Favorite Books

I was ordering on Amazon the other day and was reading some of the reader comments on one of the books I was thinking about purchasing. I read a lot and sometimes I even think about the book afterwards but I don't know about these people who read a book and then think, gee, let me get on Amazon and write a review. I have read A LOT of books but honestly don't think I'd be that good at writing reviews. What would I write? This was a good book? I liked the characters? I didn't like the ending? I just don't know that I would be especially helpful to someone considering a particular book. Mostly it's because I don't really want to share what I think or feel after reading a book I really liked. I wouldn't want to risk trivializing it with some inane or artless commentary about it that wouldn't capture what I really thought about the book.

With that in mind, I started to think about some of the books I really did like and remember, the ones I have recommended to someone else. Some of them are:

Bel Canto, by Ann Patchett
The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
Night Soldiers, by Alan Furst
The Guards, by Ken Bruen
The Seville Communion, by Arturo Perez-Reverte

I didn't want these books to end, I wanted to go on with these characters, I wanted to know more. This, in the end, is really all that a book can hope to offer.