Skip the paper-backs Rick.

If it is worth your time and eyes - don't buy 35cent paperbacks....pay the price and get premium books in hard-bound - second-hand.

Considering your request, "can't put down" books....avoid the intellectual crap (I love Thomas Pycheon but it takes you three books to get addicted to Cherry-Coke) (Jane Austin - Pride and Prejudice - that first paragraph about a man who has money needs a wife makes me gag so I can't get past the first page because of waves of high-sea-nausea)

If you are looking for one book (three?) -one that is... drop, pickup, drop, pickup, three minutes.... thirty minutes the Wallace Wallechinsky, People's Almanac can keep you amused in the toilet or the waiting-room.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

As you read through it....you can see why...in our PC world of the 21st Century Ivanho is no longer read in the public schools....but a damn good read it is!