BOOKS YOU CAN'T PUT DOWN

I doubt there is anything really more pleasurable than a book that you find so compelling that you almost can't put it down.  It's the kind of book you keep close by so you can read a little more when you have a moment, or it's the kind of book that you lie awake reading all night.

Not all the books that make such compelling reading are necessarily great literature.  Sometimes they aren't even favored much by critics.  But there is something in the story that keeps you hooked until the end.

A few books come to mind for me.  I remember The Firm by John Grisham.  I remember The Hustler by Walter Tevis.  Mario Puzo's The Godfather was fascinating.  I carried around Hawaii by James Michener for days until I finally finished it.  

Times that you read a particularly gripping book can stand out in your memory.  You can remember if you were having good times or bad times or maybe just in-between times, but the books got you through it all.