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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:
StuffezLaBouche · 21/03/2013 22:16

Oh also, I know this divides opinion on here, but I read Captain Corelli when I was 17 or so. I had recently studied Mussolini, the War, etc and very proud that I was 'getting' the book. By the end though, I was absolutely engrossed. I cried at the shooting part.
Frustratingly, the end felt hollow and unfulfilled though, when I kind of felt the characters "owed" it to me to end on a happy note...

yorkshirepuddings · 21/03/2013 22:12

I love that feeling. Only occasionally a book is so good I find it impossible to start a new one until I have finished thinking about the characters and imagining endings for all the little unfinished strands.

The most recent one for me was East of Eden by John Steinbeck - absolutely fabulous.

StuffezLaBouche · 21/03/2013 22:09

Posted in haste, hence the drivel!

StuffezLaBouche · 21/03/2013 22:07

Yes yes and yes! Haven't felt properly immersed in a series of books for years. Absolutely regarding will and Lyra - am currently on The Amber Spyglass with my year sixes.
In the woods was also a brilliant charity shop find - never read any of her others though.
I got very obsessed with a computer game called Myst years ago and I devoured the three accompanying novels to the point of obsession.
Will be watching this thread with interest... Have recently been recommended a book called Angel Maker and have downloaded the sample onto my ipad - not sure tough, it seems it bit annoyingly worded. God, trying to think of others now!

BertieBotts · 21/03/2013 22:06

Oh yes I got it with The Hunger Games and HDM, definitely. I struggle to find adult books that I get so involved in.

Sometimes you can get it with a really good TV series too - Fringe has made me feel like that.

Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:06

X-post with Humphrey - yes!! to Will and Lyra on the bench. And yes too to this being a feeling I often had as a child/teenager but that's harder to get now. God, it was wonderful being a reader as a young teen.

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Original poster
SpaghettiBologneighs · 21/03/2013 22:04

I've just finished Robin Hobb's Tawny Man series (it's the third series of three books each, so I've read nine of them back to back!). I also had it when finishing the His Dark Materials books, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Hunger Games trilogy.

Obviously I have a penchant for fantasy fiction, but it's about more than that - strong characters with themes of unrequited love and noble sacrifice really get me. I love feeling that strength of emotion as its not something there's a huge amount of in RL.

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partystress · 21/03/2013 22:03

Love/hate that feeling! Life of Pi. Most early John Irving. Birdsong. Atonement. Non-fiction - St Caitlin's How to be a Woman.

HumphreyCobbler · 21/03/2013 22:03

I found that I got this all the time when reading as a child and teenager. It happens much more rarely now I am middle aged, but I think that may be because I don't give books the wholehearted attention that I used to. I am hoping that when my small children are grown my life of the mind will grow stronger again.

Having said all that Mary Renault books always still do it for me, also Robertson Davies. I still think of Will and Lyra sitting on their bench.

SPBInDisguise · 21/03/2013 21:59

Tell me yours, I know exactly what you mean! In the woods by tana French is one for me, plus her others but not to the same extent