…and I say so, not to provide any comfort about what death might be like, but to express how truly horrible finishing a book can be. Not only do all the characters die, no matter how the book ends, but insofar as the novel takes place inside your mind, and you experience it as a silent observer, an angelic character, that character of yourself dies with it. Sometimes I think the only reason I read fiction is to satisify a thanatological curiousity.
Wow Ucci, I thought I my husband and son were the only ones that felt that way. Thanks, it is good to know there is someone who can see, smell, feel and touch a good story the same way.
Series are very hard, they leave you hungry also, especially the large indepth ones.
Have you ever had a series of books, think you have them all, start reading them and find out you are actually missing one or two in the middle?
I have to read a series from start to end, otherwise there is a blank feeling or something like that feeling.
But then I get to start another novel….afterwards.
The end of a book has always been bittersweet, for me.
Bitter, because it’s like losing a good friend - Sweet because a new one awaits discovery.
I usually have ten to twenty books waiting for me to finish my current one.
I feel the same way about good classes as well – the last day of class, is like going to a funeral. Almost cried once, the loss of the class was so sad.
I’ll tell you something though. Finishing writing a story – is one of the most cathartic experiences I have ever undergone – and immense relief.
Now, do tell us what book it was that was so sad for you to finish – this thread didn’t just pop out of thin air; I too, would like to read it.
For me, finishing The Three Musketeers series, was extermely difficult – I think the last one was Twenty Years After, and to see all the characters literally and figurativly die together, was just about as tragic as a real death.
Oh no, I can’t tell you what book it was. In all honesty, it was the modern equivalent of a dime-store paperback, and the sentiment was brought on by the fact that it was 2 am as much if not more than the content of the novel. I would be happy to add, though, that I most recently felt that way at the conclusion of the Dark Tower series.
Kriswest- Yes, I certainly enjoy fiction too much. Movies are always held at some distance for me, but a good novel, I go through long periods (years) where I don’t touch one, because it’s such an engrossing process. For better or for worse, one will find me subtely changed after a novel, perhaps talking, behaving or dressing slightly different, in keeping with the genre I read.
That situation you described, Kris, has never happened to me, though I can count the number of book series that were longer than 2 books on my thumbs, so far as I recall. But the idea of picking up a series partway through makes me queasy just to think about it!
Like orgasms, books also deserve to called “little deaths.”
See for us reading is like an addiction, Our library is over 4000 strong, and more books are bought every month. Perhaps it is a feeling of entering and then being left alone that makes one need to dive right back in, maybe. I never really analyzed our habit. We each read a few books every week or try to.
We read everything except Romance and self help. We have law books, Text books, historical books, fiction, non fiction, Scifi Western, Novels, everytype that I know of. All are read by us. But, stories are greatly favored. I can’t imagine not reading or only sporadically reading. If our home burned down we would grieve for the loss of our library not the more valuable expensive possesions.