- The Most Immersive Book You've Ever Read -

[Skeleton Jelly]

Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo.

He created a shocking, almost impossible situation ( a soldier who had been hit by an artillery shell and lost his legs, arms, mouth, vocal cords, nose, eyes, ears, but remains alive), and then keeps the reader so immersed, that you realize you felt happy when the protagonist feels happy. And with the limited options that he could write about, its pretty impressive he could even keep anyone immersed. Read it in 2 days, too great to put down.

 

[Sensenmann]

Thank goodness the most immersive book I've read is not Bitten by Kelley Armstrong. There's a sex ((g)rape?) scene every 50 pages. The introduction was rather immerive though.

Often enough, it's reaching the end, finishing another book, which makes me continue. Not the additional vocabluary I will gain. Not the page-turny goodness (although this is likely since I switched from teen fiction (House of Night series, Changeling Series) to Classics such as Dracula and Frankenstein).

 

[DarkLight523]

The Ciaphas Cain novels by Sandy Mitchell. The setting is Warhammer 40,000 and the titular character, Ciaphas Cain, is an Imperial Commissar just trying to survive.

Reasons why I like this novel:
It's told from the first person a majority of the time. The novel reads as Cain's memoirs and he recalls his most daring adventures and reveals a terrible truth. All the stories about him that portray him as a hero are lies. His first heroic action was killing a Tyranid Tyrant even though he was acutally running away from another battle.

Fate seems intent on conspiring against Cain. His heroic image only compounds the danger, as his superiors keep sending him on near suicidal missions. All the while, his main objective is surviving while not soiling himself.

It's action for the characters with a bit of comedy for the readers.

 

[Horticulture]

I found House of Leaves really gripping, partially because of the typesetting and textual tricks the author used to supplement the story itself. There are extended passages set upside down, backwards, in boxes, with the story formed through the first letter of every word, etc., After reading for an hour or so, you start to get into the head of the increasingly paranoid main character.

Example:

Spoiler

 

[fun-with-a-gun]

My way of getting immersed into a book, I don't read it as quickly as I can but take time to actually visualize everything that they're doing, or most of what they do.

If you have a good imagination, this can easily be better than movies.

Yay, someone else who does this!

My imagination broadcasts in the mental equivalent of 1440HD, which makes it very easy for me to get immersed in what I'm reading, especially if it has some really bizarre or flippin' awesome scenes in it (like the Artemis Fowl series, or Discworld).

The worst is trying to describe the scene in your head to somebody.

 

[Aur0ra145]

Winds of War and War and Rememberance, two great books (they're a series) that really get you into them.

The Presidential Agent Series by WEB Griffon are extremely awesome as well, I really get into those books as well.

Additionally any well written book about flying I can really relate to.

 

[BlackndEclipse]

when I was younger I found the Deltora Quest books to be quite immersive lol