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Did you ever morn at finishing a great book?

Steel

Steel

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
4,884
Have you ever felt so involved with a novel that you dragged out reading the last few pages to make the story last at long as possible? Do you still miss it?
 
i still miss olive kittenridge over a year after reading it. time to read it again, i guess.
 
I loved reading Stephen King''s The Stand. It is the only book I have ever read (and I read every day) that has moved me to cry reading it. It is so many years later and I still think I will never read a book as wonderful as that. I feel like finishing that book was a loss to me, beautiful but sad.
 
i''ve never read anything by stephen king. he''s one of my husband''s favorite authors. i hate being scared.
 
This happens to me often. A few books that I can think of that I really didn't want to end:

"The Help," by Kathryn Stockett

"The Notebook," by Nicholas Sparks (I bawled the whole way through this one! The book is SO MUCH BETTER than the movie!)

"Duma Key," by Stephen King (BTW, I'm a HUGE Stephen King fan and I don't think I've ever read anything by him that I didn't love!)
 
I felt like this when reading Stephen King''s The Dark Tower series. I had invested so much in those characters, and I missed them when they were gone. I got over it quickly though, and I recently reread the whole series and didn''t feel nearly as bad when I was done.

I know it''s happened with other books too, but I can''t recall any right now.

I''m currently working on re-reading a bunch of Stephen King books since I started reading them 15 years ago. As much of a SK fan as I''ve always been, his books don''t seem to be as good the 2nd time around...maybe because all the suspense is gone. But boy, does that man know how to write a character! I''ve always been more of a fan of his characterization than ''horror''.
 
Date: 6/13/2010 9:48:21 AM
Author: Sabine
I felt like this when reading Stephen King''s The Dark Tower series. I had invested so much in those characters, and I missed them when they were gone. I got over it quickly though, and I recently reread the whole series and didn''t feel nearly as bad when I was done.

I know it''s happened with other books too, but I can''t recall any right now.

I''m currently working on re-reading a bunch of Stephen King books since I started reading them 15 years ago. As much of a SK fan as I''ve always been, his books don''t seem to be as good the 2nd time around...maybe because all the suspense is gone. But boy, does that man know how to write a character! I''ve always been more of a fan of his characterization than ''horror''.
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YES!!! Jack in "The Shining," for just one example???
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Steal, I felt the same way about "The Stand."

The story I''ve been saddest about ending is the "Lord of the Rings." I''ve read the books 5-6 times in my life (long before the movies came out), and each time felt the same way. It''s such an involved, detailed story, and each time I felt like I was right there along on the journey. Each time I finished I felt like something huge and important was over.

The other book that I mourned was "Tess of the d''urbervilles" but for a different reason. Aside from one happy moment, it was one long slide into despair. I held out hope until the very end that it might have a happy ending, but was so upset by how depressing it was.
 
I totally did not want Olive Kitteridge to end, either. I was/am a big fan of The Stand but haven''t read it in years.. I have read it more than once. I agree that it really is sad when you are nearing the end of a book that you have truly loved and I do think that I slow down a bit towards the end because I want it to go on and on..
 
Yes, absolutely. That''s how I felt each time I finished a book in the Harry Potter series, the Belgariad, and the Mallorean. When I finished the series I was so sad because I felt like I knew the characters and wanted to see what would happen to them next.
 
yes - I never finished HP6 and I couldn''t bring myself to even start #7 even though I made sure I had it the first day... I did read the end but in my head if I don''t start it it can''t REALLY end, right? Lame. I know.
 
I loved The Stand, Steal - actually, I will read that again now, thankyou!

To answer your question - absolutely; recently I bought "The Strain" simply because Guillermo Del Toro is the co-author (with Chuck Hogan) and I am a big fan of his work.
This novel was so engaging and exciting, I didn''t want it to end..
Apparently there is a trilogy in this series of books, but the second one is not out until later this year - I keep hassling my book store on an eta for the sequel, I can''t wait!

If you like King, there is a good chance you may like this novel - it comes very highly recommended
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Yes!!! The 2 off the top of my head that really got to me where The Thorn Birds and The Touch. Both by Colleen McCullough. Actually, all her books are very easy to get lost in. I just remember balling my eyes out through the majority of The touch. I was embarrased because I was reading it at work, and someone stopped by my office, and saw me with a box of kleenex and my face just tear streaked. Haha. They thought someone had died!
 
Date: 6/13/2010 10:04:42 AM
Author: pierreone
Steal, I felt the same way about ''The Stand.''

The story I''ve been saddest about ending is the ''Lord of the Rings.'' I''ve read the books 5-6 times in my life (long before the movies came out), and each time felt the same way. It''s such an involved, detailed story, and each time I felt like I was right there along on the journey. Each time I finished I felt like something huge and important was over.

The other book that I mourned was ''Tess of the d''urbervilles'' but for a different reason. Aside from one happy moment, it was one long slide into despair. I held out hope until the very end that it might have a happy ending, but was so upset by how depressing it was.
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I have got to be honest, I liked the ending of Tess, I just wished it had come 300 pages earlier.

Only a few really. Jasper Fforde since he is not a fast writer and everytime I finish his latest, it is an eternity until his next, although he has not ended any of his series yet.

As I usually read single books and not series, I do not get as involved, but I did really like Poison Study and was sorry that it ended becuase there was so much more that could have been done with it.

The worst was Salmon of Doubt. It is only the first 35 pages of the book, but I put off reading it for a very long time because once I had, it would be the last thing of Douglas Adams I would ever read.
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All the time. I hate the books that have the book club questions in the back b/c it tricks me into thinking the book is longer than it is.
 
Date: 6/13/2010 11:04:44 AM
Author: joflier
Yes!!! The 2 off the top of my head that really got to me where The Thorn Birds and The Touch. Both by Colleen McCullough. Actually, all her books are very easy to get lost in. I just remember balling my eyes out through the majority of The touch. I was embarrased because I was reading it at work, and someone stopped by my office, and saw me with a box of kleenex and my face just tear streaked. Haha. They thought someone had died!
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Oh, thanks for posting this.
I had forgotten how good The Thornbirds was. I have never read the other one. Now I can get something else good to read.
 
Most definitely.

Good books draw me in, make me love, hate, empathise with and hope with the characters, and I'm always sad to part with them
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Date: 6/13/2010 2:21:19 PM
Author: Pink Tower

Date: 6/13/2010 11:04:44 AM
Author: joflier
Yes!!! The 2 off the top of my head that really got to me where The Thorn Birds and The Touch. Both by Colleen McCullough. Actually, all her books are very easy to get lost in. I just remember balling my eyes out through the majority of The touch. I was embarrased because I was reading it at work, and someone stopped by my office, and saw me with a box of kleenex and my face just tear streaked. Haha. They thought someone had died!
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Oh, thanks for posting this.
I had forgotten how good The Thornbirds was. I have never read the other one. Now I can get something else good to read.
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Your welcome! I read the Thorn Birds first, and loved it, but I thought the other was even better.......it''s been a few years, I don''t remember exactly that much about it. She has another book - Morgan''s Run that I really enjoyed too.
 
Oooo more SK fans! I adore him! The Stand is my all time most favorite book. I like rereading his books b/c there are always things I didn''t catch the first time around, and when it''s been a while, I like getting into the book and gradually remembering things-"oh, this is the part when-" My problem is that I get so into the characters, when it''s made into a movie/mini series, I want to pull my hair out over the casting. To this day I''ve not watched more than 15 minutes total of the tv version of The Stand.

Robert R. McCammon''s Swan Song is similar and another book that I just can''t stand to be over when I get to the last page.
 
Date: 6/13/2010 9:09:37 AM
Author:Steal
Have you ever felt so involved with a novel that you dragged out reading the last few pages to make the story last at long as possible? Do you still miss it?
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All the time. I have overactive empathy and tend to relate and sympathise to people, even fictional people, very easily. I always feel very upset when I''m getting to the end of a book or series of books and no longer gt to be a witness of that characters life.
 
This happens to me too. I start limiting myself to 10 pages per day until the end to stretch out the enjoyment. The first time it happened I was in the seventh grade and it was " The Three Musketeers" and I remember where I was when I finished it. And that was a long time ago-lol.
 
Yes... I am always so depressed after a great book ends. Although the worst is when you think you have ten more pages and you turn one and all that''s left is those blank pages in the back. WHY? So disappointing every time.
 
Date: 6/13/2010 10:33:36 PM
Author: redfaerythinker
Yes... I am always so depressed after a great book ends. Although the worst is when you think you have ten more pages and you turn one and all that''s left is those blank pages in the back. WHY? So disappointing every time.
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Because of the machinery used to produce them, books have to be printed with a page count in multiples of 4. That''s why you see books with weird page counts like 288 or 384, but never just 250 or 325. Layout designers are pretty good at fiddling around with fonts and margins to hide this issue, but every once in a while there just isn''t enough text to fill up the remaining pages, and that''s why you end up with some blanks at the end.

As for the original question... no, never. Reading this thread makes me a little sad that I don''t experience books as intensely as some of you guys do. Especially now that the dissection part of my brain is (almost) always on and taking apart each paragraph as I read it, it''s very rare that I get completely transported into a book and can "see through" the actual text that I''m reading. I treasure those moments when they come, but I still never dread the end of a book. If anything, I go faster and faster to see if the end holds up to everything that came before, and then start over again at the beginning.
 
Date: 6/13/2010 9:16:25 AM
Author: Steal
I loved reading Stephen King''s The Stand. It is the only book I have ever read (and I read every day) that has moved me to cry reading it. It is so many years later and I still think I will never read a book as wonderful as that. I feel like finishing that book was a loss to me, beautiful but sad.
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This is my favourite book of all time I think. I''ve read it many times. I like to wallow in it. sigh
 
I remember being a kid and reading the last Laura Ingalls Wilder book and being so sad that the series was ending. I almost prefer one-off books instead of a series because I get so much more invested with a series and am always so sad when it ends (heck, I''m like that with a TV show, too - anytime I see an actor from LOST, I get sad that it''s over all over again).

I was really sad when The Time Traveler''s Wife ended.

I was kind of relieved that HP was over, TBH. I really liked it and was a little sad, but it needed to end.
 
Felt like this with Nelson DeMille''s The Gold Coast and the sequel The Gatehouse. I love his books but these two were my favorites!
 
I was a HUGE HP fan. You know, one of those fan. I was a member of an HP community (a forum not unlike this one), wrote fiction, the whole deal. It was a huge part of my teenage years (I was 12 when Philosopher''s Stone was published, 22 when Deathly Hallows was), so when it ended... I got into a pretty big funk. In indsight, the anticipation and waiting for the next book, with all the speculation and stuff, that was the best part of it all, and that''s what I miss the most!
 
Another Harry Potter fiend here....my husband bought me the whole series for Christmas 2009 (I had never read them before this, nor seen any of the movies), and I became HOOKED! I''m now rereading the series for the third time. I just can''t seem to say goodbye to the characters. Pathetic!
 
Another Harry Potter fan here - I was never *obsessed* with the books/movies like some of my friends, but I really enjoyed them SO much - I started reading the books when I was in third grade, and I''ve loved them ever since. They were such a huge part of my childhood and I remember always counting down until the next book was coming out. Each time a book came out, I got it right away and stayed up and read the whole thing straight through - I read for 13 hours straight for one of the books! (I was probably 14 or 15 years old and it was so much fun staying up all night reading until I finished!)

Finally when the series ended a little while ago, I cried at the end. I was so sad there wouldn''t be any more books to look forward to. I felt so connected to the series and the characters because I almost felt as if we grew up together (as silly as that may sound) so I felt like a piece of my childhood was coming to an end also. I really loved those books and I plan on re-reading them this summer.
 
I hate it when a book that I love ends, and I often wish it would continue. Whenever I feel that way, I can''t start a new book right away. I always need a day to get over it and "mentally prepare" for a new book with new characters, plot, etc.
 
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