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/shoeslayer Jun 29 '14

I did that every single summer when they came out (only it took me more than 30 hours because I read it in English, which isn't my native language, because I was too impatient to wait for the translated book).

Nowdays every time I pick up a Harry Potter book I get the weirdest feeling. I feel like I'm back in my teenage years, sitting on my bed in the summer and feeling this crazy sense of joy. I can't even describe it, it's like physical sense of nostalgia.

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u/kbiering Jun 29 '14

Have you read them in your native language and English? Are there any differences because words don't translate? Were your feelings the same after reading both versions?

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u/shoeslayer Jun 29 '14

I read the first two only in Hebrew (my native language), and starting from the third I started reading them in English. After they were stranslated I also read them in Hebrew.

Once my English improved I enjoyed the English versions more, because I feel like the original is always better. The translations were always very hurried because of the high demand of the readers, so I felt like they were good but a little sloppy. Also, English is a much more flexible language than Hebrew.

I did have some problems at the beginning, though: I was 12 and my English was okay, but not great, so I had problems understanding which words were made-up by Rowling and which words were just words in English that I wasn't familiar with. Anyway, the language didn't influence my feelings. Today I just enjoy reading a book in the language that I originally read it for the first time, because that first time wonder is connected in my mind to the language in which I read it.