finishing a book.

[eleanor2]

do you feel a bit of a loss when you finish a book.do you like it when you know there is a follow up book on the way out soon.after you have finshed a book how long is it till you are ready to read another book....... i read a book on holiday by mary jane staples.i read it cus it was about the somme.i really enjoyed it.never thinking it had any follow up books.i was quite familiar with the people in the book.then i did the forgotten garden book review.which was completely different.then i found at a car boot the other week.a follow up book to the somme story.just started it last night.it was really good getting back with familiar characters.

[souter girl]

I know I can feel quite lost as if I have lost a group of friends! I often read the same book again and it's like being with those friends allover again.I do like to when an author writes a sequel and I love familt sagas. Do you remember The Forsyte Saga? I read it long before it was on TV and it was a thoroughly good read! Another book that I particularly was the life of Bess of Hardwick - it took a long time to read and when I had finished it and she had died I truly felt bereft!!

[baab95]

I agree with you both about the sense of loss following the completion of a book you have loved. It's quite a contradiction - I'm generally so eager to devour a book, rushing toward the end, and then I'm disappointed when the journey is over. I almost always have to have another book at the ready to fill the 'void' left by the one I've most recently finished. I do love a good book! SG - I haven't read the Forsyte Saga but did enjoy the series immensely - I'll have to seek it out!!

[eleanor2]

i have heard of the forsyte saga but dont really know what it is about.would appreciate if one of you could tell me a bit about it.i have read a few maeve binchy books and wished she had done a follow up so i could know what happened to her characters.

[Crocus]

I do feel at a loss when it was an especially good and interesting book. Like SG, it's like friends who you won't see again. I'm busy reading a book "The Mysteries Of Glass" - quite interesting. Can't remember the author now! xx

[dragonfly]

Eleanor the Forsythe Saga is about a rich family at the turn of the last century. It starts with parents and their grown up children then their children so covers quite a few years. I have not read the book but I really enjoyed the series on TV recently. I enjoyed the sets and costumes as well as the story. You will love it.

[jazzactivist]

I agree with you, eleanor, that there is a sense of loss when finishing a book. If I am really enjoying a book I start to read it really slowly, as I don't want it to end. Sometimes you do feel as if you know the characters personally and don't want to say goodbye to them. I struggle with choosing my next book. It takes a lot of thought - do I want to read something similar or completely different? By th same author,or not? An older one that I have had on standby, or a latest one that I have just bought? Am I in the mood for a long epic, or short experimental fiction? Etc, etc. It can take me all day to decide! I am currently reading The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, which is set in WW2and follows the lives and loves of 4 characters - 3 women and a man.

[buecherwurm]

i have heard of the forsyte saga but dont really know what it is about.would appreciate if one of you could tell me a bit about it.i have read a few maeve binchy books and wished she had done a follow up so i could know what happened to her characters.

Just finished a Maeve Binchy book which was published last year. I bought it at Dublin Airport on Thursday and wasn't really sure whether or not to invest the 10 euros as I wasn't too keen on Whitethorn Woods. But this one was really nice as you meet a lot of people from other books again e.g. Scarlet Feather, Evening Class, Nights of Rain and Stars and even Whitethorn Woods. So if you want to know what happened to some "old friends" you just have to read "Heart and Soul". I really enjoyed it and didn't want to put it aside.

[souter girl]

I enjoyed The Night Watch too Ee. I sometimes get a bit uncomfortable about the lesbian aspect of her books (having had a sheltered upbringing!) but she writes well and her characters are really well- drawn

[jazzactivist]

I don't mind about it, souter, as I think that it opens up a dimension to the narrative that makes it richer. We don't often think about gay relationships within different eras, but of course they were going on and there was a whole hidden 'scene' related to it that most of us never know about. The lesbian relationship isn't usually the central aspect to the storyline in Sarah Waters' books anyway, but just the relationship within the story, as a heterosexual one would be, and she writes so well that you become totally gripped by the story so it doesn't matter what gender the lovers are.

[souter girl]

I know - it's not disapproval or prudery I feel. I have a very good friend whose daughter and her (female) partner have a baby girl and I feel no awkwardness with them, and many of "arty" daughter's friends are gay. I think it was because I was reading one of her books while accompanying a school trip on an overnight coach and I felt awkward about the possibility of any of our kids seeing what I was reading over my shoulder!!
It's a reflection of my sheltered upbringing I think and I do try to be broadminded about sexuality, philosophy, religion and politics (as long as it's not the BNP!)

[eleanor2]

you know i havnt noticed her lesbien characters.are we talking about maeve binchys books.there are a few i havnt read.i have just bought whitethorn woods .looking forward to starting it.beuch that heart and soul book sounds great.will be looking forward to it.i have always liked maeves books cus she studies different personalities so well.you know its nights of rain and stars i wish she would do a follow up to.i thought that book was brilliant.i think i did a review on it .just looked.yes i did.

[souter girl]

No- Sarah Waters!!I can't quite imagine "Mauve Bunchy" as my daughter called her when she was little doing lesbian characters!

[eleanor2]

aha i thought you meant maeve s.g.thought i hadnt noticed these characters.

[eleanor2]

isnt it funny when you are reading a good book you look forward to going to bed a bit earlier to read the next chapter;

[dragonfly]

Yes Eleanor. I love curling up in bed with a hot water bottle and a good book. I am struggling through 'The Secret Garden' at present.

[eleanor2]

you sure got some struggling d.f. you can add to book review when you have finished.

[jazzactivist]

I had a good laugh at the idea of Maeve Binchy doing lesbians, eleanor!!! I too have felt a bit uncomfortable when reading Sarah Waters on the train, SG, as the edition that I have of Fingersmith describes it loudly on the back cover as "bringing the baudiness of lesbian London to life". I found myself peeping over the top of the book to see if anyone was peeping at me. If they were, I was planning to lick my lips suggestively... It didn't happen, though. I have just bought a real find in a charity shop today. It is a limited edition of collected women's short stories from the 1890s and 1990s in the form of a fin de siecle Yellow Book, and only cost me £2. I'll start it tonight. Does anyone else like short stories?

[eleanor2]

i dont normally like short stories.i have just put down a maeve binchy short story book after the third story.i just cant take to them.but jazz your book sounds such a good buy.would love to hear how good the book is when you'v read it.

[dinger]

I have never been able to get into her books either but know many people love them.

[Cloudwatcher]

When I have a new book I have been especially waiting for, I almost put off reading it, yet long to get started! It's like I just know I will enjoy it, and can't wait to do that, yet it's the knowledge that once I've read it, that sense of anticipation will be gone. Does that make ANY sense at all? I re-read books too, have a thousand almost as I have been collecting a while now, and at least half of them will be read twice. Others, non-fiction, dipped into for inspiration or whatever, many times over. I often finish one book and then go for something different. For example, last week I read BEACHCOMBING by Maggie Dana, which has a 'mature' heroine shall we say, the type of book I am attracted to, with no time for chick lit at all. (www.maggiedana.com is the website for her I think.) That has been followed by PAY IT FORWARD by Catherine Ryan Hyde, about Trevor, a thirteen year old boy (the book set in America) who for a school assignment comes up with a scheme which will change the world, which is the title of the book. I'm not saying anything more about it, except that it is a great story, rather unusually told. My next book will be either one by Dorothy Whipple (a Persephone classic for those who have heard of this small publishing house which reproduces female fiction mainly, from the 1900s.) or REBECCA, another classic. Or I may read the first of the CAZALET series by Elizabeth Jane Howard... I recently bought the set with the idea of reading it over the winter, interspersed with other books, such as Jo Brands' autobiography LOOK BACK IN HUNGER, which I also just finished.

[Crocus]

Hi Cloudwatcher, I'm always quite sad if I finish a book I enjoyed, especially when it's a library book. I have a little notebook I jot down titles of books and authors......can't remember them all!

Thanks for the interesting link as well. x

[Gentian]

I didn't get the chance to finish my book. I was half-way through and when I tried to renew it some one had reserved it. I nearly kept it and paid the fine when I had finished.

[jazzactivist]

I am still ploughing my way through Sarah Waters' The Night Watch. I loved her other books set in Vistorian Britain, and this one is just as well written with regard to the detail, but the story isn't as pacey as usual. Maybe it is the setting which is just after WW2 and I often find books set in that era not very exciting, as all the characters seem repressed somehow. I'm sure that people weren't all like that! I'll keep going as I keep hoping that there will be a sudden change in the story and the pace will pick up. Do you keep going with books that you aren't enjoying?

[eleanor2]

i keep going cus i think once you'v started you may as well finish.except the short story books that is.i actually like barbera erskine books.wierd as they are she is a good historical writer.cloud watcher you sure have some books..........

[dragonfly]

I have a stack of books ready to be read so if one turns out to be boring I don't bother to finish it, I move on to a better one. That very rarely happens though.

[jazzactivist]

We have thousands of books in our house too, cloudwatcher. Two rooms are completely lined floor to ceiling with shelves of books, and we still have to buy more shelving for the boxes of unopened books from our move. You would think that having all those books would make it easier to choose one to read, but it doesn't! When I was unpacking them I kept coming across ones that I intend to read next, but now that they're on the shelves I can't find them...

[eleanor2]

i have started taking some books to the charity shop after i have read them.there are books i kno i will read again and save.there are books i thoroughly enjy but know i wont read them again.so off they go....to make room for more of course.

[Cloudwatcher]

As for trying to read a book I am not getting on with... well, I will give a book two tries, usually persist for several pages each time, but if it hasn't grabbed me, then it goes to a friend or charity shop. There are so many books, too little time, why waste time reading something you're not getting on with?

[eleanor2]

i think i am very choosy about what book i pick up in the first place.... the only two books i have started to read and got a bit bored with.were for book reviews on here.then i am one who likes to persevere with a challenge.i was glad in the end i finished both books.cus the overall picture was better than the sometimes slow chapters.

[dragonfly]

I have just finished The Hidden Garden and I am sorry it ended but stayed up late last night to find out what happened to the heroine in the end.

I think it is amazing what words can do. While reading a novel (which is just words on a page) it evokes all kinds of emotions. My heart beats faster at exciting or frightening goings on; I laugh out loud at happy times and cry real tears at sad events. I learn a lot about all sorts of things like life, people and historical events from education books and this enriches my life. Even for us to be friends on RM we need words. Life would be so much poorer without being able to read and write.

[eleanor2]

just read this d.f. very true words.......nothing like a good read.to open your mind to all sorts of emotions.i can sit laughing or crying at books.i have been reading a book i bought yesterday about the staffordshire hoard.absolutely fascinating reading.i am of to the library to get a book on Anglo saxon times.

[Crocus]

Imagine what it must be like if you're either blind or deaf - it must be awful.

I know what you mean DF. I think that is the art of writing, to get your readers to live the characters.

The book I'm reading at the moment and me cant establish a 'friendship'! I just can't get "into" this book - (can't even remember the name know) but it involves a possible murder. It's as if the author is not totally sure about her characters - I don't know quite how to explain it. I wondered whether this feeling is from my side or whether the book was purposely written like this. The characters all seem vague and not 'real'.... just 'real' enough to want to know more, but not enough get 'into' the read.

[cindy]

I've just finished The Glass of Time by Michael Cox. It was an excellent read and now I feel a bit empty and am looking for another good one

[eleanor2]

my book is getting very sad.i didnt realise how violent the french revolution was against the aristocracy.i do hope eugenie is found safe and well.....i am nearly at the end.it has been a very good read.but i dont really like so much graphic detail of whole families being hacked to death by a wild boorish mob.