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I just finished reading Wild Seed by Octavia Butler. It was fantastic! I love the feeling after reading a good book. The characters' experiences have become my own. I feel like I share in the wisdom that they gained through their trials and tribulations. In just a few hours, I've added a lifetime of experiences to my own. I feel old, jaded, and absolutely in love with us humans. The feelings are so strong, it's intoxicating. I know that they'll fade and the lessons that I learned alongside the characters will likely fade with them. But for this moment, I'll just enjoy it while it lasts.
How do you Hatrackers feel after finishing a good book? What was the last book that affected you strongly?
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Ishmael for me, now Freakonomics, this stuff is perspective altering. I like my world view being changed in a way i consider positive. i have strange values (directed at those that have read Ishmael).
Posts: 1156 | Registered: Jan 2004
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Ooooh. Two good books in two posts. Excellent.
If you want to see those characters again, Amanecer, try Butler's Mind of My Mind. Very good. But I reccommend all of her books.
airmanfour, the authors of Freakonomics are going to be making apperances on various news shows in the future. And there's talk of another book... Meanwhile, consider reading The Undercover Economist.
I haven't had time to finish (or start!) a good book lately... but I love the feeling of completing an excellent novel.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
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When I finish a good book I feel the same way after I finish a good TV show or a movie. I guess it's a little bit more of a "watered down" feeling with books, at least when compared to movies or shows, mainly because the mental image of the character protrayed in any particular book for me is so blurry. I have never read a book where I can just place a face on the main character, I've never had a clear picture of what they look like, and I guess that for me it's sort of limiting due to the fact that I don't feel like I can connect to a faceless character to the extent that I can connect to someone I can actually see.
The last book where I cared about characters like that would be The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I never really liked Susannah, but the rest of them, even Oy, made an impression on me.
Never to the extent I cared about any particular character in Buffy or Scrubs though.
*Is a Dr. Cox fan*
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I finished a book about Tori Amos that was just so fascinating and extradinary I was disapointed when it was over.
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Rico, I can relate. I have a stronger feeling with a really good movie or TV show, but I think that is because the Movie/TV show is often more intense. I get the whole story in a shorter time and have more of it in my mind when it is done. With books, the story is drawn out over several days or even weeks, if reading time is sparse, so when I finish it's mostly the last bit I've read that is in my mind.
On the other hand, in books I can get into the story more deeply than with movies/TV, and can get to know the characters better. So the book experience tends to stay with me longer (sometime for years, and those are the books I re-read from time to time). But normally when I finish a good book, my feeling is a mixture of sadness, and a desire to talk with someone else who has read the book. The sadness is like the sadness when a visit with a good friend is over, and the desire to talk about it is probably borne of a desire not to have the experience of the book end. Also, talking about it reinforces the experience of the book and if you talk with the right person, it can help you experience the book through another's mind, further enriching the experience.
Wild Seed was GREAT! Beautifully written and so very true to the characters Butler creates.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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When I was a teenager, I read The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever for the first time. And the second and third time. And it made an incredible difference for me.
Somehow, the antinomy in the book really resonated with me, and the message of "it doesn't matter how hard it gets, even if it's utterly impossible, be true to what you know is right, and plod on, and even if you've done things that are wrong, don't let those force you to stay on the wrong track" just got to me.
When I was in my early 30s, I came across a copy of the book Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, which was essays by Ayn Rand and her crowd. It flipped me on my head probably to the same extent, and got me to read everything Rand had ever wrotten.
Pamela Dean's The Hidden Country trilogy was, to me, what Narnia could have been. It's far and away one of my favorite fantasy stories of all time. And David Palmer's Emergence was beyond amazing. I was completely bummed that the story had to end when the book did.
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I feel sad everytime I finish a Harry Potter book, like I don't want it to end. I felt that way with OSC's Enchantment too, wishing it could go on and on...
Posts: 697 | Registered: Nov 2005
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It'd be an amusing showdown though, I'd certainly pay to see it
/offtopic
KarlEd:
Yeah, what you said is also a big part of why books don't have as strong a reaction as movies or shows for me. I was reading last night and one of my favorite characters in the book was killed, (Currently reading The Stand by Stephen King) and really, I felt a bit of regret and sadness about it, but only because he wouldn't be able to continue contributing to the story. I guess what I'm saying that the character's death really had considerable less impact on me than the death of a character in say, a Joss Whedon show/movie.
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Hmm. I have the opposite effect, sometimes. I tend to get closer to the stories I read than to the ones I see on TV/Movies. I read A Separate Peace in highschool and the death near the end depressed me for weeks. Also, when I see something icky on screen, I'll shudder or close my eyes, but relatively quickly the image fades. However, if something equally icky is described well in a book, the image haunts me, sometimes for years.
[edit: to clarify since this might sound like I'm contradicting what I wrote above. My first post was specifically talking about feelings when a story is over, not how the story itself affects me generally. make sense?]
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I'd agree with you about the icky thing in a book, I totally know what you're talking about there and I agree, our minds have a lot of power in that sense and things like fear and disgust are so psychological in nature that giving them an image actually tames them considerably. Hence the whole aspect of being afraid of the dark, the unknown... Things are considerably scarier when you imagine what they might be/look like in your head because you automatically assume the worst and each person can customize things to mesh up with what they're afraid of.
I'm not sure why, but feelings like sadness and love are generally the sort of thing movies are best at reaching within me, whereas with books, it is often the things that actively use my imagination that affect me the most (such as stuff that could be considered icky).
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2005
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I did read that, and it too was excellent! I couldn't find a list of what the order of the series was, so I read them by publishing date. That doesn't put them in chronological order, so I keep having to adjust to where each book lies in the time line. But since each book stands on its own I guess it doesn't matter too much.
I've heard good things about both Ishmael and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant before, and now with these Hatrack recommendations I think I'm going to bump them up on my reading list.
quote: When I finish a good book I feel the same way after I finish a good TV show or a movie.
I think each medium excels at different things. I can't remember the last time that a book made me cry, but it seems like good tv shows do that on a regular basis. But like KarlEd said, I think books provide an additional layer of depth. After reading a good book I feel like I know the main character's soul in a way that isn't possible with television or movies. I think that while television and movies touch me, books are far better at making me really stop and understand things in a completely different way than what I'm used to.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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It seems so strange to hear of people *liking* finishing a good book. Books definitely resonate more than film with me.
KarlEd, you've hit it exactly for me. It's just like a visit with a friend that ends, and you come home and you want to tell everyone about it and talk about it with your friend so it doesn't fade, and sometimes you can see parts of it in a new way then, and it's almost like you're still reading. I think one reason I finish so few books that I start is because I get so attached if I like it, and really quite sad when I finish, so when I get near the end, it's like a war inside me because I want to know what happens but I don't want it to end.
The first time I finished LOTR, I was depressed for ages. Other books and series have done it to me as well, like The Once and Future King. Series obviously allow one to get more attached. (I'm really not looking forward to Harry Potter VII.) I re-read books a lot, but they still get me every time when I finish.
I find I like a little time to be quiet and alone right after finishing a book, to let it sink in and to let myself readjust to the real world. I read everywhere but I dislike finishing books in busy places so sometimes I'll leave almost-done books at home if I'm going out.
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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It'd be an amusing showdown though, I'd certainly pay to see it
/offtopic
Please. House would eat Coxy alive. He'd diagnose him, stare him down, and the next day, Cox would come in with a cane. He'd walk up to House and get in his face, leaning on the cane, and House'd use his cane to push Cox's cane aside, causing Perry to hit the floor face first.
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I agree, Astaril & KarlEd, I love the satisfied feeling of a good ending but I am almost always sad and a little lost when the book is over. I've read a number of those lately that I didn't want to end ... The Goose Girl and Harry Potter #6, for example. (I'm also torn between "can't wait for HP #7," and despondence that there's only one story left.)
quote:I'm not sure why, but feelings like sadness and love are generally the sort of thing movies are best at reaching within me, whereas with books, it is often the things that actively use my imagination that affect me the most (such as stuff that could be considered icky).
I guess I'm the opposite. The characters stay with me for ages. I'm more likely to be touched by a love story or a character's struggle in a book than in a movie, because I get to know them so well; and more likely to be freaked out by an icky scene in a movie than a book. (Like the spiders in HP #2 - I sort of glossed over that part of the book because I knew I didn't like spiders, so in the back of my head I was going, "It's just a book!" - but in the movie it's harder for me to get away from. And the music really adds to the creepiness of things.)
One that stayed with me for a LONG time was OSC's Lost Boys. I really felt like I knew those characters and I kept thinking about them for weeks. Not sure how positive that particular experience was, considering the ending.... Posts: 1522 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I like reading books more than I like TV or movies because I can control the pacing. A particularly poignant or meaningful scene in a movie is over when the director thinks it should be. But when I read, I can stop, think about it, imagine the scene playing out. I can re-read it as many times as I like. And if I get to a part of a book that is boring me -- I can skim it more quickly to get to the "good parts".
But when I finish a particularly good book, I usually feel a little sad that it's over. Many times, as I'm nearing the back cover, I deliberately slow down my reading, setting aside the book even, to prolong the experience.
When I finish any book, though, I have an uncomfortable gap when I am not actually in the midst of ANY book. Like a chain smoker, lighting the next cigarette off the butt of the last one, I feel the need to almost immediately (certainly by the next day) begin another book. If no books are around that I haven't yet read, I'll gladly re-read one that I've read before and liked. That way, I'm guaranteed a good read. If I'm in a book that I don't much care for, I'll read it extra quickly to get it over with.
In situations where there is absolutely nothing, I have been known to browse through the telephone book, the dictionary, or, as a last resort, instruction manuals for appliances.
Come to think of it, there seems to be a compulsive component to this pattern. Oh well.
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I tend to get more obsessed with TV shows than I do with books, but books resonate more strongly with me.
Like, I started watching Buffy this summer and became completely obsessed. Much to the dismay of anyone who had to be around me and wasn't obsessed. I talked about Buffy day in and day out, spent most of my summer watching it, and another good portion discussing it with friends and quoting it. But when my favorite character died, I didn't cry at all (of course, I was totally spoiled for it). It was more a feeling of sadness that there would be no more of that character goodness, but oh, look, the story's moving on and lots of people are dying deaths that they richly deserve.
However, I cry all the time reading books. The first time I remember crying over a story was over a book of L.M. Montgomery short stories and every single one would make me cry. Right now I'm rereading Sunshine by Robin McKinley and I know it's going to be horribly painful when I finish it, just like it has been the ten previous times I've read it. While when I watched the last episode of Firefly, I was sad, but then I went back and started watching the commentaries and everything was good again.
Just for the record, I think Buffy and Firefly are the best tv shows I've ever seen and that they're amazing storytelling. This isn't meant to imply any lack on Joss Whedon's part, it's just how I respond to things.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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One of the last really awesome books I read was One Hand Clapping by Anthony Burgess. It's about this working-class wife whose husband wins a lot of money on a game show and through gambling. And it's funny. And it has one of those rather twisted endings that I love.
Also, it says on the book that the film rights were acquired. If it becomes a movie, I will be so pleased.
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Wow, Rico, I really feel the opposite way. With a good book (or even a mediocre one, though then the feeling is less pleasant/rewarding) I feel like I have spent a week, a month, a year, in someone else's life.
I think Amanecer put it well for me. Or I think of that ST:TNG episode where Picard was zapped to this other world and lived out his full life there (so that he would be able to tell their story) and was then returned to his own life. (The one where he made a flute, and they--paradoxically--sent it back to him?)
Almost no TV show or movie will match that depth of experience for me. The main exception I can think of right now might be Firefly, but I don't get the "inside view" I get with a book, where I can get some of a character's thoughts as well.
I also like what Tante said about being able to control the pacing, though, unlike her, I actually get addictive the closer I get to the end of a book, and so I speed up.
(Also, movies, and TV shows to a greater extent, are so much smaller than books--for me they can't match the richness of the experience.)
To answer the original question, Orson Scott Card and Stephen King leave me with that peculiar combination of satisfaction and devastation more than any other authors.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Oh don't get me wrong, I enjoy reading some books better than watching any movie or show out there. I do agree that the universe is much richer and that the feelings tend to stay with me longer if a book is particularly good, but I find that the ratio of books that tend to spark this kind of reaction in me is much smaller when compared to the ratio of movies or TV shows that do it.
I'm very much into reading, I read every night before bed and pretty much whenever I have a moment to spare and I feel like relaxing for a while. I do recall another book that inspired quite an amount of feeling within me, the book was Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. There was just something that happens (or they do to, I guess) to one of the characters in the end that left me supremely ticked off. It seemed so... wrong.
I'm almost done with The Stand I think I'll finish it either tonight or tomorrow.
Posts: 459 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:When I finish any book, though, I have an uncomfortable gap when I am not actually in the midst of ANY book.
That's easily fixable, Tante. Just read 6 or 7 books at once. That way you have several different genres and moods to choose from as well, depending what you feel like reading at any given time.
Icarus, I get that sort of addicted feeling at the end of books as well, but for me it doesn't take the form of speeding up exactly, but of reading that book to the exclusivity of all others.
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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My son does this. Literally reading mulitple books at the same time. He's been doing it since he learned how to read. He will sit on the sofa with, like a half-dozen books open, reading all of them at once. With perfect comprehension. If he is going somewhere where it would be reasonable to take along a book to read, he packs a backpack full of books.
In fact, it is only in the past year or so that he has been able to focus on reading one book at a time.
I can't figure out how he does it. Perhaps it's an ADD thing?
Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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I don't usually have more than one open at a time, but I often have a book sitting in every room so there's one wherever I happen to be. I also have a particular fondness for books that fit in my coat pocket, which I read while I travel. (Which is a great time-saver, by the way).
I can't say I've heard of someone reading two plus books simultaneously. I don't think I'd like doing that, if only because page-turning would be so annoying.
Posts: 624 | Registered: Mar 2005
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Katherine Arnoldis's "The Amazing 'True' Story of a Teenage Single Mom".
Harrowing, and very well written/illustrated. Made me want to write a letter to the author complimenting her incredibly bravery and will. The poor woman was victimized by most of the people she should have been able to depend upon.
Card's book on science fiction writing introduced me to Octavia Butler. It was a pleasant discovery.
Good books for me are kind of like good meals: I appreciate them, want time to "digest" or discuss them, and look forward to the next one.
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