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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u/yetijoe Jun 29 '14

Yes. That's when you read it again. I find if books are good enough I'll read them a couple of times (not in a row of course). The really depressing thing, is being in a library and trying to find something that is comparable, and finding that you can't. They're there - just far & few in between.

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u/Chrishwk Jun 29 '14

That's the essence of the problem. Books abound, but truly great books are rare. When I finish a really great book, it makes me even more irritable than usual as far as what I find worth reading. When I finish a great new book by one of my favorite authors, I find almost everything I pick up next severely lacking.

Unless it's part of a series, then I'm just frustrated I can't read the next one immediately. I really prefer to read series all at once, but with my favorite authors I don't have the self control to wait until they are done with a series, not to mention, it's hard to know in advance how many books in a series there will be.

So when I'm feeling irritable and nothing new is really grabbing my attention, I reread favorites. I've been collecting books for almost 40 years now, and I've got an enormous library, so when I can't find anything new to read, I browse the shelves until I find a favorite I haven't read in a while.

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u/Omnipotent0 Jun 29 '14

Yep. Thats what I did more recently with The Martian by Andy Weir. So good.

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '14

Hate to do this but. *few and far between.

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u/mobyhead1 Jun 29 '14

Or you pick up the next book on your reading list. Something the folks who were depressed after the movie Avatar was over were unprepared to do.