# Which books have kept you up all night until you finished them?



## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

It's always dangerous for me to start a new book, because sometimes it's impossible to put down. I actually called in sick to work because I had stayed up all night reading Memoirs of a Geisha.  I read the last Harry Potter book in one very long day because I had to know how it all ended.

What books have been like that for you?


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## CNDudley (May 14, 2010)

Hi, Lisa. I loved those two, too. But the last book I lost sleep over was Laura Hillenbrand's UNBROKEN. If it had been fiction I would have thought the author tried to pack too much in!


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## David M. Baum (Apr 21, 2011)

Hah, that brings back memories.

I was in the army, and one of my soldiers lend me the first book of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. 
With the little time I had to sleep, I almost spent half of it racing through the book.
It was the first fantasy novel I loved since Tolkien, and made me want to be a writer.


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## Tom_HC99 (May 6, 2011)

Brian Jacques' Redwall and Mossflower... one of my all-time favorite fantasy book series!


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## JRTomlin (Jan 18, 2011)

I have a really hard time putting a novel down once I start it. Good thing I'm a fast reader. I think the last one I stayed up most of the night to finish was Prince of Time (The After Cilmeri Series Book Two) by Sarah Woodbury.


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Also the final Harry Potter book. Furthermore, I had to order three copies to prevent an unseemly family squabble. The lights burned late into the night all through the house.


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## Lisa Scott (Apr 4, 2011)

That's so funny Daphne.  My friend and I were on vacation reading that last Harry Potter, and I'm a faster reader than she is, and she was getting very annoyed with my audible reactions to the story because she wasn't there yet.  Did you guys do the same thing?  I've heard lots of good things about unbroken.  I'll have to get it--on a day when I have a lot of time!


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## Daphne (May 27, 2010)

Lisa Scott said:


> That's so funny Daphne. My friend and I were on vacation reading that last Harry Potter, and I'm a faster reader than she is, and she was getting very annoyed with my audible reactions to the story because she wasn't there yet. Did you guys do the same thing?


I think we all came down the next day bleary eyed but having all finished at about the same time (3.30am). The only time we bickered was at the end of The Half Blood Prince, when we couldn't agree on whether Snape was good or evil.


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## bnapier (Apr 26, 2010)

McCarthy's "The Road" and King's "Under the Dome" are the most recent.


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

I tend to get completely absorbed in a book until it (or Kindle) is forcefully removed from me. Recently, it happened with the 3rd L.J. Sellers book _Thrilled to Death_. Harry Potter - yes, all of them


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## susan67 (Mar 18, 2011)

Almost any Stephen King book or Dean Koontz.
LOTR trilogy.
And the first four books of the Clan of the Cave Bear series.
Harry Potter books
But I have to say most nights I would fall asleep reading...always woke when the book fell...I REALLY need to get a cover for my Kindle as I am so afraid I am going  to fall asleep and drop it.


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## Fredster (Apr 11, 2011)

Another vote here for King's "Under the Dome." Also, "Duma Key" by the same author. Fantastic book.


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## meggjensen (Feb 17, 2011)

All the Harry Potter books for sure!

I would also like to mention The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan. I didn't stay up late reading it, but I did read it in one day - including while I was making homemade waffles. I left it open on the island while I made them.


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## Alex Sinclair (May 5, 2011)

I am a big Terry Pratchett fan, but it was actually one of his non-discworld books, Nation. I couldn't put the book down. I thought the story was so clever and so unique. One of my all time favourite reads.


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## mjdispirito (Mar 29, 2011)

Man, all the hits were covered in this thread!

Harry Potter is a definite, of course. I ran through the whole "Percy Jackson" series in one night, as well--a lot of fun there. Michael Moorcock's "Elric" books were addicting; likewise, the "Dark Tower" series by Stephen King pulled me in like a tractor beam.


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

The only book I've ever stayed up all night reading was The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I had to go to work the next day, but I simply couldn't stop reading.


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## NapCat (retired) (Jan 17, 2011)

I read James Michener's CENTENNIAL in one "sitting"....darn near killed me !!  Ha ! (1000+ pages)

Fortunately was working a  job where I had time to read...


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## Imogen Rose (Mar 22, 2010)

Recently- Divergent by Veronica Roth


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## PG4003 (Patricia) (Jan 30, 2010)

I just did this last night with Harlan Coben's _LiveWire._


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## patrickt (Aug 28, 2010)

In my life, I'm 70, there has been just one book which I had to finish before I slept. It was *Harvest Home* by Thomas Tryon.


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## Rhonda Helms (Apr 8, 2011)

THE HUNGER GAMES by Susanne Collins--couldn't put that one down. Oh--and another one was UNWIND by Neil Shusterman. That book is amaaaazing. WOW.


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## HeidiHall (Sep 5, 2010)

I've spent many a night doing the, "just one more chapter." But the book that always stands out is _The Shining_. Not only did I read it in one sitting, but I had trouble sleeping for days afterwards! Not only that, but there's a cemetary in my city that has animal-shaped topiaries... I steer clear of driving past because I'm always fearful they will animate and attack .


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## brianrowe (Mar 10, 2011)

Last year I stayed up until about 6 A.M. finishing Scott Smith's A Simple Plan. One of the quickest, most entertaining reads I've had in years. Loved The Ruins, too! Smith needs to write more books!!!


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## geniebeanie (Apr 23, 2009)

The last Harry Potter book, In Cold Blood, Any James Patterson, It by King.


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## Jon Olson (Dec 10, 2010)

It's been a long time, but maybe it was I, Claudius, by Robert Graves. The mini-series is good, too.


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## Guest (May 8, 2011)

Deborah Cadbury's The Dinosaur Hunters. It covers paelontology from Mary Anning's first fossil finds, through the rivalry between Mantell and Owen at the start, to the rise of Darwin and Huxley. Excellently written, and absolutely gripping, it isn't just the science but the politics (and occassionally dirty tricks) behind it as scientists scrambled for their place in history.

The last one was Unseen Academicals by Pratchett, but then any new Pratchett book merits a late night.


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## kCopeseeley (Mar 15, 2011)

I guess I read a lot of good books, because this happens to me ALL THE TIME! I'm a fast reader, though, so most of the time I don't have to stay up all night. Just most of it. hahaha

The last book this happened with was yesterday. I just finished reading RUN by Blake Crouch. HOLY COW is that book both well written and intense. I don't know if I would read his other books, because I've heard they are pretty graphic, but this one was worth a read and then some. 

I can't wait for the next book that causes me to stay up all night!! I love being that into a book.


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## Steverino (Jan 5, 2011)

Dan Brown (DVC and Deception Point) can do that to me, and older Stephen King (Carrie and Pet Sematery).


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## jonathanmoeller (Apr 19, 2011)

Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files" books. When those books come out, I immediately drive to the bookstore after work, buy it, and read the entire thing in one gluttonous orgy of reading until two or three in the morning. 

Those I suppose this year I might just get it on my Kindle.


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## StephenLivingston (May 10, 2011)

Animal Farm by George Orwell was the first book I ever read the whole way through in one go.  It was back when I was a teenager and had school the next day but the story was so good that I stayed up in bed late into the night to read it all.


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## Mike McIntyre (Jan 19, 2011)

Charlotte's Web, second grade.


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## Gregorythompson (Mar 1, 2011)

The Shining by Stephen King. I started it on a Saturday morning and finished it around 3 a.m. Sunday. The sad part is I didn't want my parents to know I was reading that late (I was 15 at the time) and sat in the dark at my desk with a dim desk lamp on.


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

I have never read any of the Harry Potter ( let the floggings begin). But...the Amanda Hocking series' [both] kept me wondering what was going to happen next. It's not that they were that GREAT, but, there was an enigmatic tension, romantic and otherwise that she's almost _artful_ at and I just had to KNOW. There were flaws in her writing and I consistently gave her 3-4 stars. But, in all fairness, I always had to rate her slightly higher than I wanted to because I TORE through the books because I wanted to know the NEXT thing...now, _that _deserves an extra star! lol!


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## spex.kowalski (May 10, 2011)

I have yet to read a book that kept me up all night.  That might have more to do with my sleeping habits than the quality of the book.


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## Tess St John (Feb 1, 2011)

TOO MANY to list, I'm afraid!!


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## gatehouseauthor (Apr 22, 2011)

Each of the Harry Potter books was a one-sitting read the day it was purchased, followed by a slower, non-devouring re-read shortly thereafter. Also, The Stand and It by Stephen King were both books I couldn't put down until I finished.  The last two Wheel of Time books, the Sanderson ones, were all-night reads, as were the first three in the series.  Let's see, there are so many others...

Each book of the Soul Rider series by Jack Chalker.
Bearing an Hourglass and For Love of Evil, from the Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony.
Magician: Apprentice and Magician: Master, by Raymond Feist
Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy
Guardians of the Flame: The Warriors by Joel Rosenberg
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Friday, by Robert Heinlein
The Masterharper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

I'm sure there are many more... those come to mind quickly and easily, though!


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## Bernard J. Schaffer (Apr 16, 2011)

I actually took off from work on the release dates of the Harry Potter books because I knew I'd be up all night reading them after the midnight release.  Silly?  Maybe...but reading has never been so much fun for me.


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## MLPMom (Nov 27, 2009)

I actually just did this the other night with the book _Falling From Grace_ by S.L. Naeole (Indie author). I was so close to finishing it I had to stay up and finish it (until 3am!). I got do drawn in emotionally to the characters I had to know how it ended. It is part of a series (4 books total) and I really want to start the next one but I know if I do I will stay up late again so I am trying to hold off until a weekend to start it when I know I can stay up late again if I need to.


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## Victorine (Apr 23, 2010)

Hunger Games, definitely.  And right now I'm reading Switched by Amanda, and that one is keeping me up way past my bedtime too.  In fact, I do that all too often.  Poor kids, with a crabby mom at get-up-and-go-to-school time.  

Vicki


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

The last one that did that was Blake Crouch's book "Run." Which is a Kindle-only book that I just loved.

I have to confess, I am a total Stephen King fan and just about anything he has written has managed to keep me up until all hours reading feverishly until finished or close to finished.  Each time I read one of his books, I want to sprint to the end to find out what happens, but dread the end because I don't want the story to stop.


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## Christopher Meeks (Aug 2, 2009)

Salty: A Novel by Mark Haskell Smith. All his novels are funny, quirky, and involving.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Most recently, 

By J Carson Black, who is a member here.

Many of the ones already mentioned are on my "Couldn't put down" list.

Betsy


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## Mjaydakid (Apr 3, 2011)

Not only did Salem's Lot by King keep me up all night, it kept my roommate up as well.  I kept waking him everytime I heard a strange sound.  The Exercist by Blatty was another all nighter for me.


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## lib2b (Apr 6, 2010)

I used to do this all the time when I was younger, but not so much anymore. Partially because I still read a ton of kids and YA that tend to be shorter and I read faster, so I don't need to stay up late finishing them 

Looking back through my Goodreads though, I can easily tell you the last two books that kept me telling myself "just one more chapter" until I was done:

and


_Bleeder_ I just loved. I liked and enjoyed the prequel novellas in the Apocalypto series, but I loved this one. It sucked me in and didn't let go, which I honestly wasn't expecting at all.

_Dance of Cloaks_ I had some problems with, but again, the story sucked me in and I couldn't stop reading until I was done.


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## Stefanswit (May 9, 2011)

Memoirs of a Geisha is a worthy cause. I do it regularly.


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## caseyf6 (Mar 28, 2010)

Lots of them have kept me up LATE but the one that I could not put down at all was "Intensity" by Dean Koontz.  Holy moses...


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## padowd (Jan 14, 2010)

I loved The Passage and as I was getting close to the end I could not put it down so I stayed up and finished it. I had a hard time doing anything at all when I started this book. To me it was that good.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

The Amazing Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay, on a plane trip to Japan (fortuitous timing; I'd traded for the book just the night before).  Fastest eleven hour plane trip of my life, I started the book just after takeoff and finished it on the bus going to Himeji.

Watchmen, notable for being the only book I've ever read straight through, then turned back to the start and began reading all over again (although I didn't go straight through again the second time).  Note that this was before I knew about The Rule.  Although to be honest I probably wouldn't have been able to resist even then.

The Little Prince, only discovered when I was 22 or so.  I was utterly unaware of everything that was going on as I read it.

Maus, Art Spiegelman.  Had to keep reading.  Couldn't stop.  Even now, when I re-read it, I find it difficult to put down.

Moominland Midwinter, I can't remember how old I was but I do remember staying up, under the sheets, with a flashlight, because I simply couldn't stop reading it until I was done.

Actually, probably dozens of books when I was younger.  No wonder I need glasses now.


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