Mourning the end of a good book

Yes, totally. I feel totally ridiculous when I do it, but it's inevitable.

I sense that it's right around the corner for me. Gene Wolfe's New Sun series is SO GOOD.

Yes I also do this. I get very sad and miss the characters like crazy. I have to wait a couple of days before I can start a new one. I've always thought it silly, but now I'm not the only one, I don't feel so bad!

Well, it certainly doesn't last for days, but yeah, I get a little depressed when I've finished a book that I've enjoyed reading.

I also get depressed leaving a theater after a good movie and the harsh light of reality hits me.

Quite the opposite for me. If I finish a really good book, I'm excited to read another really good book. So I toss it aside, and ravenouly seek the next one.

I do think fondly of them ever after, but the experience, after all, never dies the kind of death I could possibly mourn. If it's really a good book, then the ending must be so perfect that I welcome it gladly.

JoNightshade said:

I replay the best moments over and over again in my mind, and I lament the fact that I will never be able to play with those characters in quite the same way again.

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I'm the same. Those are the books I wish I could forget about, and go read for the first time again.

That reaction to a novel is few and far between lately, but the ones I mourn are also the ones I know I'll keep.

I can't say I ever really mourn after reading a book, though I've mourned a character's death once in my reading history, and that's mostly because I had a great deal of empathy for the characte and the author was a jerk in the way he did it. (The chapter ended with the character's upcoming death. Then the next very short chapter had the character "miraculously saved." Then, the next chapter was "Oh, I was kidding. He really died." I was disgusted and filled with grief at the same time!)

Man, oh man, this has happened to me so many times. It's more pronounced when finishing the last book in a series. You've dedicated days, weeks, months, or even years to this universe and it's characters, and then they're all gone! Forever! It's definitely a bittersweet moment. The most recent, and probably worst occurrence of this in my life would have to be Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It might sound a little wussy, but I was so engrossed in the Harry Potter world. When I started reading them, Half Blood Prince was already out and I devoured those books as fast as I could get my hands on them, comforted by the fact that there was at least one more book to be released. Now I'm finished, and Rowling insists there will be no more! I can only find solace in re-reading them.

This happened to me with Niffeneggar's The Time Traveler's Wife. As a human being, I was devastated...cried for the last 50-100 pages of the book and was haunted by it for months. As a writer, I was completely overcome by the innovative structure and POV uses and all that remarkable writerly stuff.

I get that way sometimes. I don't mourn so much as sit in awe for a moment, especially if the story is well written.

Though I don't read or write fan fiction, I suppose that is one of its main selling points. You devote a piece of yourself to characters and then it is over. They just want to be immersed in that universe over and over again.

I agree with josephwise. When I am done with a fantastic book, there is a small cool down period. After that though, I want to read other great stories or write some of my own. It is exciting and inspiring.

The post-fabulous-book blues are one reason I really like long books (when they're good, of course.) I get very invested.

There's nothing better than a great book. NOTHING.

And yes, I mourn the ending, because I know it might be quite a long time before I get another great book to read.

Last weekend I went to B&N to splurge on a great book, to get me through a cold weekend. I pondered and glanced and read back covers, changed aisles and opened this book, that book...until I finally picked one out that sounded good.

NOT! I am still on page thirty-something and haven't even picked the book up since Sunday. It's that boring.


God, I'm a poor judge of character sometimes.

JoNightshade said:

My most recent was actually (blush) a manga series. In the course of the last couple of weeks I mowed through all 21 volumes of Kare Kano (highly recommended). I still haven't worked up the enthusiasm to start another book, although I'm getting there. I just became SOOOO attached to the main characters, and it was interesting to see the writing style and characterizations evolve through each volume - 21 volumes = 11 years of the writer/artist's life. When she started she was an amateur and by the time she finished she was very popular. The early volumes are lighthearted and funny, while the later volumes become darker and more intensely psychological.

Oh, and it didn't help that in the last volume the author played one of the meanest tricks EVER. Seriously. I won't say what it was in case someone else wants to read this, but I was about to cry. (And I'm not a crier.)

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Don't blush. A lot of people don't believe manga/comics can be a real contender on a literary feild, but a good plot is a good plot, and it takes just as much writing skill to make it entertaining and believeble and to bring the characters to life. I've been meaning to read Kare Kano myself, but the volume count is a little daunting, so I've been putting it off until I have the mental stamina to start in on it. Glad to see a favorable review!

Back On Topic: It really depends on the book, and how "dependant" I'm feeling at the time. There are some books that I'm STILL mourning the end to.There really will never be another book like any one of them, though certainly there are a great deal of wonderful books out there!

But sometimes, I rush towards the end of a beloved book. I'm terrible in that I usually don't put down a book I enjoy once I pick it up until the end. I will literally spend an entire day finishing a book, or put off reading one until I can have the entire day, rather than let it spread out. Even though I really love and appriciate my favorites, I guess I'm just not very sentimental after a day or so of letting it digest.

But like I said, it depends. I know I've read a few that made me stop reading outof mourning for weeks sometimes.

It happens to me often. The worst was after I finished what's now my favorite book (Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk). I was distraught for nearly two weeks. I felt empty.

But all that is fine with me-- in fact, I love that words on paper can elicit that sort of response.

JoNightshade said:

Does anyone else do this? Whenever I finish reading a novel I really, really love, I go into a state that is almost like mourning. For a few days (sometimes weeks), I don't want to read anything else, because "Nothing could be as good as THAT book." I replay the best moments over and over again in my mind, and I lament the fact that I will never be able to play with those characters in quite the same way again. It's almost like I've spent a bunch of time getting to know these wonderful people... and then they leave me forever. It's even worse when it's the end of a whole series, because then I feel like I've spent a lifetime with them... and now I have to go on alone!

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I did a few years ago after I read Watership Down.

JoNightshade said:

Does anyone else do this? Whenever I finish reading a novel I really, really love, I go into a state that is almost like mourning. For a few days (sometimes weeks), I don't want to read anything else, because "Nothing could be as good as THAT book." I replay the best moments over and over again in my mind, and I lament the fact that I will never be able to play with those characters in quite the same way again. It's almost like I've spent a bunch of time getting to know these wonderful people... and then they leave me forever. It's even worse when it's the end of a whole series, because then I feel like I've spent a lifetime with them... and now I have to go on alone!

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Yes, I did that with Anita's Sheve's book "Light on Snow"

I also did not finish reading one book Timbuctoo because the dog was going to die..

JoNightshade said:

Does anyone else do this? Whenever I finish reading a novel I really, really love, I go into a state that is almost like mourning.

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Yup. Happened to me just two nights ago, when I finished Replay by Ken Grimwood. What a wonderful, mind-bending, thought-provoking book that was. Perfect in every way, except for the fact that it ended. Now I keep having the urge to go back and read certain passages again and again, just to keep the experience going.

It was all the more aggravating because, as usual when I'm reading a great book, I plow through it practically at the speed of light. You'd think that I'd slow down and savor the experience, but no, when I get one of those standout books in my hand, I let the dishes pile up, my own writing go neglected, and sometimes call in sick to work. I can barely stand to do anything else but read, read, read till I reach the end.

I guess books are like drugs - the high is great, but the withdrawal is brutal.

Ugh, I'm going through this right now. It was a trilogy, too, so I've lived with those characters for a long time. I might need to go back and re-read parts of it to make myself feel better.

JoNightshade said:

Does anyone else do this? Whenever I finish reading a novel I really, really love, I go into a state that is almost like mourning. For a few days (sometimes weeks), I don't want to read anything else, because "Nothing could be as good as THAT book." I replay the best moments over and over again in my mind, and I lament the fact that I will never be able to play with those characters in quite the same way again. It's almost like I've spent a bunch of time getting to know these wonderful people... and then they leave me forever. It's even worse when it's the end of a whole series, because then I feel like I've spent a lifetime with them... and now I have to go on alone!

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Yes.