My favorite page turners

[Mormon Red Death]

Great page turning books begin and end with:

Atlas Shrugged

The best novel ever written

[JohnnyLingo]

Great page turning books begin and end with:

Atlas Shrugged

The best novel ever written

*shudder.... to each his own, I guess. While I'm not hardly in a position to debate the merits of Atlas Shrugged, after plodding through 200 pages of it and then giving up, I'd hardly consider it a page-turner.

Dan Brown - Angels and Demons, DaVinci Code, Deception Point

Dan Brown does a lot of things well. His stories are good, his research is good (if not entirely 100% true) and his characters are believable, but the man is not a good writer.


I love anything Tom Clancy, but especially Executive Orders. I also like
Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card
Lost Boys- Orson Scott Card... a surprisingly honest portrayal of an LDS family. Doesn't sugarcoat it, doesn't focus on the negative... I found it impressive.
Huck Finn
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

[Mormon Red Death]

First of all "Angels and Demons" had the most implausible ending of any book I have ever read. I liked it until the last 80 pages. The Da Vinci code was interesting but the end as well was kind of bull crap

[cougjunkie]

I agree the end of the Da Vinci code sucked. But it was a page turner I read it in two days.

I also thought Enders Game was a very good book. A few others:

To Kill a MockingBird
and anything by Clive Barker

[bluegoose]

[quote="JohnnyLingo"]
Dan Brown does a lot of things well. His stories are good, his research is good (if not entirely 100% true) and his characters are believable, but the man is not a good writer.


I think it is fairly well accepted that Dan Brown is not a pulitzer prize winning author. But the man can write a good page-turner. The endings for angels and demons and davinci code were way over-the-top and didn't help the book a bit. But I also read both of those books in 2-3 days.

Homeboy - good catch on the Undaunted Courage. As I was making my list, I had forgotten about the novel requirement for the list. Nonetheless, it was an excellent read and probably the best Lewis and Clark book I've ever read.

[MikeWaters]

I just added the White Boys book to the Books page.

SeattleUte, so you have read Musashi? Me too. I found it highly inspirational, in the sense of bettering ones self.

[fusnik11]

the book i tore through faster than any other book i have ever read was....

into thin air-jon krakauer

and i dont know anyone who hasnt tore through the book as well.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by MikeWaters

I just added the White Boys book to the Books page.

SeattleUte, so you have read Musashi? Me too. I found it highly inspirational, in the sense of bettering ones self.

Musashi is the one book on that list of which I read the abridged version. But I enjoyed it a lot. I read it after you recommended it on CB. I've picked up another one by the same author called Taiko, and am reading it now. Yes, Mushashi is somewhat inspirational in the sense you stated, esecially if you dream of wholesale slaughtering your enemies. Actually, one of the reasons I read it is for ideas and inspiration with respect to a project of my own I'm working on in which the main character is a decent swordsman, and a man of great religious faith. Kind of a coming of age story.

[SeattleUte]

Originally Posted by fusnik11

the book i tore through faster than any other book i have ever read was....

into thin air-jon krakauer

and i dont know anyone who hasnt tore through the book as well.

I agree. I praised this book as a contemporary classic in another CG thread. I was limiting my list to novels, but as I've noted, Into Thin Air has all the great story telling and pizzaz of a great page turner of a novel. Some people claim it's pure fiction. Whatever; as I've noted, it will stand the test of time because the story is told so well. Kind of like No Man Knows My History.

[il Padrino Ute]

Originally Posted by SeattleUte

I haven't read Tom Sawyer but loved Huckleberry Finn. Of course that and Heart of Darkness and The Sun Also Rises are true classics, which I loved also. I'm not sure I'd put them on THIS list. I read the Onion Field as a teenager and loved it. I never forgot it. I think the Onion Field is non-fiction, by the way. Wambough did write a number of novels, some of them I read, about policemen.

I'd suggest that you read Tom Sawyer, especially if you loved Huck Finn (which I loved as well and can't believe I left it off the list).

Yes, the Onion Field is non-ficition. (I suppose I should have started another list of non-fiction, eh?) Wambaugh was a policeman in his original career and unless I'm mistaken, he was on the police force in the town where the story takes place.