Which books (novels) have kept your nose glued to the book till the early hours of the morning, simply not being able to let the story rest?

Some of mine include :-
The Ivory Carver Trilogy by Sue Harrison
The Storyteller Trilogy by Sue Harrison
The Earthsea Series by U. LeGuin together with the subsequently released books Tehanu and Other Winds that are indirect sequels of the series
Contagion by Robin Cook
The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll, recommended reading for any techie

*edits:
Wilt by Tom Sharpe (movie is funny too, lol )
Rude Tales and Glorious: Being the Only True Account of Diverse Feats of Brawn and Bawd Performed by King Arthur and His Knights of the Table Round by Nicholas Seare (this is the best retelling ever of the Arthurian Legends of the Table Round, rofling thruout )
Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon

3 I can think of, off the top of my head:

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Philosopher's Pupil by Iris Murdoch

Most of the terry pratchett discworld books.

Quote from Greboth :

Most of the terry pratchett discworld books.

Quoted for truth.

Also, the Ian M. Banks sci-fi books.

Like-wise I'm looking for some new material this Christmas. I've got a few techy books on my wishlist, but I seriously need some new fiction.

Quote from Bean0 :

Also, the Ian M. Banks sci-fi books.

Iain I can recommend Excession and Player of Games. Although Iain and Terry's work is good I've read a lot of both. Phillip K. Dick I've read a fair bit of and can recommend also.

If you're into your alternative histories, Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series is very interesting Rather long though, and as such it is an expensive series. Also its not literary genuis. Plays with some historical characters and brings them to life in new ways though

I recently finished re-reading Gregory Bensford's Artifact, and whilst not being great, it is a good read

If you're after something funny, I'd recommend Rob Grant's Colony (Red Dwarf co-author). Its a few years old now, but again I re-read it a month or two back and was impressed again

The Bloodstained Rabbit by Sean Kennedy
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Code of the Samurai by Thomas Cleary

Aye, Banksie! His sci-fi Use of Weapons is one of the most brilliant and disturbing things I've ever read. That novel had me shouting abuse at Banks once I'd finished it Excession totally rules - the sheer scope of it is mindblowing.

Back to Earth. Recently I read Dirt Music by Aust. author Tim Winton (Aussies might know of his masterpiece, Cloudstreet). Now, this bloke can write. He makes you feel familiar, at home even, with places & people you've never seen and makes you a witness to things that are so intimate that you feel like a voyeur. He writes the kind of book that makes you sigh heavily when you close it on the last page, like you've just finished a difficult chapter of your own life and you just need to sit and think about it for a little while. It's best to finish a Winton when you're by yourself so you can just digest it without having to explain why you look so contemplative and relieved

Wee list of my other favourites: Isaac Asimov (the master), Frank Herbert (Dune series), Noam Chomsky (non-fiction), Kim Stanley Robinson (his Mars series rules), Neale Donald Walsch (non-fiction) among others. I could start on graphic novels but that's another thread

Most anything by Hubert Selby Jr.

I never liked reading and almost never read at home but over pass few days I spent long night hours reading "Until We Meet Again" by Michael Korenblit and Kathleen Janger http://www.nwosu.edu/pubrel/2006-2007/holocaust.htm

Oh you nerdy sci-fi types ... Uh Ringworld from Larry Niven
is really good.
But I like Stephen King mostly for fiction And Joseph Wambaugh for non fiction. His fiction is pretty good too, if you like cop stories

There's a book I read, it's from a British author called Good Omens. That was pretty good.

My favorite book would have to be Tortilla Flats. That book describes almost to a "T" how my life was growing up... Hell the neighborhood I live in is even nicked named that.
LOL in the book there's a character that got locked up so many times for public drunkeness that the cops finally just make him a jailer. IRL, My friend got locked up so much for public drunkeness, they finally got him a job with the city.

Right now I'm reading a lot of Jack Higgins, his books are pretty damn amazing, I first found one on holiday, and borrowed it from the hotel "libary" (it was just a quite room where people left books and could pick one up, also had a nice chess board), I have since gone out and got two more of them.

Good stuff.

For me to read books it has to be Chris Ryan and Andy McNab

The One The Got Away (Chris Ryan)
Blood Money (Chris Ryan)
Immediate Action (Andy McNab)
Crisis Four (Andy McNab)

Also have another Chris Ryan book somewhere cant remember what it was called, but the one that got away was the first chris ryan book i had read and i loved it. So thrilling

Dare I be the first to mention a Tom Clancy novel?

Rainbow Six had me engrossed, I liked that one.

One of the best books I've ever read: The contortionist's handbook by Craig Clevenger...trully masterful piece!

As for my other interests except Lfs I can just devore any book about WWII airwar accounts...my best till now Samurai by Saburo Sakai...

for the past month ive been reading all the inspector rebus books by ian rankin cant put them down.

Quote from Racer Y :

There's a book I read, it's from a British author called Good Omens. That was pretty good.

That's a Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman co-op, fun book indeed.

Quote from Racer Y :

My favorite book would have to be Tortilla Flats.

On that note - most of Steinbeck's books are excellent reading for some classic early 20th century americana. Amazing humor that man. For another much earlier deceased american author I'd go with Mark Twain - Mr Clemens is the man. For more modern sarcasm I'd try Philip Roth. If you're down with reading some beat then check out William S. Burroughs - you'll probably need some substance abuse experience aforehand to get the most out of it though or atleast a familiarization with some shadier aspects of social life. Same sort of goes if you'd like to take on an Hunter S. Thomson books - you probably know him most from "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Ofcourse I shouldn't forget Joseph Heller, read his "Catch-22" - if you've had to undergo (mandatory?) military service in a sort-of-active unit you'll appreciate it even more.

If you like characters that have a way of developing through a story and "coming alive" in many ways then go for the all time classic, Dickens. It might take some effort though to cut through some of the cliches of his time. Especially his later books, like Hard Times have a very sinister allure to them.

In scifi I'm a fan of William Gibson's style - cyberpunk at it's grittiest - and there's a new very interesting cyberpunk novel out by Charles Stross called Accelerando which you can also download for free off the official site.

Fantasy I'm a hands-down Terry Pratchett fan although I did - for lack of a better expression - grow up reading Tolkien books, I just can't bring myself to read "serious" fantasy any more. Last one that kinda got my attention in that genre was a book from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series mostly due to the "realistic" sort of take on violence, but I never got around to reading the whole deal.

Fun historical novels would be Umberto Eco. Although his more contemporary Foucault's Pendulum is such a hoot - especially if you've ever had any people around you who deal with the "occult" and you've picked up on some of that mumbo-jumbo. Last one I read of his was "Island of the day Before" and that was very entertaining as a journey through the various mindsets of people during the Enlightenment - it sort of employes the same storytelling techniques with his "Baudolino", the latter is about the Middle Ages.

For books that bring out the little scientist in you without being dry and pendantic (and humorless) check out Ian Stewart's books (and his co-ops with Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett as well) and definetely don't miss out on Roger Penrose's "The Emperor's new mind."

For some "deep" reading first on my list would be Nikos Kazantzakis - as soon as I picked up a book of his I knew I had to read them all and it really was worth it every line. The only thing is because he has a way of playing with words and the language (and the language being greek) I'm not to sure about how the translations would go down without losing too much of the feel.

And because I could probably ramble on for a very long while as I look through the library I'll just end this with saying that currently I'm building up the momentum to tackle some Russian authors I've neglected by doing the exact opposite and reading a collection of short stories and essays by Mark Twain. Hilarious yarns.

EDIT:
I feel guilty for not mentioning Will and Ariel Durant's Story Of Civilization in the historical genre. It's not a novel - but the way it's written is trully captivating (and fun - honest) and makes history 1000 times more interesting than any book you might of encountered in, say, school.

A bit obvious but i did like it: DaVinci Code
And also Autosport every Friday

American Psycho, Less than Zero (Bret Easton Ellis)
Moby Dick (Herman Melville)
The Old Man and the Sea (Ernest Hemingway)

Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. Best fiction I've ever read. There are 11 of them currently, and it's still a WIP :O Opinions differ on whether or not that's a good thing, but personally I hope it never ends

Someone mentioned Hunter S Thompson, and it made me think of Kurt Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions is a blast (hilarious) to read, and Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of pretty good short stories.

Breakfast was great, so was Good Omens :up:

For a change of pace I've just started reading Red Branch by Morgan Llewellyn. It's about Gaelic legend Cuchulain and it's pretty cool so far.

The other day I bought a graphic novel called Superman: Red Son. An interesting concept: what if ol' Supe's space-pram had landed in the Ukraine and he'd been raised as a Communist, instead of in Mid-West USA? It's a really well done, complex story with some top notch art too On that topic, any of Frank Miller's Batman graphic novels are worth grabbing (FYI Frank wrote & drew Sin City).

Lot's of sci-fi nuts around eh?

The Diamond Age, Quicksilver, -Neil Stephenson
Diaspora, Permutation City -Greg Egan
Software -Rudy Rucker
Anything by Philip K Dick, but especially the Valis trilogy

Then... Burrough's, and all the beat stuff when I was younger.

When I was really young- Tolkien, Neverending Story by Micheal Ende, and my first ever big book... Little House on the Prairy.

Quote from Hankstar :

On that topic, any of Frank Miller's Batman graphic novels are worth grabbing (FYI Frank wrote & drew Sin City).

Ah, comic books - very much worth checking out are Alan Moore (author of V for Vendetta, yes he did disown the movie concept) and Warren Ellis.

I previously forgot the horror genre - if anything I'm always a sucker for H P Lovecraft's stories.

Quote from Anorexicpillow :

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

That's a great one, reason

I love the Dune-series by F.Herman, Lord of The rings and all the Stephen King stuff (especially the dark tower series). Oh, and maybe not the best literature, but keeps you hooked: All the stories about Drizzt do'Urden and some other RPG related books (Vampire Clan Novels e.g.).

Yeah forgotten about the Dark Tower series, I read two but didn't have the chance to obtain the rest

Lots of good reading listed, going to be a busy winter ^^

Ender's game by Orson Scott Card, and the rest of the series now I'm reading Shadow of the Hegemon and I'm really enjoying it. This guy is a great writer, an easy to read writing style with very deep and complex plots, incredible mix

I also enjoy Prattchet books a lot, Guards! Guards? was hilarious and now I finished Soul Music, very good also.

From Neal Stephenson, Criptonomicon was very good, but the finale was a bit disappointing. Then I started to read Azogue, but it's not very good.

I also like William Gibson, HP Lovecraft, Herbert, Clarke, Bradbury...

I'm a SciFi classics fan as you can see