Anyone else feel bereved after they finish a book they loved?

[WhiteWinterWitch]

I have just finished The Goldfinch and I'm totally lost! I enjoyed it so much that I can't get my head cleared to read anything else. I've ordered The Secret History& the little friend to see if I can get interested again in the same way as i really enjoyed Donna Tartts writing style. Anyone any suggestions what would be good to get into next?? TIA

Yes, I still miss Eleanor Oliphant

I call it book grief. It’s a real thing!

I was mooning about for months after I finished The Dark Tower series. Huge sense of loss.

I have come to the conclusion that series of books should never be 'finished'.

I actually did burst into tears when aged 19 I finished reading Lord of the Rings.

Yes, Fortunes of War by Olivia Manning. When I finished it, I felt like I'd lost two friends in Harriet and Guy Pringle.

Finishing Terry Pratchett's last ever book, The Shepherd's Crown, and knowing there would never be another made me really sad.

So glad to have found my people i can't stop thinking about the characters and how if things had been different how their lives could have been ( dh thinks im bonkers!!) Sign of a good book suppose

Yes, I get this too with some books. Wise Children by Angela Carter was a recent one.
I deliberately saved Persuasion on my shelf for years before reading it. I didn’t want to finish all of Jane Austen’s books. I just used to look at it on the shelf and think not yet, no, not yet.
We can always re-read them you know. I’ve read Pride and Prejudice at least four times.

Yes - me too with the Dark Tower series. I was bereft

Oh yes, very much. I find it really hard to bring myself to start a brand new Marian Keyes, as I’m bereft when I don’t have anymore of her unread words to read!

I read 'Clarissa' in my late 20s, and it is so long, it took me an age to finish it - read it on my commute every day for four months, and in the evenings etc. I felt like Lovelace and Clarissa became part of my world, and I was part of theirs. I spent more time with them than I did with friends, and even with my husband on weekdays!

When it was over, I just felt such a sense of loss, like no book would ever be as good. I didn't want to read anything else - despite how it would be so much easier not having to lug that doorstop around with me everywhere.

I think some easy-reading Robert Goddard moved me on from it. I had to choose something I wasn't expecting much from anyway, to prevent disappointment!

I've loved lots of books since, and had 'similar but less' withdrawal symptoms from them, but never had one have quite that same effect on me again.

Oh yes. It’s often slated on book threads on here but I was beside myself after finishing A Little Life. I was so invested in the characters and keep thinking “if only they’d done that instead of that”.

The Goldfinch was the first book I thought of when I saw this thread title in 'What We're Reading'. What an amazing book. I felt the same after reading The Paying Guests and A Little Life. These are the only books I can think of where I felt bereft afterwards.

Me too, cherry. It feels like I made a beat friend, then lost her in one weekend. I missed her so much I read the book again!

Same Maz I just want to be her friend so badly! She also reminds me a tiny bit of myself in some ways.

Southeast - I was going to say a little life as well as the Goldfinch. And I'm reading the paying guests atm. The other Donna Tartt books are vg, as are the other Sarah Waters that I've read!

I'll also say of the last year- the hearts invisible furies. So good! And Maggie Ofarrell-this must be the place

Dammit, I've killed another thread!

I love The Secret History - my copy is very battered now. Haven't read The Goldfinch - that one's going on the list!

I had book grief after I finished Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Wonderful (but just don't get me started about the film )

And Maggie O'Farrell here too! Brilliant writer.

Oh, The Song of Achilles too. I've always loved Greek mythology but that made me really want to be there at that time. Loved loved loved Achilles and Patroclus

MrsSteptoe Know exactly what you mean about the Manning, was fascinating to read a novel about the war from such a different perspective.

Christmasfluff Have had Clarissa in view for ages but reading your comments makes me keen to read it now.

I think it's so hard with a book you're really enjoying when it ends, it's like escaping into a different world and suddenly the world ends. I found that when I re-read Jeeves and Wooster and also when I finally got round to Anna Karenina. For a while everything else I read felt like a rebound book!

Me & my mum were discussing this last week. We are both like this. Even with one off books. After a really good break ok we sometimes need a little rest to get over our 'loss'.
I do like a good escape!

I finished Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine a few days ago and found it really difficult to start reading something else!

I read Lolly Willowes for a uni seminar and was utterly bereft when it was over, because I knew I'd never get quite the same feeling of reading it for the first time ever again. It's followed me through my undergrad degree and I've written about it many times - it will always remain my most recommended book, but I'm gutted that I'll never get the same feeling of discovering it for the first time.

Argumentativefeminist Agree something utterly unique about Lolly Willowes * re-read it last year and was really impressed by it.