I have to admit that, for the most part, novels don't hold my attention long enough to finish them. Especially the ones that run in the 1000-page range. But every once in a while, a novel grabs me and doesn't let me go. The books that follow are some of those novels―the ones that made me see for a brief amount of time what was possible with words.

1. The Great Gatbsy by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    
2. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
    
3. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
    
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
    
5. Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
    
6. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
    
7. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston
    
8. Anthem by Ayn Rand
    
9. The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
    
10. The Music of Chance by Paul Auster