I'm happily reading Le Rouge et Le Noir right now (see? I finally got around to it). I'm a bit more than a third of the way in so far.

If people responded to my recommendations, I might have a better idea of what recommendations are successful - so far, my greatest "success" is all the people who hate me for having recommended George R.R. Martin to them, only to find out that he's gotten through yet another year in "almost done!" mode, plus the realization that there are two more books after the "almost done!" one is published.