I finished The Post-Birthday World the other night, and had that bereft feeling you get when you finish a good book. The characters were people I had gotten to know and now they're gone and I miss them. I really liked this book, and I will write about it, but I have to wait a little while for it to sink in. Also, my book group discussion of the book was postponed until next week, so I'm debating about waiting to post anything about it.
I immediately started Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, and am liking it, though it is a challenging read. I also mooched and received Lucky Girls: Stories
, a collection of short stories by Nell Freudenberger from BookMooch, so there's another book for the pile. This pile just keeps getting bigger and bigger...
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"The characters were people I had gotten to know and now they're gone and I miss them."
I love when that happens but it always make the next book more difficult for me because I can't help but compare it to the great one I just finished. :-)
"Bereft is an excellent word to describe it...I know that feeling well. It's always hard for me to start right in on another book after finishing one of those. It helps if the next book is "something completely different."
sam--I love it when that happens, too, but it's hard to move on. Not my strong suit in other areas, either :)
robin--you're right, it's hard to start right in on a new book, sometimes just because you need to savor the old--and this new book is so different it's like diving into a cold pool!
I know that bereft feeling. It is so delicious and happens so infrequently. Is that a photo of lavender from you garden?
stefanie--the bereft feeling happens so infrequently that I had to comment! Yes, that's lavender from my garden :)
I finished a book last night that I enjoyed quite a bit, The Kite Runner. It was a bit sad turning the last page. I spent more time reading this book than usual, read it over an entire month, and I wonder if that led to my enjoying the book more. I'm considering reading more books at the same time and spreading them out over a longer period of time.
Looking forward to your thoughts on Cloud Atlas!
matt--if you spend more time reading each book, you will be doing what Francine Prose recommends in Reading Like a Writer (a book I happen to be reading verrrry slowly)--she talks a lot about "close" reading. And I think she's right, we get so much more out of books when we read them slowly and closely. But I'm guilty of flying through some of what I read...
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