James...3 months to read. Some would say that was paradise!

I've either not seen or didn't like the movies of the following books. All were terrific reads, however:

Novels as Literature:

All of the Jack Aubrey series of sea stories. That alone should cover most of the time.

John Gardner's books, particularly Grendel and Sunlight Dialogues

Peter Matthiessen: particularly At Play in the Fields of the Lord, Far Tortugo

Martin Cruz Smith: Gorki Park, of course (SO much better than the movie) but he has written several and all are solid, good reads

Corelli's Mandolin

Cold Mountain

If you are U.S. and have a taste for oddball, quirky, hilarious and unforgettable, try some Charles Portis: Norwood, True Grit, Dog of the South.

For humorous nonfiction: Any of Bill Bryson's books

For serious, thought provoking nonfiction: The Act of Creation andGhost in the Machine, both by Koestler

Highly readable memoirs: Ring of Bright Water, Gavin Maxwell; Road to Coorain, Jill Ker Conway, Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee

And...an uncategorizable work of fiction, brilliant writing, haunting imagry, set in an distant post apocalyptic time, by Russell Hoban: "Riddley Walker," the one book I would take to a desert island.

Happy reading, whatever you choose and I hope you mend swiftly and completely.