Any Suggestions?

I am a book freak. I've been reading since I could, which was probably around the time I was five. I started with the Sweet Valley series: Sweet Valley Kids, Sweet Valley Teens, Sweet Valley High. I knew the Wakefield twins and their posse like the back of my hand. From there I moved on to The Baby-Sitters' Club (you KNOW you read that stuff back in the day!) and to the Goosebumps series and to R.L. Stine. 


One day when I was ten and still living in California, my dad came home with a set of books that he said the people over at Barnes and Noble highly recommended. They were calling it the next big thing in young adult fiction, and they told him I would love it. They were right on both counts: it was Harry Potter, and I fell head over heels (I've been a Potter fan since--I pride myself on being a pre-movie one).


Coming back home to the Philippines when I was twelve, I relapsed into chick-lit for a while. I went Meg Cabot a-la Princess Diaries and got hooked on Gossip Girl years before anyone dreamed of turning it into a TV series. Then I discovered Stephen King. I read everything of his I could get my hands on: The Shining, Salem's Lot (still an all-time fave), Desperation, The Stand, The Tommyknockers, Carrie, The Talisman and Black House, and all seven books in The Dark Tower series. I adored his style, the depth of his characters, the place of the human mind in his brand of horror. Somewhere along the way I fell in love with fantasy. Tolkien at first intimidated me, but once I got into The Hobbit, the rest of the Ring series were an exciting foray into the genre. I went David Eddings, and Neil Gaiman, and then I veered into Haruki Murakami (whom I first encountered through Kafka on the Shore, a gift from a friend on my birthday) and Chuck Palahniuk. 

I did classics, too: Treasure Island, Black Beauty, The Great Gatsby. I dabbled in everything in between: Salman Rushdie, Christopher Paolini, Paolo Coelho, Jostein Gaarder, Dan Brown, John Grisham, Mario Puzo, Tracy Chevalier. I read books by unknown authors and unknown books by random authors. I could keep going, but I'm afraid I'm starting to sound a bit stuck-up and name-droppy. :) 

My point is, I love books. Always have. And now, I need recommendations. The book titles in Fully Booked all sort of scare me; there are so many unfamiliar ones that I don't know where to begin.  

And so, I ask: What, these days, is a good a read? Now no offense to the Twilight fans (I have read all four books, so I get an informed say) but I don't mean that kind of reading. I'm talking a real gripping story, the kind that stays in your mind for days. After I read Salem's Lot, for instance, I kept the curtains drawn at night for a week--I was so scared I'd see a pale, fanged face staring back at me. That kind of reading.
 

So to the two people who read this blog and to whoever else might drop by...any suggestions? :D