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Original poster

You know that heart-achingly wonderful, bittersweet feeling you get when you finish an incredible book? I want more of that in my life.

135 replies

SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 21:56

That feeling you're left with when you've been utterly immersed in another life or another universe. I've just finished a wonderful series. Not high literature by any stretch, but beautifully written with characters who lived and breathed and moved me. I finished with my eyes full of tears and I feel bereft, but in a good way :).

I want more of that in my life. What books have left others feeling this way?

OP posts:
NomNomDePlum · 21/03/2013 22:50

Marilynne Robinson's Home - the sentences, the subtlety, the clear view. she is an amazing writer, and this is such a moving book.
and Hilary Mantel, i am reading bring up the bodies as slowly as i can...

but reading when young - now that was fabulous. the wind in the willows, watership down, the greengage summer - i think dd1 will be a reader when she can read, and i am jealous of her...

Passiveaggressivecakeeater · 21/03/2013 22:47

spaghetti, PLEASE listen; the first chapter is utter utter torture to get through. It took me 3 months to be bothered to get through it. I kept giving up and putting it down, thinking nothing interesting could ever come from something that starts like that, but YOU MUST PERSEVERE. It's so worth it!!!!!!! You will be enthralled, I promise you!!! Everyone I've passed this book to has fallen completely in love with it.

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:44

Already downloaded it Green! Got to love kindle instant gratification.

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strawberrypenguin · 21/03/2013 22:42

I love/hate that feeling too its rare i find a book i love that much hasn't happened for a while I think the last time was The book thief by Marcus Zusak I'm overdue another!

Really enjoyed Tad Williams - The dirty streets of heaven but it didn't quite give me that feeling.

Others that have were Jasper Fforde's Eyre Affair and my all time favourite comfort books The Belgariad series by David Eddings.

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:38

It was achingly romantic, wasn't it, Angels.

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Greenshootsandleeves · 21/03/2013 22:37

Spaggy you MUST read Restoration, it is beautiful. It's one of those books that leaves a taste in your mouth

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:36

Ooh yes, The Road, MamaMary. I also love a good post-apocalyptic read. Anyone read World War Z?

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AngelsWithSilverWings · 21/03/2013 22:35

Oh spaghetti as soon as I read the title of your post I remembered the moment I finished reading I Capture the Castle. I remember telling my DH that I'd enjoyed the book so much that I just felt like sitting and hugging it for a while!

I've enjoyed lots of great books but that one really got me.

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:35

Passiveaggresive, that sounds like my kind of trilogy. Off to investigate.

Also intrigued by Mintyy's suggestion, Restoration.

Reading is the greatest gift I've ever received, truly. How remarkable the human mind is.

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yorkshirepuddings · 21/03/2013 22:34

I'm now having to go to Amazon to look up all these books! I'm going to enjoy this thread.

MamaMary · 21/03/2013 22:33

Books that have stayed with me include:

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
The L-shaped Room by Lynn Reid Banks
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters (warning: it's a ghost story!)
Solar by Ian McEwan (my favourite of his)

Greenshootsandleeves · 21/03/2013 22:32

I didn't know there was a sequel! You may have just made my week Grin I have been given a date today for my knee operation and am stuck on my arse for another month, so am desperate for reading material!

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:30

Yorkshirepuddings - that's exactly the feeling I'm left with now. I want to be reading again, but I can't let go of my beloved characters yet.

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ozymandiusking · 21/03/2013 22:30

greenshoots I had forgotten all about Frost in May!! Absolutely fabulous book,
and the sequel too but I can't remember the name of it. Do you know it?

Zatopek · 21/03/2013 22:29

This Thing of Darkness-Harry Thompson

Recreating the relationship, verbal sparring and intellectual parting of ways between Darwin and Fitzroy (an absolutely amazing person "pioneer of the weather forecast, explorer, wonderful sea captain" who I knew nothing about) aboard HMS Beagle

It's long, takes a little while to get into (lots of seafaring terminology in first chapter) but it is absolutely magnificent- unputdownable by the end.

Passiveaggressivecakeeater · 21/03/2013 22:29

The Black Jewels trilogy. God that was amazing. It was my life for the duration of the books.

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:29

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. That was another highlight of my teens. Yy to anything by Margaret Atwood.

The Knife of Never Letting Go was also great. I do love a good YA novel (my emotional immaturity showing?).

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stifnstav · 21/03/2013 22:25

Love Warps The Mind A Little by John Dufresne.

Crazy, bonkers, heartbreaking, love it. When you described the feeling, I thought of this book.

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:24

Bertie - oh yes, Fringe did it for me, too. It made me feel like a teenager again!

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Greenshootsandleeves · 21/03/2013 22:23

Frost in May by Antonia White also made me cry

Greenshootsandleeves · 21/03/2013 22:22

Oh Restoration by Rose Tremain is beautiful. I cried buckets. All the times I have read it Grin

Greenshootsandleeves · 21/03/2013 22:21

All Hilary Mantel's books make me feel like that. They are mesmerising. I am so pissed off I have read Bring Up The Bodies, I looked forward to it so much and now it's finished Sad

Other books that have had that effect on me:

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch
The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse
Possession, AS Byatt
Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter
Most of Margaret Atwood's books
The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins

I had that feeling almost all the time as a kid/teen. It seemed to be easier then - more time to get really engrossed I suppose.

ThePathanKhansAmnesiac · 21/03/2013 22:20

The Handmaidens tale, anything by Atwood in fact.

Mintyy · 21/03/2013 22:18

I have read thousands of books, both professionally and for pleasure.

I strongly recommend Restoration by Rose Tremain. It is quite remarkable. I defy you not to cry at the end.

HumphreyCobbler · 21/03/2013 22:16

East of Eden is a remarkable book. I read it as a teen, then again and again throughout my life.

Also just remembered A Town Like Alice and Round The Bend by Nevil Shute. I find these books linger in my mind.

I think that is the key thing about these books - that their characters and situations remain real to you as a reader, even long after you have finished reading it.