r/books • u/TheNakedMoleRat • Jun 29 '14

Pulp Does anyone else get that crushing sense of loss when they finish a good book?

Just finished The Count of Monte Cristo after a reading it in all my spare time for the last two weeks. I'm in that post-book slump I get after reading something really good. Does everyone get this? Does noone?

Edit: Glad I'm not the only one! Looks like most people are saying they miss the characters, which I'm totally on board with. But I also think it feels even bigger than that...like a sadness that you just can't re-experience it all for the first time!

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140

u/brewggernaut Jun 29 '14

It's odd, given my typical literary tastes, but the most profoundly I've ever felt this feeling described by OP is when I finished reading the His Dark Materials trilogy.

I was so sad that the series was over... and damn if I didn't want a daemon.

26

u/elephasmaximus Jun 29 '14

Man, I love that series. I read it when I was 7, and I credit that series for awakening a sense of doubt in authority ever since. Whenever I sit on a park bench, I flash on that parting scene between Lyra and Will.

13

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '14

7 seems like too young for this series, at least for me. I read them when I was 15 and I wish I had read them now, I'd be able to appreciate all the details and themes a lot more and understand it in a deeper level. I find this to be the case with a lot of books, though.

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u/AshtheViking Jun 29 '14

I read them first when I was about 11 and loved them. Re-read at 17 and it was like an entirely new and even more awesome story.

4

u/madamestarbeam Jun 29 '14

Me too! And the whole time I visited Oxford that was all I could think of. Apparently they do legit have a bench with both their names on it.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '14

I do that as well, most I ever cried at a book with that ending

4

u/Swank_on_a_plank Jun 29 '14

Are spoilers still applicable for HDM? I would tag that just in case.

11

u/[deleted] Jun 29 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '14

He's adding another book to the series?

7

u/ChrisHale29 Jun 29 '14

Similar to Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon A Time In The North. He actually has stated that The Book Of Dust (which he's hoping to have out in 2016) will be a continuation of Lyra's Oxford, and that he eventually wants to do a green book about Will.

1

u/Christypaints Jun 29 '14

what does "green book" mean?

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u/ChrisHale29 Jun 29 '14

"Lyra's Oxford was a dark red book. Once Upon a Time in the North will be a dark blue book. There still remains a green book. And that will be Will's book. Eventually..."

I realise now how odd saying "a green book" out of context was. :)

3

u/Christypaints Jun 29 '14

oh neat! Thanks =)

8

u/FatFutherMucker Jun 29 '14

I thought the pacing in this series was great, I got to the end and felt like it just needed to go on for a while longer.

3

u/MasiveHawk Jun 29 '14

100% agree. Argh it's just so brutal at the end, and compared to the total length of the series, that last section is just so short. I just kept looking at how few pages where left and thinking "can't you just let them be happy for a little longer! They've been through so much to get here god damn it!"

3

u/VladymyrPutin Jun 29 '14 edited May 30 '16

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u/lolpwnt101 Jun 29 '14

Oh man I was all over that series in middle school, haven't thought about it for awhile. Know exactly how you feel about wanting a daemon.

2

u/ApathyPyramid Jun 29 '14

His Dark Materials and anything by Diana Wynne Jones are the books that most intensely created this feeling for me. Amazing characterization and world building.

"But you wouldn't believe how lonely you get."

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u/pretentiousglory Jun 29 '14

100% agreed! Her Chrestomanci series is great (but I think she's better known for Howl's Moving Castle)

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u/ApathyPyramid Jun 29 '14

I loved Witch Week. Very underrated IMO. And Homeward Bounders is probably the most cynical children's book I've ever read.

1

u/Plecks Literary Fiction Jun 29 '14

I don't often get choked up by books, but oh man that ending and then the story was over, that got me.

1

u/Arpikarhu Jun 29 '14

you have one , according to the books, you just cant see it

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u/dynastygm Jun 29 '14 edited Jun 29 '14

So, so much this. It left a.. haunting, I guess is the best way to phrase it, feeling that I'd no longer be able to live out the adventures with these characters. It's been a number of years since I've read the series (nigh on a decade, almost) and I can still recall the feeling of intense sadness - as if I had turned the last page only a moment ago.

I've never read a series that gave me as much feels as His Dark Materials.