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

[SpaghettiBologneighs]

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?

[yorkshirepuddings]

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

[SpaghettiBologneighs]

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.

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

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.

[SpaghettiBologneighs]

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

[Greenshootsandleeves]

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

[SpaghettiBologneighs]

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

[strawberrypenguin]

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.

[SpaghettiBologneighs]

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

[Passiveaggressivecakeeater]

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.

[NomNomDePlum]

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...

[Greenshootsandleeves]

When I was younger I liked "Summer of my German Soldier", it was fab and I've ever met anyone else who has heard of it

[BlatantRedhead]

Thanks to this thread I literally just welled up trying to explain Lyra and Will saying goodbye to DP! I had forgotten how much I loved HDM, must read them again.. Hunger games took a long time to let go of after finishing the series, so did Harry Potter (I am of the generation that grew up reading them so was deeply emotionally invested).

One book that really got me was Jodi Picoults' My Sisters Keeper. The ending in the book left me an emotional wreck and I didn't read again for quite a while after. I also made every single 'reader' in my family read it. I was so excited about the film and gutted that they changed the end of the story completely.

[BertieBotts]

I've just remembered that I got this with One Day as well! I know a lot of people thought it was drivel but I loved it. I think because it reminded me a bit of a relationship I'd had when I was younger!

[BumgrapesofWrath]

The books that have made me feel like this

The Book Thief
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Time Traveller's Wife
Catch-22

[Allalonenow]

Read some time ago, but probably could be ordered from the library, At Swim Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill. Angela Carter's The Magic Toyshop should be easy to get hold of.
Recently I've enjoyed Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom.
If you especially like a series where the characters develop, the Aubrey/Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian are very enjoyable.

[jenrendo]

I have just finished 'The Secret Keeper' by Kate Morton and can think of nothing else. The ending is so bittersweet but also gives you a satisfying conclusion too. I am still thinking about it and can't begin another book :)

[BertieBotts]

Oh I want to read The Book Thief.

[SconeRhymesWithGone]

Another vote for Restoration. I also think the film of it is good as well. It stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Sam Neill.

[LittleBunnyFeileFooFoo]

I just read The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao. Its not what I would usually read, it's gritty man fiction (dick lit?) and I tend to read sci-fi/fantasy. But it was amazing, really truly moved me.

There's some magic in it, but lots of swearing and some violence. Oh, and tragic romance.

[Umlauf]

Another vote for A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I mourned finishing that book for weeks. One of the only books I've cried at too.

Also the Carlos Ruiz Zafon novels do it for me, but they're not everyone's cup of tea.

[Ilovemyteddy]

Greenshoots there are three sequels to the Frost in May books
The Lost Traveller
The Sugar House
Beyond the Glass

I remember reading them when they were republished back in the late 70s and loving them.. I read Beyond the Glass in one go, and the world around me just stopped for those few hours that I was reading it.

I've just taken my old Virago editions off the bookshelf and see that they were only £2.95 each. Those were the days!

[SorrelForbes]

Requiem For A Wren by Neville Shute. Beautiful.

[MiddleAgeMiddleEngland]

SorrelForbes I've just posted about Shute's Pied Piper on the thread about books about the war. One of my very favourite books.

I love A Town Like Alice, too. Haven't read Requeim for a Wren so will add that to my list.

[SorrelForbes]

Just seen your post! Pied Piper is another favourite. I love A Town Like Alice but I don't consider it to be his best. Have you read Rainbow and The Rose or No Highway?

Poor old Neville doesn't seem very popular these days.

[Allalonenow]

YY to Requiem for a Wren, I can't understand why Shute seems to have fallen from favour now.