Mourning Books

Have you ever mourned a book? Not because you didn’t like it, but because you loved it? I know I have. Do you know what I mean? When you like a book, you finish it with a sense of ‘wow, that was good.’ But when you love a book, you don’t want it to end. That goes for writing and reading. If you loved writing a book so much, it’s possible that you just end up writing continuously so that you don’t finish it, and that changes the whole story, when it should have ended 20,000 words ago. When you’re reading, you can’t keep it going, unless you only read a little bit a day; but that’s not possible for me, because when I find a book I love, I cannot put it down.

So your favourite book has come to an end, and you mourn it, because it has ended and you can never read that book with fresh eyes ever again. You can leave it for months or years before reading it again, because there will always be things you’ve forgotten, but what about for the writer? I know Agatha Christie loved writing some of her books. Crooked House was one of her favourites because of the fun mixture of characters, she was sad when she finished writing it, but she did finish and now we all get to enjoy it.

I talk about mourning books like it’s something that everyone does, but for all I know, I could be alone in this phenomenon. Maybe everyone else loves it when a fantastic book comes to an end and they see it with a head full of wonder, as opposed to my mind full of dread that I’ll never read something that good again. Maybe I’m just being pessimistic, or maybe some call it realistic. One person even called it romantic, to mourn a good book because you loved it so much and now its ended. What do you think?

Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x