Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

At the halfway point of this book, I had serious doubts I would finish reading it within the decade. I can't say exactly what or when the turning point was, but for the last third of the book I couldn't put it down. Heller starts the book by giving tidbits of information about the characters and events. It's painfully suspenseful, so much so that you don't really care much about the characters. When you finally know enough about the characters to get into the story, and events are finally being described, the book becomes infinitely more readable. If you can stick it out through the vague first half, you'll really enjoy the rest of the book.