Books which one can’t put down, but how to cope with the ‘emptiness’

What impresses me most about this thread that people remember the stories they have read.
I read about 2 books a week and while I will usually remember the author and the title, I will forget completely what the story was about.
Does anyone else do this?

Anything by Lisa See is unputdownable and Where the Crawdads Sing was superb.

I wasn't taken with And the Mountains Echoed. Thought it was just more of the same but nowhere near as good.

Chocolatelovinggran

I'm with Maybee- A Thousand Splendid Suns, and The Kite Runner were so powerful that I felt sad that I had left the characters behind when I closed the books.

I’ve just started reading The Kite Runner for the third time.
I know Where the Crawdads Sing is a relatively new book but I absolutely loved it. I could envisage every part of that swamp.

My husband used to tease that he'd only ever read one book "all the way through" , Shadow the Sheepdog.

One of the unexpected benefits of the covid pandemic was that late in life this non-literary husband turned into an avid reader. All thanks to lockdown , trapped in the house with my thousands of books. Now he enjoys frequent trips to the library , recommends favourite books and authors to me, and we talk about books.

M0nica

Jane Eyre, the second time I read it.

Yes! Didn't interest me much when I read it at 12 or so.. A decade later it seemed like a different book altogether...

I loved Any Human Heart by William Boyd.. didn't want it to finish

Just finished 'Educated' a memoir by Tara Westover.

I was equally uplifted and deflated by her life and struggles, trying to understand family dynamics, complex human interactions and different views of how life should be lived/endured/protested against. So much tension in the story.

Left with many emotions and memories of my own past, and also gratitudes. Certainly a book with many questions, and leaves you thinking.

The Secret History - Donna Tartt - I read this about 26 years ago and I can remember that when I came to the end I felt deflated and couldn't help wondering what happened to the main character

The Accidental Tourist and St Maybe - Anne Tyler - two of Anne Tyler's earlier books. She has such a gift for balancing humour and sadness in her books. Her often eccentric characters still feel very believable to me. There was a film made of The Accidental Tourist, starring William Hurt. I thought it was a good interpretation.

A Closed Eye - Anita Brookner. There is always a feeling of nostalgia and melancholy in her books but I don't find them depressing, just poignant.

Non-fiction
And when did you last see your Father? - Blake Morrison. Blake Morrison wrote this book about his relationship with his Dad - a GP. It is in turns funny but, as with Anne Tyler, there is much poignancy as well. There was also a pretty good film made of it, with Jim Broadbent as the Dad.

When I really love a book, I keep it - and sometimes I re-read it.

I believe someone said "We read to know that we are not alone".

Sarum by Edward Rutherford

Aely

MayBee70, I did wonder, but never having watched Game of Thrones, I can't really comment. However, the Pern novels are of people fighting the strange nature of another planet, rather than each other (although that does happen to a degree, being about humans). What I know of GoT, it is quite violent.

Most of the books I really like turn out to have a female author. Not all, of course, but I think too many male authors are obsessed with violence for its own sake (and selling power) without developing the characters. With me, it's like films. I am not interested in bigger and bigger explosions with no plot and no characters.

Game of Thrones is basically the wars of the roses with dragons added. I’m reading Susan Coopers The Dark is Rising ( I hardly read these days; too taken up with podcasts). I’ve listened to her giving interviews and find her quite wonderful.

Sadly, my local library believes that James Patterson and his ilk are authors. The shelves are full of them. To me, James Patterson is a wordmill "writer", as described in the Fritz Lieber book "The Silver Eggheads", which I originally read in the 1960s. Revered "Authors" merely dust and maintain the 2-story computers which churn out generic, instantly forgetable novels which are published in their name.

MayBee70, I did wonder, but never having watched Game of Thrones, I can't really comment. However, the Pern novels are of people fighting the strange nature of another planet, rather than each other (although that does happen to a degree, being about humans). What I know of GoT, it is quite violent.

Most of the books I really like turn out to have a female author. Not all, of course, but I think too many male authors are obsessed with violence for its own sake (and selling power) without developing the characters. With me, it's like films. I am not interested in bigger and bigger explosions with no plot and no characters.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Do you think her books inspired George R Martin to write Game of Thrones?

I was bereft when Terry Pratchett died. I fell in love with the Discworld. Not so keen on the Long Earth etc. series. The first one, based on a short story he had written in his youth, was enjoyable but the others got predicatable and boring.

A number of years ago, already well into maturity, I got hooked on another world, Pern. I know the books (Author, Anne McCaffrey) were written for older teenagers, but I loved them. I had read books she had written in conjunction with another Author but although they were good yarns, I never got as involved with the characters. They were just stories. I had the privilege of a long chat with the Author one day and we dug into why that might be.

I spent last year reading the Seven Sisters by Lucinder Riley read every book in order and found it fascinating as each was such a different but delightful character .

Try Cutting the Stone

I guess that the way to overcome the "feeling of emptiness" at the end of any book is simply to pick up another and read that.

I do exactly this at least 4 times per week, as I generally manage to read 5 or 6 books every week.

I think I must read a thousand Splendid Suns!

Mollygo I've just finished Witchcraft fWG, I was sad when I got to the end & read the appendix in desperation, but it didn't really give me "The End" Blues like some books do.

Indigo8

Anything by Dorothy Whipple. I read and re-read her novels and short stories.

Somerset Maugham short stories.

I just wish they had written more.

I just adore Dorothy Whipple and have just read her autobiography. I think there are two. It’s the beautiful Persephone edition, a pleasure to have around. If stuck for a book (not often) their publications always have something I will enjoy.

When my daughter finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns she said Oh no! Now I’ve got a lifetime of reading c..p books! (Meaning nothing could be better than that.)

I finally got round to reading GONE WITH THE WIND. Totally gripping from the start and so much more to it than the film. A true history of the American Civil War and after. Characters so much more complex than in the film: she was much nastier and Ashley was a bit of a coward, unlike the film.

Lady GaGa I also love the Rabbit Books by John Updike.
Wonderful writing. Harry Angstrom is my very favourite character.

Oh yes. And the Cazalets too.