Novel Escapes: Books That Totally Absorbed Us

It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon. You snuggle into the corner of the couch, positioning the throw pillows just so and open your book, intending to read just a few pages—but before you know it, the world around you dissolves.

Time bends, the hum of everyday life fades, and you are no longer curled up on the couch. Instead, you are walking through ancient cities, battling monsters, falling in love, solving mysteries.

The psychological phenomenon of getting “lost” in a book like that is real and it’s a good thing to experience, too. It’s called narrative transportation, and it can instill feelings of empathy and help shape our understanding of the world around us, researchers say.

And if you happen to be on the hunt for a new virtual escape from reality, hit the library or bookstore to check out these mesmerizing reads recommended by some of our followers and other book fans on Goodreads, Reddit, and Quora:

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H. P. Lovecraft 

“I originally planned to just read about 20 pages and then go to sleep, but I ended up reading it completely. And I swear, if anyone had asked me how much time I had spent reading it, I would have answered with ‘about an hour.’ Nope, it was full-blown 4 hours and it was really worth it.” – Frittenbudenpapst, Reddit

The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood  

“This book was horrifying and strangely perceptive. If you’re thinking about reading this, stop thinking, just read it. It’s brilliant. It’s a book I will definitely be reading again because it is just so thought provoking and disturbing.” -- Sean Barrs, Goodreads Librarian

Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline 

“I was just at work and blew through the last 100 pages of Ready Player One. (I'm a graveyard dispatcher, okay?) It went a lot faster than I expected and when I looked up, I still had hours to go. And I didn't even bring another book.” – MadDingersYo, Reddit

A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson

“I'll go a different direction and recommend A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It is witty and engaging, and can almost be considered ‘short nonfiction stories’ (OK, anecdotes) about, well, everything — focused on science and cosmology, archeology, anthropology, mathematics, etc. It's easy to pick it up and read a few short ‘distractions’ at a time, while still getting ‘pleasantly lost’ in cosmological, planetary and human history. It's NOT a textbook.

“If you're interested in something a little closer to home, Bryson has other books that are travelogs or similar, such as A Walk in the Woods, etc.” -- tabulaerrata, Reddit

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, by Stephen King

“I remember reading this book in high school and became so completely enthralled that I could not fathom doing anything else until I turned the last page. I have been chasing this reader’s high ever since, of being so lost in the story that any interruption was a crime.

“It is a feeling I have only rarely resurrected.” -- Jarred Dunn, Quora

Franny and Zooey, by J. D. Salinger  

“It was wintertime. I was an annoying teen who had said something terrible to my sister and was sent to my room without supper. A friend had given me her beat up paperback copy and lying on my bed in a sulk, I started reading it. Salinger’s double story so instantly enchanted me, I felt like the characters were there with me in my little bedroom and that it was located in the Glass family apartment in New York City. I finished the book in one read and fell asleep profoundly sorry for what I had said to my sister and determined to grow the hell up and be a better, nicer person.”  – stevo645, New York City

Mort, by Terry Pratchett  

“Almost every single time i read anything by Terry Pratchett on the bus, I end up missing my stop. Usually by only a stop or two though.

“While reading Mort i missed my stop and didn't even realize it for 15 minutes after my stop. So i asked the bus driver if i should just hop out and catch the same bus heading in the opposite direction, to which he told me i could do that, but it would be him in the same bus picking me up a half hour later after he begins the loop back.

“So i moved near the front, talked to him about the book for a bit, and went back to reading. Apparently, people missing stops because of an interesting book is pretty commonplace. --kvl, Reddit

The Road, by Cormac McCarthy  

“When I first read The Road by Cormac McCarthy, I picked it up to just read a couple chapters. When I put it down it was dark outside and everyone else in my house was asleep. I read it all the way through in one sitting (it's not a very long book, but still the only one I've read in one sitting).” -- very_cool_stuff,Reddit

The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton  

“When I first read Edith Wharton, it took me a while to ‘adjust’ to an older style of writing, but then I got hooked. Her descriptions of people and places are just wonderful, and I often felt like I was visiting a New York City of the 19th century. The House of Mirth, although quite depressing, is quite a book, as is The Age of Innocence.” -- Roxana, New York City

A Song of Ice and Fire Series, by George R. R. Martin  

“I lost the summer of 2013 reading those. Even to the point of getting up an hour earlier than the wife and kiddo to get more reading time in.” – celticeejit, Reddit

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, by J. K. Rowling   

“After picking up Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at the midnight release, I was too tired to start reading and went to sleep. Once I woke up, I sat in my living room and read it cover to cover while my roommates and girlfriend had normal days around me. I honestly don't know if I ate anything that whole day. Finished the book just before midnight and couldn’t talk to any of them about it because they were trying not to rush thru it.” -- JoeHio, Reddit

Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell  

“I was horse-mad in 4th and 5 grade. I even had a herd of imaginary horses named mostly after my favorite book and tv animal characters, and I'd gallop them through the neighborhood.” -- Bonnie McCune, Denver

Forever, by Pete Hamill   

“Whenever someone asks, ‘what is your favorite book?’, many times it’s hard to remember exactly which one. But there is, in fact, one that always comes to mind. Forever, by Pete Hamill is such an amazing story – it completely pulled me in and I’ll never forget it. About a man who came over on a slave ship and befriended an African king in the “holds” of the ship. For his kindness, he was granted eternal life but could never leave the island of Manhattan.  The story follows him through centuries of change in New York and the world.”

-- Denise Wilson, Little Rock

Last Call, by Tim Powers  

“Some books feel as though you’re a part of the action. Last Call made feel this way, and I didn’t want to be. It’s extremely creepy, and while has a good ending, it still leaves you with an image of a world you’d rather didn’t exist, and the awful feeling that it might.

“Powers is a very good writer. My wife refused to let me read The Drawing of the Dark in bed if I insisted on having a sword by my side.” -- Cyril Schmedlap, Quora

The Last Graduate, by Naomi Novik  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Graduate

“The Last Graduate, along with Uprooted and Spinning Silver, definitely were escape books for me. I just fell into them and occasionally would have to come up blinking trying to figure out who/where I am in the real world.” -- booniecat, Reddit

Here Is New York, by E. B. White   

“A beautiful book about one man's nostalgic walk through New York City that makes you nostalgic for an era when a man like White was walking nostalgically through the streets of New York.…”  -- A Reader from NYC

The Neverending Story, by Michael Ende  

“I read the book all in one day, from morning till night, with nothing but the same lunch Bastian packed for himself in the movie (I may have cheated later on at night. It's tough when you're not actually hiding in the attic of your school but lounging on your bed). And I've probably read it at least once a year since then.

“Even as an adult (am I really one of those now???), I still love being transported to this world, and I think it's a testament to the power of this book that it can still take me there.”

-- Greg, Goodreads

Up In the Old Hotel, by Joseph Mitchell    

“And so for months, I carried this book with me wherever I went, bus stations and train stations, snowstorms and heat waves, and yes, even to Alaska and back. I treasured every essay. To first-time readers of Mitchell's work, I suggest skipping the 2008 introduction by David Remnick till you're finished. (There's a bit of a spoiler. Why do introduction writers for old reprinted books assume we've read them before?) The book ends beautifully. Mitchell, who's accompanied us through a quarter century journey, meeting countless friends along the way, finally reveals himself, and it all comes together. This is just about perfection.”

– Jack Silbert, Goodreads

Time and Again: An illustrated novel, by Jack Finney  

“It isn’t very often that a book truly surprises me, particularly one that deals with a well-worn plot line, like time travel. This is a time travel book unlike most of the others I have read. It is full of delicious descriptions that are so accurate and detailed that they make you feel you have literally stepped into the world of 1882. Since Finney was able to take me to 1882 so easily, I had no reason to doubt that his character, Simon Morley, could get there as well.

“What I loved the most about this book, however, was just how much fun it was. I smiled repeatedly, I held my breath the way I used to do on rollercoasters, I read when I should have done other things, because I needed to know what was going to happen next, I never wanted to put it down. What more could you want from a novel? Well, perhaps this, that in the end it had something worthwhile to say...and this one did.

“One more thing I cannot resist sharing is a quote I absolutely loved, and I'm betting most of my GR friends will appreciate, just as I did: I even envy you this day. Have you ever given someone a book you enjoyed enormously, with a feeling of envy because they were about to read it for the first time, an experience you could never have again?“Yes, yes I have.”

-- Sara, Goodreads

The Vampire Chronicles, by Anne Rice   

"I lost large chunks of the late 1990s to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. I am frequently thankful that my formative teenaged years overlapped with that, instead of Twilight."

-- sadiane, Reddit

Life with its Sorrow, Life with its Tear, by Lester Atwell  

“Why I didn’t know about this book, before a very well-read friend gave it to me and told me that it was one of her all-time favorites? Readable, accessible, but beautifully written and perfectly described, it will absolutely transport you to another world. What can I say? it's made me give up TV. and I’m dreading reaching the final page because I just don't want it to end.” – Thiftbooks.com user

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis  

“This was still as enjoyable as when I read the book as a child some decades ago. And then, I read it again, a few times or more. The magic never goes when I return to Narnia and I will always encourage other kids to escape there, and to relish the magical use of words and phrases.” – Roland Clarke, Amazon

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I love getting so lost in a book you look up and the weather is not at all what you thought it was because you were currently experiencing "book weather," -- e.g., it was storming in the book, but it's sunny outside, and for half a second you can't figure out why.  – KzBoy, Reddit

Photos: (header) Envato Elements/Den Belitsky; (reader) Pexels/Cottonbro Studio; (book images) Wikipedia, Amazon, and Goodreads.

Q: What story so captivated you that you lost all sense of time and place when you read it? Share it in the comments below! :-)