Tuesday, May 10, 2016

The Book Hangover

Out of curiosity, I checked my Goodreads 2015 shelf to see how many books I’d read by this time last year. I’m about five books behind 2015’s pace, and I’m not sure if I’m going to catch up because I’m currently nursing a massive book hangover thanks to Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven King.

There’s always something extra special about finales of beloved series, and The Raven King was no exception. In addition, the book itself was just phenomenal, a masterpiece of prose and character study and plotting. It’s been a while since a book so thoroughly demolished me and has led to the following:

  1. Hesitance to start a new book: Because I just can’t move on right now! I want to linger in the world of The Raven Cycle just a bit longer! Also, I may be in absolute a tad of denial that The Raven King is, in fact, the end of the journey for Blue and the Raven Boys.
  2. Rereading after rereading of favorite passages from the book: I am 100% guilty of this one, so much so that I should probably just reread the whole book.
  3. A review that’s not so much a review as a love letter to the book: My gushiest, rambling-est reviews have been of books that blew my mind into subatomic particles, like The Raven King, Clockwork Princess, Queen of Shadows, The Dark Days Club, and very recently, A Gathering of Shadows. These novels all rendered me incapable of logical thought, resulting in babbling, overwrought “reviews” that were essentially essays on why I adored these books so much.
  4. Inability to resume life as you knew it before reading the book: You should be cleaning the bathroom or folding laundry or something, but instead you’re mentally replaying your favorite moments from the book that has just irrevocably changed your life. Or maybe you can’t tear yourself away from the whole rereading favorite passages thing. All you know is, you cannot fathom how the rest of the world is going about business as usual while you’re still attempting to process what you’ve just read.

I may have exaggerated a little here and there (or have I . . . ?) to add a spot of fun to this post, but #1 to #3 have definitely happened to me. I hope to have started a new book by the time this post goes live on the blog because I really, really want to make my Goodreads goal this year, lol.

Has a book ever left you with a huge hangover after reading it? Which one(s)? What made the book(s) so unforgettable?

13 comments:

  1. It is hard to get over a book hangover. I haven't had a book I loved THAT much in a while, but when I do... sometimes I have to take a few days break before I start something else, or the disappointment makes it hard (especially if the next book starts slow- ugh).

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    1. Exactly! I usually have to take a little reading break after reading an epic book so that I don't have unrealistic expectations for my next read.

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  2. My last was Down With The Shine. It's not like TRK, but I was feeling so down that week and all I've been reading were dark crime mysteries, the book made me laugh so hard I wanted to read something that funny. Unfortunately I didn't have another one like it. So I binge watched season 2 of Penny Dreadful, seemed to have done the trick lol

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    1. Sorry to hear you've been feeling down, sis; hope your humorous book helped lift your spirits! I'll have to look into Down with the Shine!

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  3. LOL! A review that's really a love letter to the book. OK I'm about to read it since it sounds like it won't spoil things for me if you're just gushing at how great the book is :D I hope you find something good to help you move on from your book hangover!

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    1. I'm slowly getting there, lol, but every once in a while, it hits me all over again that the series is over! :'(

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  4. There has been a time or two when I listened to new favorite audiobook a 2nd & 3rd time all the way through before being able to move on. I think the last one was THE DRAGONS OF DORCASTLE by Jack Campbell. It was just so different from what I had been reading, and I love the relationship between Mari & Alain.

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    1. I'll have to check that one out- it sounds really interesting! I've never really given audiobooks a chance, but I think I definitely need to!

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  5. I love audiobooks, so I tend to recommend them to everyone. Some people, myself included, struggle with them at first though. I wrote a post about how I overcame that: http://gotmybook.booklikes.com/post/1350552/intro-pt3

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    1. Thanks for the link- great advice! I really like the idea of starting out with a simple book on audio to get used to the format, and then working up to longer books.

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    2. You're welcome. Hopefully you'll soon be joining the rest of us audiophiles

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  6. I'm one of the few people who almost never suffers from a book hangover - I tend to jump straight from one book into the next, even if I ADORED it! Sometimes I kind of wish I WOULD take more of a break to process, but I seem to just keep going!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

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    1. That's awesome that you're able to pick up another book right away! Whenever I get a book hangover, I have to pretty much force myself to move on to a new book, lol.

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