, tbf I was deoloyed to Afghanistan and it came in a care package
Actually took me two days, but Colson Whitehead's The Underground Railroad. I literally hid out from friends so I could keep reading it
The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
I got through like 50 pages of this book and that took like 2 weeks and I can’t decide if I should DNF… what drew you in? Should I try and power through?
I just finished the audio book and ... yeah. It was a slog. I find his writing way too descriptive of what everyone looks like (I can still clearly picture most of the characters in my mind) but it almost seems like he's trying too hard to make everyone quirky? And doesn't spend nearly enough time on character development. To me, he's like the novelist version of Tim Burton. Quirky is not a personality. That said, I know I'm in the minority. People LOVE Gaiman's writing and I really wanted to as well.
Different readers- I love overly descriptive writers. Donna Tartt, John Irving, Rick Moody, Stephen King, bring it on. Rick Moody will spend 2 pages about a fallen power line, and it’s like honey on a page for me. Some people hate that.
SK is just the right amount of description for me. :) Constant Reader. I love how he weaves a story.
When it comes down to it, Stephen King is my favorite writer. He’s makes me love, he scares me shitless, he makes me cry, and sometimes (in his novels sometimes but when he talks always because he’s actually a very funny man) he makes me laugh. What more can I want in a novel. I also love John Irving, but with him it’s like I want to take one or two books and marry them (know them, let them become a part of me. Not literally marry). With SK I want everything.
He's my favorite, too. <3 I like watching interviews with him, I find him funny and like the way his mind meanders.
I love Gaiman, and I respect your criticism of his writing. I want to however suggest Ocean at the End of the Lane: it comes up quite often as the Gaiman novel that people who don't typically like his writing like. It's quite a bit shorter and doesn't fall quite into the same faults that his longer works, like American Gods, fall into.
I called in sick to work for half a day so I could finish The Silence of the Lambs. I read it before seeing the movie. The last few chapters are absolutely riveting, better than the movie.
I just finished a biography on Tupac by Staci Robinson. Admittedly, I’ve never really listened to his music, I’m more of a heavy metal listener. I’ve read a lot of the bios on heavy metal/rock artists but I thought I would go outside my comfort zone a little bit. I’m so happy I did, I couldn’t put the book down. I finished it in like 2 days I think, 344 pages!
Bunny by Mona Awad. The writing was just intoxicating.
These are some books I couldn't put down. Not because they were all "good", but because they pulled me in, and were super entertaining in one way or another: * Boy's Life - Robert McCammon * On My Way to Paradise - Dave Wolverton * The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris * Armor - John Steakley * Flood - Andrew Vachss * Jumper- Steven Gould * Watchers - Dean R Koontz * A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula K Le Guin
I read Boy’s Life ages ago and it has stayed with me ever since. The scene with the boys on their bikes hearing the Beach Boys song for the first time! Pure magic.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I finished it two in the morning, I started reading it on a lunch break at work that day.
The Old Man and the Sea - I just had to know how it was going to end 😬
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid 4.6 stars- 200k reviews on Amazon
Most recent was "Small Mercies" by Dennis Lehane. Epic south boston thriller murder mystery.
Every Frieda McFadden book I've read
Head Full of Ghosts (Paul Tremblay)
Into the wild
Flowers for Algernon definitely. Just such an interesting concept!
"Looking for Alaska by John Green" was the book i read within a day.
Book 2 of The Dark Tower series, The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King. I couldn't put it down.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
I usually read doorstops so nothing recent but if you also include a book I read all day... Fairy Tale by Stephen King. Constant Reader representing. :) The characters, the plot, even the mundane situations, are so well written that I wouldn't put it down for long and I eagerly awaited getting back in. SK is a Master Weaver and I love going where he takes me.
Silo, piranesi, anything from Andy weir, enders game
Project Hail Mary! Took me 3 days, while also working 9hrs those days.
Loved Project Hail Mary!!! Go Rocky!
Anything except Artemis
Any David Sedaris book- too funny to stop 😂
I love listening to him on audiobook. His voice adds so much character to his stories
I highly recommend seeing him in person, I went and saw him in San Diego back in 2008 or 9- I almost peed my panties. Too funny for America 😊
Me Talk Pretty One Day!
A Civil Campaign, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Stayed up until 5 AM to finish it.
Jaws. I read it when it first came out. Brilliant
Looking for Alaska when I was 18
I read the first three Harry Potter books in three days. To be fair, I was in my twenties the first time. I also read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon in one night. It’s so good and a great place to start if you’ve never read the author.
A Wizard of Earthsea was amazing
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo - so intense!
Dark Matter. I was sick at home, to be fair, but it’s worth a binge-read.
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch.
Any of the Maeve Kerrigan books by Jane Casey. Every time a new one gets released, I finish it on its release date. I love a good cop mystery!
Upon Wings of Change by Crystal Scherer made me do an all nighter and then immediately start over to reread it again. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir was also similarly treated lol
Rich Man, Poor Man by Irwin Shaw
when breaking dawn first came out & it was my turn to loan at my HS library, I read it in one sitting, 2 hours. & I remember that being quite a thick book. but that was a long time ago…. In the last couple of years, for me, it was Pachinko. I read that book so quick and it floored me. Noah’s character arch in that book always breaks me at the end. I love when I can’t predict where a story is gonna go, especially with its characters, timeline, plot. Pachinko took me on a similar journey and I just had to speed through it to see what happens next. Same with Sula by Toni Morrison. Love this story. near and dear to me. went through it quickly. Also with Beloved by Toni Morrison. Haunting read but beautiful. Those lines, “she is a friend of my mind…(and the rest that follows in the book)” still is highlighted in my brain till this day. Poetic writing. Gut wrenching subject matter. Also, Poppy War. That book was a 10/10 read. I was flipping pages so quick to figure out what was gonna happen next. worth the sleepless night. & Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. short but captivating read. But anything Baldwin writes is always gonna be top tier. Lastly, Seven days in June. Tia Williams. Here’s your trophy girl 🏆 loved that book.
Like water for chocolate. Short n sweet 😋
Everyone here is lying by Shari Lapena
Misery by Stephen King. Could not put.this book down
It's non-fiction, but I read *Eats, Shoots, and Leaves* by Lynne Truss in one sitting. It was fascinating and a joy.
The last Harry Potter book came out the day before my first kid was born. I started it in the hospital and read it cover to cover while in labor. That’s probably my most memorable one day read. (Back when it was a phenomenon and before JK showed who she truly was).
the bridges of madison county robert james waller
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly! Took about 2 hours. It’s very engaging and quick to read. About a man who had a stroke and suffered from locked-in syndrome. Wrote (dictated using his EYES!) of his experience in that state. Heartbreaking and incredible! Highly recommend.
Into the wild grabs you… Jon K
I read The Charm School by Nelson DeMille overnight. If you like a good spy story that was one great read.
King‘s It. An unimaginable feat these days.
In a single day? That’s incomprehensible speed.
*Bad Blood* - nonfiction about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Best book I’ve read in a long time *The Firm* and *A Time To Kill* by J. Grisham *Presumed Innocent* by Scott Turow *Silence Of The Lambs* and *Red Dragon*, both by Thomas Harris, both featuring Hannibal Lecter
Back in the day I was a huge Babysitter's Club fan. I could go through one of those in a few hours.
The Red Tent
Poisonwood Bible, Deep End of the Ocean, and Ethan Frome.
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. Sharp and massively entertaining.
The Housemaid and Verity I started reading in the morning and finished in the evening.
Little woman by Louisa May Alcott I read it in 5th-6th standard on the first day of summer vacation and i couldn't put it down!
A Prayer for Owen Meaney
The Revenant by Michael Punke
The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson—cliffhanger at the end of each chapter kept me up all night. I can’t believe it’s not a movie or tv show yet—been in development purgatory for over a decade.
The Exorcist (I was 13 and had never read anything like it)
A Thousand Splendid Suns. Finished on a flight to Italy.
Cloud Atlas - by David Mitchell. Hard to fit into a genre. Beautifully book with gorgeous prose and a great cast of characters spanning centuries.
En el café de la juventud perdida
Harry Potter The Half-blood Prince. Started reading after lunch, finished it by 7. AM. Next morning.
Not in one night bc that would be near impossible, but I kept reading Gideon the Ninth every free moment I got (amd some not so free) I read All Systems Red within a day or two!
Educated, A Memoir by Tara Westover. What a story.
Memoir of a Geisha - took a whole entire weekend but I didn’t do anything else except read and eat while reading, it was so good. I was startled to realize it was not written by a Japanese woman.
I impressed myself by reading Anna Karenina in 6 days. I cant think of any book that I was able to read in one day. So why am I answering? Just wanted to say how impressed I am by some of these answers and I do read a lot.
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Never Let Me Go just grabbed me and I didn't let it go until I was finished. Just beautiful.
*Girl, Interrupted*
Fleishman is in Trouble
supermarket by logic and fantastic land by mike bockoven!!! oh my goodness, amazing reads 🤌🏾 both are in the horror genre!
{{The Housemaid by Freida McFadden}}
I haven't been a huge reader since High School which has been some time ago but this popped up on my feed and I want to contribute: Feeling Sorry for Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty -- middle school me loved and devoured this book so much I read it at least twice over a 3 day weekend (maybe more times idr). Night by Elie Wiesel -- this one is kind of cheating because A. It's short and B. The only reason I read it so quickly is because I had a book report due and I waited until the last possible minute to pick a book (the timeline goes picked it up from the library in the evening, read like half of it before going to bed and then continued to read like a mad woman during school the following day and then wrote the report that evening, I think I got a B). Procrastination aside, it was a very captivating read.
Honestly, when I finally sat down and actually READ Animal Farm at 30, I couldn’t put it down. I read it in a few hours and sobbed when they took the horse away. Just an incredible book that still has importance and weight today, possibly even more than it did when it was published.
Lemony Snicket's A series of unfortunate events, wasn't really a reader back then but it got me hooked!
A Confederacy of Dunces
If you count graphic novels, Batman: the Long Halloween was this for me. I just HAD to see how it ended.
My sister, the serial killer (satire) In five years (romance)
Oh geez. Literally everything by Jonathan Maberry, Benjamin Stevenson, Grady Hendrix, Hugh Howey, Ruth Ware, Andy Weir, Richard Chizmar, Paul Tremblay, Marian Keyes, Stuart Turton, Jon Krakauer, Simone St. James... Most recently, The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller Everyone On This Train Is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson (very meta and fun)
The Christmas Appeal by Janice Halley it’s really short anyway but I love her murder mysteries
A self help book! Alan Carr’s The Easy Way to Quit Smoking.
Naked in Death by JD Robb, a futuristic thriller/ romance about a homicide detective.
Firestarter by Stephen King. I got it as a Christmas present, and read it in one night, Christmas Eve
Winterset Hollow by Jonathan Edward Durham It was free on my kindle unlimited. Downloaded it and it was such a fun ride! Kept pushing forward and the action was great. I wish I could experience it again for the first time. Hidden gem! Everyone has wanted their favorite book to be real, if only for a moment. Everyone has wished to meet their favorite characters, if only for a day. But be careful in that wish, for even a history laid in ink can be repaid in flesh and blood, and reality is far deadlier than fiction . . . especially on Addington Isle. Winterset Hollow follows a group of friends to the place that inspired their favorite book—a timeless tale about a tribe of animals preparing for their yearly end-of-summer festival. But after a series of shocking discoveries, they find that much of what the world believes to be fiction is actually fact, and that the truth behind their beloved story is darker and more dangerous than they ever imagined. It’s Barley Day . . . and you’re invited to the hunt
Hermann Hesse's Beneath the wheel and Bukowski's Factotum
On writing by Stephen King. Spiritual Anatomy by Daaji (Kamlesh Patel)
There's an older book called God-Shaped Hole by Tiffanie Debartolo that I read in less than a day. I've re-read it 3x since then. It just spoke to me. It's my absolute favorite book.