[rho]

but I am reading Nora Roberts "Tribute" and am at 74% and was thinking I want to keep reading - then I thought to myself "but if I do the book will end and I don't want it to end" so I put it down and am going to knit for awhile.

So who has felt that about a book or characters in a book and what were they ... I love having that feeling when I am reading 

 

[Scheherazade]

"Weaveworld" by Clive Barker and nearly the entire "Spellsinger" series by Alan Dean Foster made me feel this way.  I've had this feeling a lot, but I can't remember them all.  I know several had me in tears and slightly seriously depressed the book was over... but it must not have affected me too much to not be able to remember!  I know some of the books by Brian Jacques have probably hit me that way, too.  I guess I'm a sucker for talking animals?  I really wish they'd get "Weaveworld" and the "Spellsinger" books on Kindle!

 

[Cindy416]

I have felt that way numerous times, so you can rest assure that I won't laugh at you.

I've gotten to be that way with the numbered Stephanie Plum books. I await each book's release in June, and then, 24 hours later, I've already finished the book and have to wait another 364 days for the next. I've also been that way with Nelson DeMille's books that feature Det. John Corey.

As for books that aren't part of a series, I remember feeling that way especially about the book The Prince of Tides. The biggest drawback to postponing finishing a book is that I wait TOO long to pick it up again. What a dilemma!

 

[MichelleR]

I can't think of specific times, but that's happened a lot.

On Kindle, I wish the percentages reflected actual story, because I hate thinking I have 3% more and, suddenly, the book ends. That's one thing about print books, you can actually know if there are only 3-4 pages left before footnotes and Other Books By, and all the rest.

 

[suicidepact]

I haven't read that book, but I know the feeling. I've delayed finishing a really good book or series because I didn't want it to end. Or I start reading a magazine to delay the inevitable. When I re-read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, I kept counting the amount of pages I had left, and converting that to the amount of time it took me to read a page, divvided by number of average pages read an hour, well you can see how obsessive I became about it.

 

[Gertie Kindle]

The only cure is to read the book again.  If it's a really great book, close the last page and immediately re-open it to the first page and start reading.  I've had to do that, too. 

 

[rho]

I've had it happen to me in lots of books - and this time it is because the book is exactly the light reading I need now (health is kind of sucky lately and my arm is really humming at me pretty much all the time along with my Lyme thumb arthritis screaming at me) I'm really enjoying the characters and I know that one of them has to be the bad guy and I am going to be upset because I like everyone -- it really is a perfect escape book -- has a mystery, makes me laugh in spots - has a funny dog - all kinds of fun things going on.

 

[meljackson]

This is exactly how I end up reading 3x books at a time even though I keep swearing I'm going to go back to one at a time. When I start getting too close to the end of a great book I just start another one. When I'm not getting into the book like I hope I start yet another one. The last 4 books I've read have only been so/so though. I need an exciting book.

Melissa

 

[Athenagwis]

I have stopped reading and put down a book because I really loved how it was going and I knew that something bad was going to happen to them and I just couldn't bear to read it. I don't do well with books or movies where the characters are misunderstood, when someone thinks they are one way but I, the reader, know they are a completely other way. In fact that was the absolute only time I cried in the Harry Potter series when we found out

Spoiler

just how misunderstood Snape was the whole time

. Ugh, makes me so sad. So anyway I knew that the characters in this book I was reading would have something bad happen and I just couldn't bear it, so I stopped reading while it was still happy. I didn't pick it back up for 5 years!! LOL But I am glad I eventually went back to it, cause it ended completely different then I thought and was actually happy overall. After that, I have never put down a book if I think it's going to end bad, I just skip ahead and make sure it ends up happy, then I keep reading. LOL

Funny part about the book is I don't remember a single book I read at that time, I read soooo many, probably hundreds. I can't remember any titles or plot lines, but this is the only one I remember the title and plot line to, and this was over 10 years ago!! It's Crown of Columbus if anyone wants to try a paperback. LOL

Rachel

 

[Tippy]

I feel that way about a lot of books.  The Outlander series, for one.  Janet Evanovich, Karen Robards, Judith McNaught, Lisa See, and the list goes on and on.  After I finish one, it is difficult to wait until their next book is published.  That is part of the fun.  Which reminds me -- Lisa See's new book, The Girls from Shangahai should be on sale today.....    Better go get it!

 

[geoffthomas]

The only cure is to read the book again. If it's a really great book, close the last page and immediately re-open it to the first page and start reading. I've had to do that, too.

Which is the point of the book "The Worm Ouroboros". Isn't it, or am I the only one that has read it?

 

[Cindy416]

I've turned around and read a book again as soon as I finished it, especially it there have been continuing characters in a series of books (Nelson DeMille's John Corey books, as well as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum ones.) When I first read the Stephanie Plum books, there were five that had been published. I immediately read all five again, in order, just to watch the character interactions. I did that to some extent with the Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell, too.

 

[Meredith Sinclair]

but I am reading Nora Roberts "Tribute" and am at 74% and was thinking I want to keep reading - then I thought to myself "but if I do the book will end and I don't want it to end" so I put it down and am going to knit for awhile.

So who has felt that about a book or characters in a book and what were they ... I love having that feeling when I am reading

Funny I just mentioned this on the Author's thread...Hey! Who is he (or something like that, not sure of the name) anyway. I was telling another author that I sometimes don't want to finish the book, especially if I don't yet have the "sequel" or if there is n sequel.... I feel like I'll have... (don't laugh) ABANDONMENT issues

Nobody is really posting on there which is disappointing, I really wanted to read about some of the characters... I READ for the characters!

 

[Sanveann]

Lisa See's new book, The Girls from Shangahai should be on sale today..... Better go get it!

I got this to review for Amazon Vine a month ago and still haven't gotten around to reading it! It's next on my list, though

As for the OP's question ... I felt that way about the "Outlander" series and also about "To Kill a Mockingbird," for sure.

 

[egh34]

To me that is a sign of a good book. Also, when you keep thinking about the book long after you finished it. Sometimes in my journal I will rate a book an 8.5 or 9, but after a few days when I can't stop thinking about it I change it to a 10.

 

[Thumper]

I've felt that way about a lot of books. I can remember getting frustrated as a kid because I wanted my books to be literal never ending stories, and I've been told that I'd throw royal tantrums as a toddler when the story being read to me was over. Apparently they had a hard time making me understand it was the book's fault, not the reader's...

Heck, I've felt that way about stuff I'm writing. Somewhere in a box here is a bloated manuscript that I could never finish because I couldn't let go of my people. The USAF cured me with a move that forced me to set the manuscript aside, but I'm afraid to go back to it because I don't think that story will ever end. My poor son would wind up inheriting this huge 20,000 page half finished novel that I would surely print out and fill a room with

 

[Susan in VA]

I know the feeling too.  Especially if the book was a really nice long one that kept me occupied for days, or longer if I didn't have much time to read.  Once it's finished I feel sad, and start missing the characters and the flow of the story.  If there's a sequel I'll go to great lengths to find it, or sometimes even just read anything else by the same author. 

I wonder if there's a word or phrase for that particular form of sadness....  shall we coin one?

 
 

 

[Angela]

Many books have made me feel that way.

 

[MichelleR]

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who has since passed away. I'm not sure if it started with a conversation on Gone With The Wind, but it ended up there. I said that when I was a kid, I used to imagine Rhett and Scarlett getting together, but as an adult I'm not sure they would have -- that maybe there was just too much water under the bridge. He thought I was mad for thinking about it -- for him, the story ended when the book ended.

"But, Jerry, I know it's only a book, but you've never wondered what would happen to characters if they were real?"

Nope! And he was a big reader, too. When the book was done, the story was done, and that was -- literally -- all she wrote. I think characters do exist beyond that, in a sense. That you can read a book sorta know enough to figure out how their lives would be if they existed somewhere. With romances, I would read a book and think that characters had great sexual chemistry, but had no shot in real life, or "these two could make a go of it."

Don't they have to feel real in order to move you?

 

[Rasputina]

but I am reading Nora Roberts "Tribute" and am at 74% and was thinking I want to keep reading - then I thought to myself "but if I do the book will end and I don't want it to end" so I put it down and am going to knit for awhile.

So who has felt that about a book or characters in a book and what were they ... I love having that feeling when I am reading

BTDT LOL

The other option is to just finish it and then start back over from the beginning and read it again. I've done that too.