I have a good friend who recently abandoned her "I only read non-fiction" stance and accepted a few book recommendations from me, lover of fiction that I am. Based on her tastes, I ended up lending her The Thirteenth Tale, Shadow of the Wind and The Alienist*. When she asked why I had chosen these three, I went on at length about how all three are smart, intelligent stories, but are stories nonetheless - plot-based, fact-paced, etc. All have an incredible sense of time and place. All have characters that you can love and hate and envy and pity, and all are believable without ever being mundane.
But more importantly, all three are the kinds of books that do not end upon turning the last page. They demand that you flip back through, refer to passages, re-read sections, re-read the whole book.
To me, that is the greatest compliment that can be paid a book, whether fiction or non. The best books are those that do not end; they are the ones that linger on, infusing and interrupting your thoughts at the best and worst of times.
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