Books for the Bedridden

May 3, 2005 2:56 PM

Did you ever stay in bed all day reading a particularly compelling book? What titles have made you completely anti-social, shunning the outside world until you finish them - books that leave you almost jetlagged after you're through with them? I'm nearing the end of my pregnancy and have been placed on bedrest for the next few weeks, and the novelty has worn off. I need suggestions for titles that will make staying in bed 24/7 much more tolerable.

I'm looking for what the Common Reader catalog calls "Thumping Good Reads" (although the CR and I disagree on what constitutes an acceptable level of tweeness, so I can't rely on them). Recent books that have held my attention, to the exclusion of the quotidian, are (and here I get to show how pedestrian I am) The Time Traveler's Wife, The Cloud Atlas , Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, the complete works of Robertson Davies, and the autobiographies of Ruth Reichl. I'd prefer 20th century writers, if only because I'm still enjoying the novelty of reading contemporary literature after a long stint in grad school.

(and if you have any bedrest tips, please feel free to send them along).

posted by bibliowench to media & arts (93 comments total)

probably a bit lowbrow for you, but king's dark tower series did the trick for me.
posted by lotsofno at 2:59 PM on May 3, 2005

All of Dan Brown's books (author of The Da Vinci Code) were thrill rides. Nothing too substantial; just fun reading.

If you're into something based upon its literary merits, Jhumpa Lahiri, an up-and-coming British-Indian author is spectacular. She won the Pulitzer for her short stories, Interpreter of Maladies.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 3:00 PM on May 3, 2005

The only book I've ever read in one sitting was Sexing the Cherry. It was pretty good. But perhaps more importantly, I was on a long train ride.

When I first read LOTR, it was out loud with a gf. We'd take turns reading it to one another. There were times when one or the other of us wouldn't be around for a day or two, and we each caught the other "cheating" and reading ahead while the other was gone.
posted by scarabic at 3:04 PM on May 3, 2005

Again, it might not be the most high-brow of lit, but I gave up sleep to finish Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and Andrew Sean Greer's The Confessions of Max Tivoli. (and though i can't speak to Ms. Lahiri's short stories, i thought her book The Namesake was a total bore)
posted by jodic at 3:06 PM on May 3, 2005

I stayed home for four nights in a row to read Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air.

IT'S A PAGE TURNER!
posted by xmutex at 3:08 PM on May 3, 2005

I'm with lotsofno. I read the first four books of the Dark tower series during my last year of high school; I was so withdrawn that my parents got worried because I was spending so much time in my room and "at the library." (They thought I was sneaking out and going somewhere naughty.)
posted by chota at 3:09 PM on May 3, 2005

I love the Interpreter of Maladies, but she's actually American (not British or Indian). How about Middlesex, Virgin Suicides, Life of Pi, The Kite Runner? The Crying of Lot 49 is a must read if you like that kind of thing, anything by David Sedaris if you want to laugh, The Invisible Man for some history, and I loved Ha Jin's Waiting.
posted by fionab at 3:12 PM on May 3, 2005

Huh, so basically, you love exactly the same books that I do. Other books I've enjoyed are Mary Doria Russell's 'The Sparrow', any of Neal Stephenson's books, 'The Prestige' by Christopher Priest and 'Espedair Street' by Iain Banks.
posted by adrianhon at 3:15 PM on May 3, 2005

I want to second Into Thin Air. It's one of the most riveting books I've ever picked up, and it's a true story. Good call, xmutex.
posted by nyterrant at 3:15 PM on May 3, 2005

If you're into sci-fi, I recommend Roger Zelazny's The Great Book of Amber. It contains all ten of his books in the Amber series and consequently takes a good chunk of time to read, which can be a good thing for some of us. The first five books is an astounding adventure in imagination and kept me 100% enthralled, though the second 5 books are a bit more for the hardcore Amber reader. If you want to test his writing style before plunging into his collection, try his Lord of Light which is a normal-sized novel and rocked my face (though I found it more confusing than his Amber series).
As far as the only book I've read in one sitting, that'de be George Orwell's Animal Farm. I suppose it helps with it being so short, but still a wonderful classic.
posted by jmd82 at 3:17 PM on May 3, 2005

Some good bedrest ideas in this thread.
posted by fionab at 3:17 PM on May 3, 2005

If you liked Into Thin Air, then you might like Touching The Void by Joe Simpson.

In the mid-80s, two young men attempt a distant mountain in Peru. One the way down from the summit one gets hurt, the other attempts to lower him down the mountain using ropes, the hurt one falls into a crevasse... the rope is cut, the hurt one -presumed dead- crawls to safety a day before the rope-cutter leaves the area.

And it's a true story, written by the left-for-dead surviver. The book is infintely better than the movie, and the movie was very very good.
posted by seawallrunner at 3:20 PM on May 3, 2005

At the moment I have a hard time putting down Harry Mulisch's Discovery of Heaven - but I have slept, tho.
posted by AwkwardPause at 3:21 PM on May 3, 2005

I love the Interpreter of Maladies, but she's actually American (not British or Indian).

Though you're right that she's American, she was born in England and raised by Indians. - source

But I'm glad we agree that she's awesome. She helped remind me of my culture.
posted by SeizeTheDay at 3:22 PM on May 3, 2005

I highly recommend The Raj Quartet by Paul Scott; you can get the four constituent novels separately or the whole thing in one fat volume, but either way, it's a long, absorbing visit to British India, with romance, tragedy, maharajahs, mutinies, missionaries, you name it, and characters you won't soon forget. (As an added bonus, it was made into an excellent miniseries that could occupy you for yet more hours in bed!)

You should also try Master and Commander, the first of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels; if you like it, there are 19 sequels, and you can spend the rest of your pregnancy reliving the Napoleonic Wars on a British man-o'-war. They're extremely well written; I'm no fan of "sea adventures," but I can't put these down.
posted by languagehat at 3:23 PM on May 3, 2005

As a side note, I'm surprised you'd call Cloud Atlas and Kavalier and Clay pedestrian. You've got some high standards.
posted by xmutex at 3:24 PM on May 3, 2005

when i stumbled upon yukio mishima, particularly the temple of the golden pavilion, it was like that. i thought i was just going to dally with some office page turning and quickly went "holy crap" and proceeded to devour everything i could get my hands on by him as if in a trance.

years earlier, the same phenomenon happened with philip roth (sabbath's theater started it) and gerald stern (leaving another kingdom).
posted by ifjuly at 3:25 PM on May 3, 2005

Anne-Marie MacDonald's Fall on Your Knees was an up all night (all weekend, actually, it's long) book for me.
posted by jacquilynne at 3:28 PM on May 3, 2005

I'm fond of the big and trashy classic. So while you've been given a lot of good books to read, I'm going to give you bad books to read.

Valley Of The Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
Shogun by James Clavell
Sunfire romance novels

Also, although this could lead you down a spiral of doom, choose a TV show/movie/book that you like, and go find fanfiction for it by googling for "[media name] rec". I ended up reading absolute shedloads of novel-length Harry Potter fic whilst recovering from chicken pox...
posted by Katemonkey at 3:30 PM on May 3, 2005

Damn, Kavalier and Clay was going to be one of my suggestions. Devil in the White City did it for me, though it helps to have an interest in: 19th century America, trivia, serial killers, architecture, Chicago... (any of those)

Graphic novels also tend to keep my attention (maybe it's just having to turn the pages that many more times). Some graphic novel authors that appeal to fans of mainstream literature are: Neil Gaiman (Sandman; Books of magic), Daniel Clowes (Ghost World and others), Art Spiegelman (Maus), Derek Kirk Kim (Same Difference and Other Stories)

Oh! Short stories are good if you're feeling kind of distractable; they move quickly. Check out McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales edited by Michael Chabon
posted by dagnyscott at 3:30 PM on May 3, 2005

As a side note, I'm surprised you'd call Cloud Atlas and Kavalier and Clay pedestrian. You've got some high standards.

Not pedestrian as in "easy" or "commercial" but more mainstream - like "the NYTBR told me these books were good, so okey-doke." I'm happy to see some titles here I haven't heard of before.
posted by bibliowench at 3:33 PM on May 3, 2005

Into the Wild, by the author of Into Thin Air, is also a riveting read.
A second for Life of Pi, in the gotta-find-out-what-happens-next genre. (But ugh, Dan Brown is a hack. I finished it, but felt dirty after.)
posted by CunningLinguist at 3:33 PM on May 3, 2005

One suggestion: a Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Truly a brilliant series.
posted by koenie at 3:39 PM on May 3, 2005

Just yesterday I spent the day reading Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, essentially a sci-fi Phillip Marlowe. As for fantasy...

I lent His Dark Materials to an extremely busy person recently, who told me that he finished book 2 at midnight, and was forced to stay up and read book 3. Supposedly children's books, which I always hear recommended by adults to adults as "like Harry Potter but distinctly better".

For much, much siller, but quite engrossing, there are the Thursday Next novels.

A Song of Ice and Fire is historical fiction with just a touch of fantasy, and is riveting. It's also 800, 900, and 1100 pages so far, with four books to go.

Finally, I'll recommend Perdido Street Station just because it's so goddamned good.

Off-topic: I had thought that weeks of bed rest was now seen as akin to bloodletting -- it sounds good, but is actually a net minus in almost all cases. Are you sure you're not one of them?
posted by Aknaton at 3:39 PM on May 3, 2005

Try Skallagrig, by William Horwood. It's published in the UK, but you can get it through Alibris.com here. A phenomenal book, but also very emotional, which might not be what you're in the mood for. I like most of his other stuff too.

I second Iain Banks(fiction)/Ian M. Banks(sci. fiction).

Beachcombing for a Shipwrecked God, The Loop, Flatland Fable, and Apologizing to Dogs, by Joe Coomer.

The Plague Tales and its sequel Burning Road, by Ann Benson.
posted by lobakgo at 3:42 PM on May 3, 2005

That should be Iain M. Banks.
posted by lobakgo at 3:44 PM on May 3, 2005

Some more recommendations: the short stories of George Saunders will blow you away and make you smile and swoon-- I recommend the collection Pastoralia.

Jonathan Ames' (Ames's?) Wake Up, Sir! was hilarious. Inspired by P.G. Wodehouse and it's a lot like him. A really fun read.

If you liked Cloud Atlas, read David Mitchell's Number9Dream. I think it's more satisfying.

And lastly, Donald Antrim has written three small brilliant/funny/surrreal novels. My favorite among them is Elect Mr. Robinson For a Better World.
posted by xmutex at 3:45 PM on May 3, 2005

At the risk of ridicule for choosing a book that's overexposed anyway: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I will note, in my defense, that Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, and Goblet of Fire did not fall into the specified category for me--only Prisoner of Azkaban (I haven't read Order of the Phoenix yet). I began reading it on a Saturday morning and finished it before I went to bed. Didn't watch TV, didn't answer the phone all day. Read it as I was preparing meals. Read it in the bathtub, just so as not to stop reading.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:45 PM on May 3, 2005

Yet another vote for Krakauer's Into Thin Air. (Coincedentally, I just finished his Into the Wild last night.) Others that immediately spring to mind:

Joe Keenan, Blue Heaven -- screamingly funny, and a quick weekend read
Ian McEwan, Atonement
Umberto Eco, Foucault's Pendulum
posted by scody at 3:45 PM on May 3, 2005

Oh, you can read a story from the Pastoralia collection online (and it's my favorite): Sea Oak.
posted by xmutex at 3:46 PM on May 3, 2005

I'm assuming you've read Anna Karenina. It's what I recommend to everyone.

Second Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides: completely absorbing and kept me up late nights when I should have been studying or sleeping.

Also, The Hours by Michael Cunningham was so much better than the movie and is amazing, especially if you read it shortly after Mrs. Dalloway, which is what I did.

I read most of the Adrian Mole books when I was unemployed for a month last summer which would be a nice break between all the heavy stuff people are recommending. They're light and pretty hilarious.

And uh, I finished Microserfs by Douglas Coupland in a couple of days. It's pretty excellent. I've read a bunch of his other stuff, but I'm pretty convinced it's his best work.

And Shopgirl by Steve Martin is so good it hurts. It's really short though, you'll finish it in an afternoon. Then probably want to read it again. And again.

Other than that, I don't have much. I'm finishing an undergrad degree, so my leisure pretty sporadic the past few years.
posted by SoftRain at 3:48 PM on May 3, 2005

Ooh yeah. Microserfs was heartbreakingly awesome.
posted by xmutex at 3:50 PM on May 3, 2005

I am just now enjoying Out of Africa, Karen Blixen's memoir of her days in Kenya. The stories are very good and the writing is fine and poetic, and though I haven't seen the movie, I'm sure it's nothing like anything Hollywood might make of it, so don't let Meryl Streep & Co. put you off it.

Also, read Wislawa Szymborska's poetry.

You will not despair of them and want to fling them across the room.
posted by pracowity at 3:51 PM on May 3, 2005

I second all of Aknaton's recommendations and would also include all of Haruki Murakami's work...
posted by judith at 3:55 PM on May 3, 2005

I just finished Everything Is Illuminated and loved it. I felt totally woozy afterwards. And my search for the link revealed that it is soon going to be released as a film. So be sure to read it before the new edition's cover boasts a picture of Elijah Wood.
posted by picklebird at 4:01 PM on May 3, 2005

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon. This is one of those few books that manages to be intelligent and funky at the same time as being a crackling good read.
posted by googly at 4:06 PM on May 3, 2005

Believe it or not, Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis was the first book that ever made me laugh out loud, and I literally couldn't put it down because I kept wanting to find out what would happen next. Its a great read!
posted by indiebass at 4:07 PM on May 3, 2005

In your circumstances, long is probably good too, so I'll suggest:

Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon, Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World. C is a cracking good read that's heavy with leetness, Q is a little slow to start with but turns good, and TC and TSotW finish it off. In total, ~3500 pages of goodness about money, science, geekdom through the ages, adventures, and assorted oddnesses.

Peter Hamilton, The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God... cracking good fun in space-opera, except that one facet of the story (that continues throughout) is Very Silly Indeed. ~2500 pages all told, more if you read the stories in A Second Chance at Eden, some of which are set in the same universe.

SM Stirling, Island in the Sea of Time, Against the Tide of Years, On the Oceans of Eternity. Nantucket gets sucked back to ~1500 BC, hijinks ensue. Fun escapist drivel. ~1800 pages all told.

Iain M. Banks' Culture novels -- Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, Use of Weapons, State of the Art, Excession, Look to Windward, also Inversions. See also his straight fiction The Crow Road.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:16 PM on May 3, 2005

Second lobakgo on The Plague Tales. That was an awesome non-stop read. I'm also thrilllled to learn there is now a sequel.
posted by whatzit at 4:17 PM on May 3, 2005

The following quote seemed à propos:

Bookcases the world over contain the first volume of Marcel Proust's lengthy and elegant sequence, À la recherche du temps perdu. Readers the world over pray to be visited by a mildly debilitating disease: something that will necessitate their confinement to a chaise in a cork-lined room; something that will drain them of all ambition, save the urge to get beyond the famous dipping of the madeleine that happens early on in Swann's Way.

— Bill Richardson

posted by Johnny Assay at 4:20 PM on May 3, 2005

Donna Tartt's The Secret History and Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles are two fairly light 20th c. novels I recently couldn't put down.
posted by katie at 4:31 PM on May 3, 2005

"Fortress of Solitude" by Jonathan Lethem was a no-put-down for me.
posted by tristeza at 4:31 PM on May 3, 2005

I spent a summer reading everything I could by James Ellroy - including Black Dahlia and LA Confidential. These are both fun, cops-and-robbers and mysteries. He's written some non-fiction as well, but I'm not as familiar with it.

Also, A Prayer for Owen Meany was tough to put down - definitely my favorite by John Irving. (Incidentally, I read Middlesex this winter, and while I enjoyed it, it was similar enough to Irving that it demanded comparison, and it didn't live up, in my opinion.

Finally, check out e by Matthew Beaumont, one of the funniest books I've ever read. It's an epistolary novel, but all the letters are emails, and it all takes place in an utterly incompetent advertising company in London. Think "The Office". An absolute scream - I can't recommend it enough.

Congratulations!
posted by fingers_of_fire at 4:32 PM on May 3, 2005

I think picking a book you don't want to put down can be a very difficult thing for one person to suggest to another - though I would second the recommendations I saw for the Thursday Next novels and Harry Potter.

I would add anything by Dorothy Dunnett - specifically her Lymond Chronicles and the House of Niccolo series. I'm two books from finishing the Niccolo series and it's killing me that I won't have any of them left to read after that - I force myself to read other books inbetween so I can stretch the series out. That said, these are very dense historical novels, and while the characters are fabulous, it can be a bit much if you don't have the attention span for it.
posted by bibbit at 4:32 PM on May 3, 2005

The Sunburnt Country by Bill Bryson. I couldn't put it down. Side-splittingly funny, witty and you learn a whole lot about Australia to boot!
posted by blindcarboncopy at 4:39 PM on May 3, 2005

Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone; I Know This Much Is True was almost as good.
posted by gramcracker at 4:54 PM on May 3, 2005

Two psychologically/philosophically gripping novels. One long, one short:

1) I started, obsessed over, and finished Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment in a Florida hotel room on a vacation for a long weekend instead of going out to the beach.

2) On the ride back home, I zoned out and polished off The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera in a day.

It was probably the best week of reading I've ever had, sunlight be damned.
posted by themadjuggler at 4:54 PM on May 3, 2005

So many great suggestions already: I second The Virgin Suicides, which is mesmerizing. But I’m gonna weigh in on the trashy side. I went on an extended trash binge (aka a “sabbatical”) a few years back and these were some of the best ones I came across:

A pair of Patty-Hearst-related memoirs: Patty’s own (Patty Hearst: Her Own Story – originally published as Every Secret Thing) and her sad ex-boyfriend Steven Weed’s My Search for Patty Hearst. (He’s the guy who supposedly told the kidnappers to “Take Anything!” and then lo and behold they took poor Patty!) A slew of books came out in the wake of the O.J. Simpson trial. I’m pretty sure I read them all. The towering achievement in that group was Faye Resnick’s totally delirious memoir of her friendship with Nicole, which contains, among other things, a discussion of how sexy it is to read Freud in the Jacuzzi. Yuck! I also read The Starr Report and Monica’s Story by Andrew Morton, and recommend both of them, although I did feel kind of guilty spending the money on Starr.

All best.
posted by sophieblue at 4:58 PM on May 3, 2005

Lucky Jim is a personal favorite in a personal favorite category (i.e. snide, vaguely academic novels. Other standouts in the category: The End of the Road by John Barth and White Noise by Don DeLillo).
Speaking of John Barth, I also loved The Floating Opera.
I'm partial to lit for young adults when I want a faster read. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time recently grabbed me by the collar and wouldn't let go until I'd finished it. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and Life is Funny by E. R. Frank are really, really, really excellent. (Actually, if I could convince you to read only one of my suggestions, it'd be Speak.)
posted by willpie at 5:01 PM on May 3, 2005

1/2 unabashedly gimmicky & labrynthine metafiction + 1/2 haunted house story = house of leaves. buckets of neat tricks (anagrams, coded messages, odd typogrphy, manufactured quotations, etc etc) and loads of creepy.
posted by juv3nal at 5:03 PM on May 3, 2005

do the whole quicksilver trilogy--about 3000 pages in all--and good on the whole.

life of pi is the only book i've read all at once lately, altho Birth of Venus was a great fast read too.
posted by amberglow at 5:09 PM on May 3, 2005

Three Junes and Poisonwood Bible.
posted by remlapm at 5:09 PM on May 3, 2005

I couldn't put Eva Luna by Isabel Allende and Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger down until I'd finished them.
posted by hootch at 5:30 PM on May 3, 2005

Its Not About The Bike by Lance Armstrong.
posted by neilkod at 5:37 PM on May 3, 2005

I second the suggestions upthread re: James Ellroy, especially American Tabloid or anything from the so-called L.A. Quartet (my hands-down fave is The Big Nowhere) -- but I will caution that they can be rather disturbing reading, particularly back-to-back. When I first got into Ellroy, I pretty much read the entire L.A. Quartet over the course of several fevered weeks, and it honestly took a few weeks after that to regain my mental and emotional equilibrium. But yeah, if you enjoy grim noir -- he's spectacular. (With the exception, I must admit, of The Cold Six Thousand, which left me, well, cold.)

Speaking of grim-but-great, had Conrad's Heart of Darkness already been mentioned? So goddamn brilliant I can't get over it, no matter how many times I read it.
posted by scody at 5:41 PM on May 3, 2005

The Devil Wears Prada is a fun trashy read, although it's essentially the same book as The Nanny Diaries.

I'll put in a second/third for the His Dark Materials trilogy, as well as Into Thin Air and Touching the Void. There's a documentary of Touching the Void available on DVD.
posted by Dr. Zira at 5:44 PM on May 3, 2005

I did this with Dune, but I was a teenager then. I probably couldn't finish that book now. The best page turning, fun, and erudite book I have read as of late was probably The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

As for bedrest, turn frequently, which I know may not be a simple matter for you. Videos, books on tape and lots of intimate visitors are really good for prolonged bedrest. The phone and the internets are also your friends. I know I could spend four or five hours a day on MeFi alone. My wife did this for multiple months several years ago (pre-Internet) and the key for her was multiple forms of distraction as the need to focus on not getting too excited, not letting the contractions get to vigorous - for three months - was pretty intense. You might also consider spending your time in a room that you will not want to enter again for a few years; our extended time there may very well sour you on it for quite some time.
posted by caddis at 6:02 PM on May 3, 2005

I could hardly put down Another Bullshit Night in Suck City, an entry in the memoir category. I also felt that way about Cloud Atlas.
posted by rw at 6:04 PM on May 3, 2005

An Underacheiver's Diary by Ben Anastas, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler, Fargo Rock City by Chuck Klosterman, The Redneck Manifesto by Jim Goad, Ladies Man by Richard Price, and any of the novels in James Ellroy's LA Quartet.
posted by jonmc at 6:23 PM on May 3, 2005

on review, scody, Big Nowhere is my fave too, Danny Upshaw and Buzz Maskins are the two most sympathetic charachters Ellroy ever created.
posted by jonmc at 6:24 PM on May 3, 2005

The Secret Life of Bees, Kidd
Memiors of a Giesha, Golden
Lamb: The Gospel According to Jesus' Best Friend Biff, Moore (I think that's the right subtitle)
Middlesex, Eugenides
A Home at the End of the World, Cunningham
Summerland, Chabon
The Harry Potter Books
Redeeming Love, Rivers (Christian literature, which I'm not into usually, but incredibly moving)
posted by dpx.mfx at 6:26 PM on May 3, 2005

Most of Nicholson Baker's ouevre kept me rivited. Avoid Fermata and Vox if you're not into porn/erotica (though they're both intelligently written) and skip Checkpoint - too much of a politically charged rant.

Room Temperature and Mezzanine are both beautifully descriptive and short. As you're expecting, you might enjoy the former particularly - it details an afternoon spent bottle feeding a little girl. The Everlasting Story of Nory is a charmer as well, told from the perspective of a nine year old.

The Size of Thoughts is an excellent book of non-fiction essays (especially if you've ever been curious about the etymology of the word "lumber"), but some find it a bit dense. The same is true of U & I (unless you're big into Updike) and Double Fold (unless you're big into libraries and the preservation of printed materials).
posted by aladfar at 6:29 PM on May 3, 2005

More than anything else, this thread reminds me not to accept recommendations for important things like the books I read. :) There are many excellent suggestions here, but also manuscripts I would be generous to label 'average'. Now, I'm sure my favorites are disliked by a great lot, so I'll keep my list private!
posted by maya at 6:29 PM on May 3, 2005

Seconding juv3nal's House of Leaves suggestion. That book boggled my mind and wouldn't let go, and it has done so for everyone I've recommended it to as well.
posted by katie at 6:32 PM on May 3, 2005

So far, all nice suggestions (though mostly a bit light for my tastes)

Perhaps you might consider:
The Leopard by Di Lampedusa--an widely acknowledged but criminally under-read classic.

Life: a User's Manual by Perec--a great, great book which will either suck you in or batter your brain into mush, depending on your temperment.

The Road to the World's End by Sigurd Hoel--this is an amazing book, a bildungsroman which describes the life of the protagonist--a little boy--from his earliest memory up to early adulthood. A beautiful book which, given your expectant state, might be of particular interest...
posted by Chrischris at 6:39 PM on May 3, 2005

also, Harlan Ellison's Mefisto In Onyx. That one had me absolutely riveted.
posted by jonmc at 7:19 PM on May 3, 2005

About a year ago, someone handed me a copy of Atlas Shruggedby Ayn Rand. I had heard mixed reviews of the book and was prepared to hate it. For the first 300 pages, I couldn't believe that I kept turning the pages. "Why the hell am I still reading this book?" I asked myself. Before I knew it, I had read all thousand something pages of it, leaving my house only to go out and buy cigarettes. I was glued to that book for the better part of a week. To this day, my opinion of the book oscillates between loving it and dismissing it. Rand is a real extreme fundamentalist who tends to oversimplify some big issues. On the other hand, Atlas Shrugged got me thinking about quite a few things. If you read it, don't take it too seriously, though. I know a couple people who went off the deep end and live that book like it's the bible. They've become a handful, to say the least.
posted by Jon-o at 7:53 PM on May 3, 2005

Two books that I read in one sitting each: Ubik, by Philip K Dick, and Generation X, by Douglas Coupland. In retrospect, I think both those books caught me at exactly the right points in my life to rivet me that way, but they're still good.

I'm not a particularly fast reader, so a one-sitting read is a rare thing for me.
posted by adamrice at 8:19 PM on May 3, 2005

I'd like to third George Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, although "historical fiction with a touch of fantasy" isn't very accurate. They're fantasy, though don't let that turn you away - they're the story of a kingdom falling apart into civil war, and they're done impressively well. The first book is called A Game of Thrones, and that is, in essence, what the books are about - the political and military machinations of various key figures in the kingdom of Westeros.

The last book to make me stay up all night wasn't, in fact, a book, it was a comic book. I don't know if you'd be willing to consider that sort of thing, but the series is Sandman, by Neil Gaiman [most recently known for the also read-worthy American Gods.] As literature, it's as good or better than many of the books I recognize in this thread. It is something of a tragedy [although there is certainly hope in the end], one that gathers force and inevitability as the story goes on. It's also a story about stories - the main character is Morpheus, the personification of man's ability to dream, and Neil Gaiman uses the focus on dreams to explore all kinds of beautiful side-stories, even as the main plot gatheres momentum. Worth checking out even if you've never read comics before.

Dostoevsky's The Idiot and Tolstoy's Anna Karennina both kept me up all night when I found them. Crime and Punishment, War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov... all rightfully considered great.

I was recently on a kick of Beat and post-Beat authors - Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion [most people having read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest] is well worth the read, as is Kerouac's On the Road. I'm in the middle of Burroughs' Naked Lunch right now.

Man, asking me for books is dangerous. China Mieville's Perdido Street Station and The Scar - I haven't found his latest [The Iron Council] quite as riveting, but still worth it. If you haven't read Lord of the Rings. do so - I was so eager to finish the story that I learned how to read in order to do so, way back when I was 4 or so. For some non-fiction, Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb and are both incredibly interesting from a historical viewpoint and also, unsurprisingly, pretty sobering. Another comic, Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis - a twenty-third century Hunter S. Thompson-type journalist returns to The City after five years of being a hermit in the mountains... just in time for election season. It's bitter, twisted, hilariously funny, and beneath it all there's something about loving the beauty and squalor of urban life, and fighting for truth and justice. Catch-22. Connie Willis' Doomsday Book and Passage. The Crying of Lot 49 and V [haven't made it through Gravity's Rainbow yet.] Anything by Haruki Murakami. Man, I almost envy you... all that time to read...
posted by ubersturm at 8:37 PM on May 3, 2005

xmutex: That Sea Oak story is pretty good, despite making me think of this MetaFilter thread.

I should have mentioned Mark Leyner's Et Tu, Babe before. If you like that, then try his later work too. (If you're a collector, then you can try his earlier -- not everyone can stomach its flightiness.)

Nonfiction: Olivia Judson's Dr. Tatiana's Sex Guide to All Creation (birds, mice, sea creatures, etc.) is breathtaking in its weirdness. The rats with the prehensile penes with which to reach in and remove the plugs left by other rats from their special plug-producing gland... we've probably got genes for that, unexpressed!
posted by Aknaton at 9:00 PM on May 3, 2005

The Diana Gabaldon Outlander series. Sometimes they're stuck in the romance section, but they're technically historical fiction--mostly set in the 1700's, but several characters come from the 1940's and 60's. She's also written a mystery with one of the secondary characters from the series as the protagonist: Lord John and the Private Matter.
posted by brujita at 9:17 PM on May 3, 2005

Personally, I go through this every time a new Discworld book comes out. If you've never read any Terry Pratchett, he's a lot of fun (you don't have to read the books in order, though they make a bit more sense if you do, and you can safely skip the first two).
posted by wanderingmind at 9:36 PM on May 3, 2005

Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver (My favorite book & the one I keep giving to people)
Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
Operating Instructions - Anne Lamott (About the 1st year after her son was born, funny)
Janet Evanovichs Stephanie Plum series (mind candy but fun)
Peter Bowens Gabriel Dupre Series (kind of like Tony Hillerman but I like these better)
posted by BoscosMom at 9:54 PM on May 3, 2005

Well, I would have pushed Cloud Atlas, Everything Is Illuminated, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Cryptonomicon, but since they're already out the door...

But, how about some Richard Powers? Galatea 2.2 and The Gold Bug Variations are freakin' great and probably right up your alley. Also, Rafi Zabor's The Bear Comes Home is excellent, if you don't mind the, um, hott human/bear action. And oh, oh, oh, Denis Johnson's The Stars at Noon.
posted by sad_otter at 10:08 PM on May 3, 2005

Thank you, everyone! This is why I joined MeFi. I got what I was hoping for - a diverse list of titles from smart people. The suggestions are varied, but with the boredom and the hormones, I'm pretty schizophrenic at the moment myself. It's easy to find books that have the designation of "good" literature, but "obsessively compelling" is a more complex category, I think. So now I have a list of call numbers to give to my husband the librarian tomorrow (Trust me - marrying a librarian is a smart move. You will never want for access to reading material or good conversation) and a long list of titles to get me through my 8 months of pregnancy leave as well!
posted by bibliowench at 10:37 PM on May 3, 2005

on review, scody, Big Nowhere is my fave too, Danny Upshaw and Buzz Maskins are the two most sympathetic charachters Ellroy ever created.

Absolutely agreed, jon! They're the two characters of his I really feel for. goes to find battered copy to start reading before bedtime....
posted by scody at 11:22 PM on May 3, 2005

Like everybody else, I a feel certain that my recommendations are the best recommendations. So listen up!

I elected to lie on my dorm bed in a hostel in Budapest, rather than actually tour the city, in order to read Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage.

My second favourite book (it's a close second) is Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance. His follow-up book, Family Matters, is also good, but not in my favourite-book-ever list.

I'm currently in the middle of reading Jane Hamilton's A Map of the World and am enjoying it to an unusually high degree. Yesterday I declined a lunch invitation so I could read that book instead!

Also, i second the above recommendations for Ann Marie MacDonald's Fall on your knees and Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections. Come to think of it, I'm going to recommend Mordechai Richler's Barney's Version, and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake too.
posted by Kololo at 11:55 PM on May 3, 2005

Oh wait, I'm retracting my recommendation for A Map of the World; I can't recommend a book that centers around a drowned baby (that happens in the first chapter, i haven't just ruined the book for you, i swear) to a pregnant woman. I'm a non-mother and i can barely stand that book's grief, you don't need that!
posted by Kololo at 12:00 AM on May 4, 2005

If you like novels placed in Victorian times, (as I do) I recommend
The Crimson Petal and the White
or
The French Lieutenant's Woman

Also, if you like ripping historical sagas, I like Clavell's Tai-pan and Shogun.
posted by Dag Maggot at 12:01 AM on May 4, 2005

I loved Andey Kurkov’s Death and the Penguin and its follow-up Penguin Lost, and read them as quickly as I could.
posted by misteraitch at 12:14 AM on May 4, 2005

Those people who suggested younger reader's books are on the right track. I wholly recommend Australian author John Marsden's Tomorrow When The War Began series. It is quite easy to flick through each book in a day; there are 7 in the series. It was one of the books when I was in high school that I -had- to finish in the one sitting, no matter what, and even now that I'm a high school teacher, I still find time to read the series once a year. The two adults I've recommended the series to (my partner and mother) absolutely loved them.
posted by chronic sublime at 1:27 AM on May 4, 2005

If you discover you like fantasy, the creator of this page has a clue (disclaimer: I know her personally); it's a good list of recommendations. I never read fantasy before a couple of years ago and I now find it ideal chunky gripping reading for convalescence or trips.

I also recommend Colleen McCulloch's Masters of Rome series too (historical fiction). It's her life's work - what she wrote when she'd made all her money from her bestsellers.
posted by suleikacasilda at 2:11 AM on May 4, 2005

Two books.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Lost In the Himalayas by James Scott. It's non-fiction about an Aussie who got lost in the Himalayas and survived for 43 days in the snow. Not very long, and very gripping.
posted by wackybrit at 5:30 PM on May 4, 2005

Absolutely agreed, jon! They're the two characters of his I really feel for. goes to find battered copy to start reading before bedtime....

I supervised an Ellroy signing at a bookstore I used to work at, and during slow periods (this was before he got huge) we idly cast the movies of his books. I suggested John Cusack for Danny Upshaw and Sean Connery for Dudley Smith. (oddly IRL, Connery once decked Johnny Stompanato, a gangster stabbed to death by Lana Turner's daughter who pops up as a tangential character in several of Ellroy's books). He wanted Albert Finney for Dudley). I'd love to see Robert De Niro as Pete Bondurant, though.
posted by jonmc at 5:31 PM on May 4, 2005

Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series of police procedurals has been going for almost 50 years. The early ones are a bit dated now, and some of the later ones are a tad on the gritty side, but all in all, a very long, absorbing and fun read.

If you like space opera, try the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. Military SF at its best.

If you like fantasy and you're okay with telepathic dragon sex, then Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series is for you.

Sean McMullen's Greatwinter Trilogy is one of the most interesting and entertaining postapocalyptic universes I've ever spent time in. I believe Souls in the Great Machine is the first in the series.

Ancient historical fiction (Greece): Steven Pressfield - Gates of Fire, Tides of War, etc.

Ancient historical fiction (Rome): Colleen McCullough - The First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, etc.

None of this stuff is particularly deep, just very diverting and entertaining.
posted by GoatCactus at 6:56 PM on May 4, 2005

When I was pregnant I obsessively read my way through all of Dorothy Sayers Peter Wimsey detective novels. They will make you start speaking in a strange 1920s British accent, but otherwise, they're heavenly. Marjorie Allingham is almost as good. I also read Shirley Jackson's great light life-with-kids books - Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages.

But for pure compulsive I-can't-put-this-book-down-even-though-I-know-it-sucks well - Robin Hobb. I started with the Farseer series - Assassins Apprentice and so on. No, it isn't great literature. Yes, it's embarrassing to be seen in the company of the lurid covers. But in the long run, it doesn't matter, because if you read fantasy at all, you will not be able to put these down. And you'll be slavering for more.

Also, Neal Stephenson. Always Neal Stephenson.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:55 PM on May 4, 2005

Oh and whoa, how could I forget - also in the category of embarrassing but fantastic - I confess - Diana Gabaldon. Okay, so they feature a sexy 18th century guy in a kilt who uses modern English: they are pure-D trash, but oh god, what trash they are. Like ice cream. Once you start it's all over.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:00 PM on May 4, 2005

I'll third the Dark Tower series
posted by nomad at 8:34 PM on May 4, 2005

Dear me, I simply can't believe I forgot Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. Science fiction of the highest literary order. I have read this tetralogy many times. Wolfe is a giant.

Julian May's Pliocene Exile series has some fantastic characters (Good, Evil, and Other), and an amazing array of secondary characters that are fleshed out enough to effortlessly keep track of. This seems to exist in profusion in used bookstores.

I'm a little mystified why several people have mentioned Oryx & Crake and none have mentioned A Handmaid's Tale (which I liked a great deal more...).
posted by Aknaton at 10:02 PM on May 4, 2005

Alan Clark's diaries did exactly this to me recently.
posted by dmt at 5:24 AM on May 5, 2005

Johnny Assay has a great suggestion I'm ashamed not to have thought of myself: this is the perfect situation for Proust.
posted by languagehat at 7:41 AM on May 5, 2005

I'll second the reccomendations for Summerland, Eva Luna, and Middlesex. When my wife and I were in Greece last winter, I had to buy a second copy of Middlesex because she was dying to talk to me about it while she was reading it.

Other recent great reads:

Carter Beats the Devil (Early 20th century San Francisco, magicians, and the death of a president).

Anything by Arturo Perez Reverte, but especially The Club Dumas (mystery and intrigue, rare books, Three Musketeers, and raising the Devil).

The Shadow of the Wind(rare books and mystery again, set in Barcelona).

The Memory of Running(great story of a personal journey, with flashbacks to childhood, a cross country bike ride, and the Red Sox)
posted by SobaFett at 2:47 PM on May 5, 2005

Dear me, I simply can't believe I forgot Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun. Science fiction of the highest literary order. I have read this tetralogy many times. Wolfe is a giant.


Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Keep reading too, there are 8 more books that take place in more or less the same universe.
posted by agropyron at 7:14 AM on May 9, 2005