Books I Devoured in One Sitting
Submitted by kbuxton on Wed, 04/04/2001 - 06:25
Tags:
- The Graveyard Game by Kage Baker
- Borders of Infinity by Lois McMaster Bujold
- Oranges by John McPhee
- Strange Fruit by David Margolick
- Eric by Terry Pratchett
- Songmaster by Orson Scott Card
- Endless Honeymoon by Don Webb
- Booked to Die by John Dunning
- The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rats by Terry Pratchett
- As She Climbed Across the Table by Jonathan Lethem
- The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
- After Silence by Jonathan Carroll
- Set This House in Order by Matt Ruff
- Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow
- Shadow Puppets by Orson Scott Card
- Dark Cities Underground by Lisa Goldstein
- Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
Author Comments:
Unfortunately I doubt I'll be able to remember what books this has happened to me on, so I'll just start adding them as they happen.
(for some reason ones read on an airplane feel kinda like cheating but I'm adding them anyhow)
Cloned From:
I actually read "Pelican Brief" by John Grisham in one sitting. I had to go to Tel Aviv from Colorado Springs, and I had to connect twice, so I stayed up all day, basically trapped with my book. It was a good book too, one of my favorite Grisham novels. I doubt seriously I would have read it in 1-3 sittings had I not been in the unusual circumstance (it wasn't THAT compelling), but it was worth reading.
Sean
I found several of John Grisham's books to be page-turners. I haven't read "Pelican Brief," but "Runaway Jury" and "The Juror" were great up until about 80 pages from the end.
Grisham is great at writing the "hook," but I find his books' endings often leave me disappointed. (And I thought "The Firm" was much better in movie form.)
I too have read one of John Grisham's books in one sitting. For me, John Grisham's books read like film novelizations. Faux complicated plots that are simply woven with endings that are wrapped up far too tidily (or, to avoid mixing my cloth metaphors, utopian selvage.) I do admit that I have read only two John Grisham books (one of which was The Firm and the other wasn't) so I don't claim any special expertise in the subject. I seem to recall that the female characters, what few there were, are all adolescent idylls which was frustrating to say the least. I found myself longing for some "grit" in the plot or characters because I do think Grisham is an excellent writer. I probably would be more favourably inclined towards him if the movies came out before his books did.
If you like Grisham let me, while I still have this momentum, recommend Bet Your Life by Richard Dooling. Even as I read it I was trying to figure out who should be cast for each character if I could make it into a movie. As soon as I finished, although I didn't read it one sitting, I reread the first half of the book because I had blown through it so quickly my first time around. It was a ripping good read. The protagonist investigates insurance fraud so, if you need a book about a lawyer, there's also Brain Storm (and it features a "sexy neuroscientist". What could be better?) And neither of these is his best book.
This particular John Grisham book is actually the only one of his I've read, and it's nonfiction. For some reason I've been avoiding reading his novels and I'm not entirely sure why.
Now you make me really curious. The New York Trilogy is one of the unread books on my shelf.
Have you read Moon Palace by Paul Auster?
No, I haven't. it's in the wishlist to pick up sometime though.
Deathly Hallows in one sitting? Wow! Just because I'm really, really curious, how long did it take?
Six hours.
This is like 100 pages per hour. I bow to you. \(^.^\)
Now I can understand why you have read like 200 books so far this year (and around 100 the others)! Until now this year, I've read around 60 books plus 60 short stories. I read very slow (15-50 pages per hour) because I need time to visualize and I always tend to have my head in the clouds to imagine myself as a character or what I would do, etc... (^-^)
I wait the french translated version of HP7 in October, try not looking everywhere to not see spoilers. I would like to read the book in one sitting, but it will probably be in trillion sittings. (^_~)
You probably have an easier time recalling details of what you read :)