<p>How about "The World Is Flat" (Friedman)? I see that becoming an essential read in the near future, even though I have yet to read it. It is one of the few books I might actually be interested in.</p>
<p>The Fifth Child is a good quickie and 1984 is obviously good</p>
<p>Murder on the orient express...just finished it. It's pretty interesting.</p>
<p>I cant believe people are picking all these classics! How bout Romero & Juliet! Personally I hate all that suff; you cant go wrong with Dan Brown, John Grishm or Stephen King.</p>
<p>Breakfast at Tiffany's
A Confederacy of Dunces
Thank You for Smoking
Wicked
Da Vinci Code</p>
<p>meh, there are more; me lazy</p>
<p>Was Wicked a novel as well as a musical?</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure it was a novel BEFORE</p>
<p>and a most excellent one at that.</p>
<p>anyone read any fairly new releases besides Da Vinci Code/Wicked that are really good? I would like to read something I haven't been hearing about in English for years.</p>
<p>I just finished Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (published early this year, I think)---it's a very interesting (and depressing) End of the World novel, about genetic engineering run amok, leaving only one human survivor. If you like quirky books (and Wicked would count), it's good. Another (older) quirky contender is The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. If anyone can read it and tell me what is really happening, please let me know. It's incredibly complex with layer upon layer of meaning and depth.</p>
<p>I can't believe all the Da Vinci copies that are out there--The Secret Supper, The Last Templar, The Templar Secrets, oh my gosh! Let the movie come out and let's be done with it, please!!!</p>
<p>If you like The Da Vinci Code, you'll probably like The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, which is a murder(s) mystery taking place 13th century abbey. It's not fast-paced bestseller stuff, but the plot is much thicker than in DVC.</p>
<p>The Rule of Four</p>
<p>i second whoever said watership down. the classics that were mentioned are great reads, but if you want something fast-paced and ultimately inconsequential, read 'tell no one' by harlan coben.</p>
<p>The Stranger- Camus
Invitation to a Beheading- Nabokov
Blindness- Saramago
The Cave- Saramago</p>
<p>"tomcat in love" is a great tom o'brien book. better than "things they carried" IMO.</p>
<p>DVC was weak, I think. suspense was good, but after reading it I realized the characters and ending were EXTREMELY WEAK. but it's still a good read I guess haha.</p>
<p>Heck, all the Agatha Christie mystery books are fantastic. I don't read the Miss Marple ones because I'm prejudiced. I only like Hercule Poirot but I'm sure the Marple ones are almost as good as the Poirot ones. </p>
<p>A really good one would be "And then there were none."</p>
<p>I did not like that book at all, but then it was a prescribed read in grade 7, which was during a time I hated reading. Even still, I could not stand how stagnant and unexciting the book was between murders.</p>
<p>East of Eden is great book if you like the whole Steinbeck thing...</p>
<p>great gatsby and watership down are great!</p>
<p>but for really light stuff, try any of Jodi Picoult's books. really, really easy to read. but fun fun fun.</p>