BiblioQueria 17

"I am a cartoonist.
We are thin on the ground, we women cartoonists, it's still thought of as a man's job, and there are even fewer of my sort who aren't English and never went to art school."

This is what I read on page 9 of Barbara Vine's The Minotaur. Oh yes, I am hooked. And it just keeps getting better and better as this haunting, yes riveting story progresses. A fascinating psychological study of twisted family relationships and dark secrets which slowly come to the surface. And there's even a mysterious labyrinth of a library in the tale! If you want to experience a delicious, riveting read, then you must get a hold of this book. Many thanks to RJ for bringing this gem to my attention.

Which brings me to the subject of riveting reading. I picked up this book last Friday, and started reading it in the evening. I wanted to continue reading all through the night, but I'd had a busy day, and I kept drifting off to sleep in spite of the engaging story. Saturday was a write-off because I had too many errands to do, and then a dinner party in the evening. All I could think about was how I couldn't wait to get back to that book. Come Sunday morning, and I'm up early, on the couch with my coffee, and to hell with the rest of the world. I had plenty of work to attend to, but that book was calling to me, and I could not break the spell. So I sat on that couch for quite a few hours, completely entranced. I did not answer the phone. After a while my bladder tried to get my attention, but I would have none of that nonsense. Just like the title of another engaging book says, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading! Hurricanes and tornadoes could have whipped through the house, and I would not have blinked an eye.

And so my question to you is....

What was the last book you read which had you completely and utterly rivited?

Comments

[R J Keefe]

A book that I just finished the other day, Walter Kirn's "Mission to America." I'm writing it up for next week.

[Cara]

In the past year, I've read three books that I couldn't put down--"The Daughter of Time" by Josephine Tey, "Revenge" by Stephen Fry, and "Possession" by A.S. Byatt.

RJ, if you like Walter Kirn, he has a serial novel up at Slate.com.

p.s. I enjoy your site. I've been lurking for a while, but this question was too tempting.

[Arethusa]

Hmmmmm. It's a toss-up between "Possession" by A.S. Byatt and "Northanger Abbey" by Austen. I'm unsure because I dropped the Byatt for about five days or so as I was busy with school but...really because I was upset that she had stopped at what I felt was a *crucial*, dying-to-know-what's-going-to-happen-next part in the story line, and picked up a paler companion. Oh, did I pout!

[Isabella]

Your question is more complicated than you might think — the riveting factor often has as much to do with external or superficial factors than the book itself.

For example, last summer, I read Ian McEwan's Saturday in one all-day session. But it was a gloomy day and the child was at her grandmother's, so I was riveted by the opportunity, and that it's fairly slim, as much as by the story. I suspect almost any book I'd've picked up that day would've had the same effect.

On the other hand, I'm currently in the middle of George Eliot's Middlemarch, and I'm thinking about it constantly (it's amazing!), though I'm too busy to spend more than a few minutes a day with it. It is riveting even if it's not obvious in my reading behaviour these past weeks.

[bookfraud]

great question, patricia. two david mitchell books had me completely riveted: "cloud atlas" and "ghostwritten." you could not pry them from my fingers. before that, probably "oryx and crake" by margaret atwood.

funny, i just realized that they all have a sci-fi element in them, and have are intricately plotted. plotting seems to be a constant in all books that capture my full attention...

[Pete]

Ander Monson's "Other Electricities." Brilliant, for reasons I can't adequately explain.

[Jordan]

Don't think less of me for it: "Junior", the novel Macaulay Culkin wrote.

Before that, Jonathan Safran Foer's "Everything is Illuminated" and Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go".

[Anne]

I have gotten way too demanding and cranky in my old-middle age. I find many books absorbing but few riveting. (And too many are disappointing.)

I'd have to go back a couple of years to Alice Sebold's "The Lovely Bones" to recall being riveted by a book.

The Master and Commander series by O'Brian has me pretty hooked a lot of the time. But I'm running out -- only two more to go! *sob*

[Steven List]

Surprisingly to me, I read Salman Rushdie's "Haroun and the Sea of Stories" cover to cover. My friend loaned it to me because he wanted me to experience some vivid language and imagery. The whole things was captivating. Yum!

[ragdoll]

A couple of books on my own Book A Day challenge have kept me totally riveted: "The Night Watch" by Sarah Waters and "Intuition" by Allegra Goodman. I devoured them both like Easter eggs or my Halloween candy.

[Amy]

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas and Luis Urrea's The Hummingbird's Daughter. Just could not put them down.

[Vicki]

I'm not sure if you've read it (I just started reading your blog, but you seem to have an affinity for penguins... ;)...

"Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov"

[Monique]

Jon McGregor's If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things.

[Deb]

I just recently spent a delicious two or three days reading Carlos Ruiz Zafon's "Shadow of the Wind."

This novel features a Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where those volumes that have been forgotten, fallen from public notice, go to rest, waiting for someone to rediscover them.

What a great idea. I wanted so badly for the whole book to be about this place!

[BiblioVixen]

Most recently, "The Language of Baklava: A Memoir" by Diana Abu-Jaber. I snuck it into work to read (with reports wrapped around the outside of it), took it everywhere with me. Then I renewed at the library, so I could re-read it immediately.

[ELL]

Although not his best work, still riviting: Chainfire By Terry Goodkind

[Loretta]

Enjoy reading your blog.
Recently, I was riveted by "Good omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and "Why do I love these people?" by Po Bronson. Two very different books!

[Julie]

Oooh, what a great question. Most recently, Ursula Under by Ingrid Hill.

[meghanm]

If on a winter's night a traveler

-longtime lurker who couldn't resist the question