. . . and then, just like that, it's over and suddenly you're bereft, kicked out into the cold, hard world of reality again!
What do you do? How can you cope?
["Apparently it's not a legitimate
reason to miss work"
by kellyangel]
Has this ever happened to you? I bet it has! Which book(s) caused it?
In my case, it happened (in adulthood) with Watership Down and The Lord of the Rings trilogy and (in childhood) with the Little House on the Prairies series, Anne of Green Gables and Enid Blyton's Adventure series.
Okay, your turn. Confess all!
"gone with the wind"
ReplyDeleteyeah been there.
ReplyDeleteI cried last time to a book when I finished Christian Jacq's Ramesses, all five books :) I did feel like a lost a friend or something in the end when he dies (from old age so no shock there).
ReplyDeleteWhen I'm translating a trilogy it sometimes means working on those books for three or four months all day long, so it is a shock when it ends, emotionally and physically.
The Tales of the City books because I knew those people and didn't want to leave them.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh yes it has, too many times, rereading it right away doesn’t do it for me but I will definitely read it again, I have about 10 books I truly treasure and reread again and again for different reasons and times of requirement in my strange world reasoning lol,, Thornyhold by Mary Stewart is my all time go to book when I need ground myself or escape from bad s@#$ ! I have had that book for 46 years and read it many many times, it’s so personal to me I hesitate to share this lol yup, I’m that person lol,,,,
ReplyDeleteAs a child, I loved The Hardy Boys and Classic Comics.
ReplyDeleteMy eyesight is too blurred to allow me to read much these days. Surgery at some point in my future. I have a stack of books waiting.
wuthering heights almost did me in.
ReplyDeleteLast ones I can remember like that was the last few Harry Potter books. The first three are light reads, but the last ones are massive.
ReplyDeleteI still re-read Lord of the Rings. But, I start with The Hobbit.
ReplyDeleteI love the James Herriot books - still read them from time to time. Also, the Little House books but lately some revelations about those have kind of turned me off. I loved "The Gray King" too and the Joy Luck Club. I could go on and on. Oh and the Harry Potter series. Are you watching "Anne with an E" on netflicks. It is pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Catch-22, Breakfast of Champions, Answered Prayers (yes, Capote never finished it, but it was published in truncated form, just about anything by Gore Vidal, A Confederacy of Dunces, American Pastoral, The Great Gatsby, The Big Sleep, Bonfire of the Vanities, I'm sure there are others.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I can call my favorites joyous reading, so I'm racking my brain for something that was joyous. I do like Bob's comment on the Tales of the City books. I can read those over and over again, those characters really are like old friends. Does anyone know if it's true there's another one coming out soon?
ReplyDeleteI couldn't even begin to list the number of books that has done to me. I hate when it happens!
ReplyDeleteblessings
~*~
Oh yes Enid Blyton Mallory Towers and Famous Five. Also the Northern Lights series. What do I do? Sulk.
ReplyDeleteI love a reread. Yes, the first time through, when it is all new and wondrous, is exciting or spellbinding. But in a good book there is always something new to be gleaned, something you didn't catch on the first trip. Sometimes it reads differently because YOU are different.
ReplyDeleteMy go-to favorites are the Lord of the Rings (AND the Hobbit), and the Harry Potter series. When I was a wee lass I read the Chronicles of Narnia many, many times. (Who likes fantasy? ME!)
I read the LoTR nearly every year. Besides the characters and the plot, I find Professor Tolkien's descriptive language to be so beautiful. He really loves the landscapes that he describes and from his words I can picture Middle Earth perfectly.
Great question, Debra!
Re-read it right away? I don't think I would ever do that. Do they still assign book reports in schools? I did re-read parts so that I could write the book report.
ReplyDeleteIn this world as it reaveals All the stupid & deranged I believe harder & harder in " InkHeart" & read my FAVORITE books out loud!
ReplyDeleteI adore all Miriam Toews books. Also, Susan Juby’s, The Woefield Poultry Collective (the funniest book I have ever read) and Republic of Dirt (the follow up of Woefield Poultry Collective). Both Canadian authors.
ReplyDeleteThe Game of Thrones series and Harry Potter. I love re-reading them over and over.
ReplyDeleteYes Debra!!! Nearly all of the John Grisham crime novels did that to me...and when I finally read the Jurassic Park series after seeing the first movie.
ReplyDeleteThe last book I fell in love with was: "Rasta Heart" by Robert and Julia Roskind … and before that it was: "Darwin's Moon" by Tim Schaefer … and after that is was: "Hot Flashes And Cold Lemonade" by Susan Swiderski and before that it was: "Bury Me Standing" by Isabel Fonseca … and after that, omg, friend D, I better stop cuz I'm such a whore when it comes to loving books … smiles … Much love, cat.
ReplyDeleteOh yes.. when that happens I usually take a few days off from reading so that my thought can continue to wander through the story..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.henatayeb.blogspot.com
Oh my gosh, exactly what happens to me. It feels like I've developed personal relationships with the characters in the books and I grieve their loss. Tom Robbins books are full of characters who are really my best friends, just on sabbatical!
ReplyDeleteIt is fun though to write a short story or two about them now and then to bring them back for a visit!
I can't tell you how many times I've gone to work after an hour and a half of sleep because I read all night.
I can't think of a specific title because it happens to me with most books.
ReplyDeleteI rarely reread books. Yeah, it's not the same. There are many books that stick with me.h When they do, I make sure to recommend them to others. Augustus Burroughs' Running With Scissors is only one (powerful, heavy, not happy) example.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading,rereading, and jaunting through other worlds.
Little Women (and all), The Giver (with 2 sequels), Lake Wobegon (and all), Mist on Bronte Moor, Timeline, Ireland by Frank Delaney...oh golly, there are so many!
ReplyDeleteThe Gladys Tabor books - And almost unbelievably to me, the Twilight books- because for whatever the reason, Vampires have always fascinated me, including Lestat, etc. But I've read so many books over the years, subjects all over the map, from hisotrical biographies to fictions, non fictions, mysteries, true crime books - most recently White Houses,on Eleanor Roosevelt. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend it.
ReplyDeleteIt happens with almost every book I enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteYes, it happened to me. Numerous times. Dracula, A Clockwork Orange (THE book that made me come of age), The Lord of the Rings, Persepolis, 1984, Lolita...
ReplyDeleteDitto LOTR, and add Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny, The entire Darkover series by Marion Zimmer Bradley and The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula LeGuin - to name a few (I could go on...).
ReplyDeleteI can't recall any titles right this minute, but I know there are at least three books I re-read right away. Ohmygosh....one was the Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp.
ReplyDeleteYES! Oh my gosh, yes! There are far too many books to list but a couple would be To Kill A Mockingbird and Life of Pi. And the early works of John Grisham hooked me.
ReplyDeleteYes i am victim of same case dear Debra!
ReplyDeleteand i was addicted to some books when i was girl ,they made me live in their world which i found so beautiful and enchanting to be within
So bad that i could not find the ann of green gables dvd or book here yet
did not recover from such obsession for which hubby and kids bully me often
as i have a Turkish drama Fatima Gull which is huge hit of 2011 i guess
i have watched it hundreds of times till now and still not tired watching it everyday whenever i am alone with t.v
i love to be the part of that world where love is most powerful emotion and wins against all ugliness of the world ,making of this drama is main charm of it
The Thornbirds...
ReplyDeleteI never read a book the second time but when the tv series came out, I lost count of how many times I've watched it.
Of course, being totally in love with Richard Chamberlain, starting in high school, MAY or MAY NOT have influenced me. lol
It happened to me once, with... wait for it... a Bible story. So, I continued the story, rewrote some of the characters, added to the narrative until I was pleased. It has never happened again.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm glad someone mentioned Tales of the City! Forgot about that one.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never read because I do fall in and can’t get out.... sometimes hard to put the book down and I get nothing else done. Enjoy the rest of your week. .
ReplyDeleteSome of the classics have been like that for me and I am sure I will read them again someday like Wuthering Heights and Dracula. Prose just reads more enjoyably from back in the day!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! Those moments when it ends and you're like it can't end that way!!!! No!!!! Why!!!! LOL, yes I love reading a great book and thee have been many :-) Hope you are having a great week!
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Jill
First time to you blog and I loved this post. Happens to me often. In fact, I often slow down the reading of a truly wonderful book to prolong the agony that happens when I'm finished. I've reread a very few books. Actually, only one comes to mind. When feeling rudderless after finishing a captivating story I usually don't pick up anything for a while. To jump into another story right away seems unfaithful somehow - to the characters I fell in love with - to the story I got lost in. Sometimes I just soak the story in for a few days. A week if it's really stirred me. Then one day I pick up another book and hope for the same experience, but at the same time kind of hating that I'm going to go through the same agony all over again. Did I say I love this post???
ReplyDeleteI was going to say something snarky/funny about having never gone through this, but then I remembered that I did. A couple of years ago, I found a new book (at the time) at my public library by Walter Mosley called "Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore". When I sat down to read it that Saturday afternoon, I figured to spend about an hour reading it before I got back to my writing. Wrong. Got so hooked into the book that I read the thing in one day. Didn't get so much hooked into the book (and I did) as getting hooked into the writer himself, as he quickly became one of my favorite writers, both his stand-alones as well as his series.
ReplyDelete"The Blind Assassin" by Atwood is very good.
ReplyDeleteI don't know? LOL! I told you, I am really not a reader, but I have read some books! I feel stupid! LOL! Maybe I'll read this winter and report back to you! Big Hugs!
ReplyDeleteI read very little fiction but what I read, I reread fifty times. The books by Dorothy L Sayers about Lord Peter Wimsey for almost fifty years and Pop Co by Scarlett Thomas probably fifty times, and usually with immediate reread.
ReplyDeleteI've been there with many books over the years, I remember discovering the original James Bond books on a holiday when I was 17. I read them all that year.
ReplyDeleteNumerous books I have needed to finish but hated to finish but needed to find out the ending but hated to find out the ending ...Aaaaaaaa
ReplyDeletethe Ol'Buzzard
Anne of Green Gables
ReplyDeleteLamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (Christopher Moore)
Dreadful Company (Vivian Shaw)
Old Man’s War (John Scalzi)
To name just a few 😁
That's how I felt with House of the Spirits.
ReplyDeleteQuite a few have done that to me, but one that stands out is Independent People by Halldor Laxness.
ReplyDeleteOh yes it has happened to me with many, many books, including LoTR. And I'm with jono above, "Independent People" was one of those books. Terry and I go round and round about my books, because I won't part with some of them, even though I read them years and years ago. He doesn't get that they are my friends. Right now I am rereading Kim Stanley Robinson's "Galileo's Dream," even though I read it within the last year. That's because I've just been in Padua and Florence where the book is set and have learned a lot about the church and the Medici ~ not to mention that the book was a fabulous mix of history, biography, and science fiction. Have a great day!
ReplyDelete