Addictive Reads: All the Books You Can't Put Down

Stay inside with a good book.

woman reading one of the books you can't put down

Sometimes, all you want is a book you can't put down—the kind of book that grabs you and keeps you from doing anything else until you've gotten to the end of the story. To meet this need, Early Bird Books has scoured the internet and even asked our devoted Facebook followers to recommend the books they couldn’t stop reading. 

Below are more than a dozen of the most engrossing books we found—hopefully, they’ll draw you in just as much. 

According to our Facebook followers

where the crawdads sing, a book you can't put down

Where the Crawdads Sing

By Delia Owens

“Best book I have read in a long time.” —Marsha Rooney Mueggenberg

kingdom of ash, a book you can't put down

Kingdom of Ash

By Sarah J. Maas

“I stayed up until 5am to finish it.” —Jennifer Wilson Bowers

a gentleman in moscow, a book you can't put down by amor towles

A Gentleman in Moscow

By Amor Towles

“I loved everything about this book.” —Gina Vadala

Related: The Best Books of the 21st Century 

cover of the starless sea by erin morgenstern, a book you can't put down

The Starless Sea

By Erin Morgenstern

“Just a beautiful story, beautifully written.” —Melissa Burnett Lee

this tender land by william kent krueger, a book you can't put down

This Tender Land

By William Kent Krueger

“Magnificent!” —Ellen Lasley Murphy

According to Reddit

the historian, a book you can't put down by elizabeth kostova

The Historian

By Elizabeth Kostova

“My dad handed it to me at 9pm saying ‘I think you’ll like this.’ I put it down 400 pages in only because it was now 4:30 am, and my eyes were glazing over and skipping paragraphs. I finished it the next day because I couldn’t do anything else until I’d gotten the resolution”. —archergwen

longevity_in_film_and_literature

One Hundred Years of Solitude

By Gabriel Garcia Marquez

“Many years ago when I first started working, I didn't have a car and took the underground to work. For a few weeks, I chose One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to read on the way there, and on the way back.

The last couple of chapters were so captivating, I started reading them one morning on the tube to work, but I just couldn't close the book when I got to my station, so I carried on reading while walking in the station, on the street, in the elevator, in the corridors, then sat down at my desk and carried on reading for the next hour until I had finished the book. I knew I was possessed by the book, but still couldn't let go.” —nationcrafting

11/22/62 by stephen king

11/22/63

By Stephen King

“I started it on a flight to my in-laws over xmas, and basically didn't interact with any of them the whole time until finishing it.” —Gohan_sebastian_bach

literary_costumes_for_book_lovers

The Handmaid's Tale

By Margaret Atwood

“I couldn't put it down. When the show came out, I was ready to be disappointed but it's actually really good!” —wwjdforaklondikebar

According to our editors

Book cover of Life of Pi by Yann Martel, a modern classic and good book for high school students.

Life of Pi

By Yann Martel

Both a fantastical adventure tale of survival (the narrator winds up stuck on a boat with a tiger named Richard Parker) and a beautiful philosophical novel, Life of Pi might be the most enchanting book on this list. Ironically, at one point in his journey, Pi says "My greatest wish—other than salvation—was to have a book. A long book with a never-ending story. One that I could read again and again, with new eyes and fresh understanding each time." We know the feeling.

Related: Which Quarantined Book Character Are You Most Like? 

The Good Earth

The Good Earth

By Pearl S. Buck

Both a Pulitzer Prize winner and an Oprah’s Book Club pick, this story about a Chinese peasant farmer and his family in the early twentieth century is just as gripping and relevant today as it was in 1931.

Related: What to Read Next, Based On Your Favorite Books and Authors 

blindness by jose saramago, a book you can't put down

Blindness

By Jose Saramago

If you’re nervous about Coronavirus, this book might hit a little close to home. Saramago has imagined a world where everyone has caught a disease that makes them go blind—except for one woman.

Related: 10 José Saramago Books to Help You See the World From New Perspectives 

middlesex, a modern classic book by Jeffrey Eugenides

Middlesex

By Jeffrey Eugenides

This cross-generational saga has one of the best first lines in literature: “I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974.” And the book only gets more compelling from there.

Twelve Years a Slave

Twelve Years a Slave

By Solomon Northup

If you’ve only seen the (admittedly-great) film adaptation of this book, you owe it to yourself to read Solomon Northup’s true story in his own words.

Keep Reading:

12 Indie Books You Don’t Want to Miss

The Best Reading Chairs Under $250 

Books You Would Take to a Desert Island

13 Reader-Approved Book Club Suggestions

What Book Should I Read Next? Answering the Bookworm's Dilemma

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Featured photo courtesy of Nicole Wolf / Unsplash