What have you read last that swept you away, couldn't put it down, were totally entrapped in? (May contain spoilers)

Then I got to the middle bit. And it kept going. And I got bored.

But now I'm nearly at the end, and I can't stop reading again! Yes Mr Eco your PLAN and SYNARCHY is all very good and proper but can we cut out the pages of backstory faffing and literary-in-sniping k thx bye and get on with some RIPPING SUSPENSE?

I know this sounds like I don't appreciate subtle buildups at all, but I do - it's just that he goes on for so long you lose track of what he's meant to be building up to in the first place which was vague enough ANYWAY chiz chiz.

Not that I don't think it's a corker of course and haven't already recommended it to a bunch of people or owt.

I wouldn't know whether good/bad categories can apply here, it's just that I'd never suspect I could act so childishly for an adult novel like War and Peace, and I was surprised into the feeling and kept thinking about it, laughing by myself.
So in the end I wanted to know whether it was only me being senile or something similar had happened to other people recently, so that I could also profit by their emotional response as a guide line to my bookshopping list ;)

Is this actually a good feeling? I like books to be interesting but I'm suspicious of being enthralled.

For me, it's a great feeling while it's happening because it's exciting and pleasurable; it's something to look forward to when you're away from the book, and to enjoy while it lasts. What your reasons for being suspicious? Because being enthralled can be sign of the book not being able to hold up to repeated readings, or even of gimmickry by the author?

Like most people, I read Catcher when i was a teenager and found it to be a different book when I approached it again after fifteen or so year. Remember being so engrossed in it on the train on the way back from work that I did not register my stop or the one after that.

Backtracking added another fifteen minutes to my journey but the experience of being completely lost in a book was worth it.

Personally, I love the thrall. It's nice to have an addiction that you know must be finite. I love being dragged down and held in a fictional world. But it might not be good for me.

My last experience of this nature... or at least, the one I'll admit to, was "A Whistling Woman" by A.S. Byatt. It was slow going through the other novels in the series, picking up speed, but this one, I just couldn't put it down. Creepy religious cults and 60s neuro-psychology, how could I resist?

(OK, OK, I'll admit, I also chewed my way through Dan Brown's Angels and Demons but I was whacked out on painkillers, I couldn't help myself! Honest!)

http://www.julianrubinstein.com/images/BalladFinalCoverWebsite.jpg

Right now I'm reading Jonathan Strange and Mr Norell and lug it everywhere I go - very absorbing and compelling and entertaining and well-written (well, I've a few wee complaints about the editing) and really, really interesting.

One last thing: I must say that the Harry Potter comparisons are more deserved than the Tolkien comparisons. Far more sophisticated than the Harry books, but nowhere near the depth and intellect of Tolkien. Do you agree? Or perhaps we should scrap both comparisons and come up with our own, one that actually reflects the writing rather than similar themes… though I’m stuck for one.