What book comes to mind?

Moby Dick!!!! Ishmael is one of the most amazing fictitious characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering.

Honorary mention to The Brothers Karamazov.

The characters are so fleshed out that you really don’t get into the book’s plot until you’re 200 pages in.

The Cosmere series by Brandon Sanderson. Particularly The Way of Kings series in it. I haven't been able to put it down.

I’m assuming the fish hook being in the book means that it’s kind of death to be into the book, so I’ll go with anything by Ayn Rand; toxic as fuck

Touching The Void was incredible. I literally didn't put it down until I finished; I started it when I went to bed, I read through the night, and I finished it right before I had to leave for work.

It's such an incredible gripping story that it's hard to believe it's non-fiction.

Fly Fishing by JR Hartley :)

Hyperion (Series) and Project Hail Mary. A Fire Upon the Deep also stands out, but do note that the author died before finishing the series, which leaves parts of the story painfully unanswered. The series and characters were incredibly different than most books.

The Expanse Series! All of the characters are extremely well written. The plot and setting are also amazing. (personally: I would watch the show and THEN read the books.)

Second this opinion.
I watched the show and then decided to read the books. I've read the first three and all its made me realise is how good the show is.
(The books are great too!)
- Have fun reading the rest of the series! Took me about a week to proccess my feelings, when I finished the final book.
I agree about how good The Expanse books are, but I’m on the other side of coin about the tv series. I had a hard time getting into the series the first time I tried to watch it. I don’t think I quite what they were doing at first but now having read the first four books I started rewatching the first season and it totally clicked this time I’m tearing through the TV series this time.
- The first couple episodes are kinda a slog; they give a lot of background info for the setting so it's a bit of an info-dump. The book writers did state that the tv series has their ideal setting appearance and ship design, so it made visualizing the books easy for me.

The wandering inn. I started reading it 2ish years ago. I am still reading. The author literally writes faster than I can read. In a good way.

No killing Goblins!

https://wanderinginn.com/

Wheel of time

All the colors of the dark.

DCC

Broken Earth trilogy and Great Cities duology by N. K. Jemisin
Pretty much anything I've ever read by Adrian Tchaikovsky but special attention to Shattered Earth series, Children of Time series, and lately Service Model

Believe it or not, the 2 original Winnie the pooh novels. I just finished reading my son the second one again, and the ending is melancholy and bittersweet I nearly cried.

aquarium atlas

Missed opportunity of using the word "deeply"

Watership Down
The Lord of the Rings
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Accidental Tourist
Any of the Harry Potter Books
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (while Salandar is such an engaging character the story of the book is a chore to read)
The Green Mile

The Saga of Pliocene Exile series, and associated Galactic MIlieu books by Julian May.

Are those the ones with the portal from the future that people keep going through, only to be captured by evil elves? Or am I thinking of another female fantasy writer from that era?
- Nope, that's basically the plot!

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine.

The old man and the sea

Fritz Liebers Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series.

If you like grownup fantasy this is better that LOTR IMO. Or at least at the same level, less opera more character, again IMO.

Locked Tomb trilogy. I devoured those books and they consumed me back.

Luna: New Moon

The Spellmonger Series

"The german revolution" by Pierre Broue, it's a gripping read even if you know the ending.

The stand and 11/22/63