I JUST CAN’T STOP !
Do you remember the first book that you just couldn’t put down? Like it’s 2 AM and you KNOW that you have to get up at 7 AM but you just can’t stop reading. You HAVE to find out how things end up before you can even think about sleeping regardless of how tired you may be. For me, that book was And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie, and I was in eighth grade.
The book’s synopsis from Amazon.com says, “Ten strangers are lured to an isolated island mansion off the Devon coast by a mysterious U. N. Owen. At dinner a recorded message accuses each of them in turn of having a guilty secret, and by the end of the night one of the guests is dead. Stranded by a violent storm, and haunted by a nursery rhyme counting down one by one . . . as one by one . . . they begin to die. Which among them is the killer and will any of them survive?” As the guests continued to be killed, I had to keep reading to find out who would be next and – most importantly – who was the murderer. As I grew older and read more and more books, I discovered that this plot was classic Christie and has since been reworked by many mystery authors. At the time I was enthralled. I continue to be so many years later. If you have read this book, you know Christie continues to surprise you right through the last chapter of the book.
The only other book that I remember not being able to put down and having to read until I lost consciousness or finished was Stephen King’s first book Carrie. Once upon a time, King was an unknown and picking up his first book was stepping into uncharted waters. I really had no idea what I was getting into. Amazon.com says of this book, “Stephen King’s legendary debut is about a teenage outcast and the revenge she enacts on her classmates. Carrie White may be picked on by her classmates, but she has a gift. She can move things with her mind. Doors lock. Candles fall. This is her power and her problem. Then, an act of kindness, as spontaneous as the vicious taunts of her classmates, offers Carrie a chance to be a normal…until an unexpected cruelty turns her gift into a weapon of horror and destruction that no one will ever forget.” And how ! As the plotline played out, as Carrie went to the prom of her dreams, as her mother began acting crazier and crazier….this is not something you want to put aside and continue with the next day when you might have some spare time. Holy mackerel ! What is going to happen next ????
And so….what was YOUR first book where you said, “ I JUST CAN’T STOP ! “ ?