Hi, I posted this on suggest a movie as well, so I’m reposting it here because books also have the same effect on me. I’ve been struggling recently. Not even necessarily in a concerning way (if that makes sense), but in a way where I don’t know what im doing in this life anymore? I do the same thing every day and feel the same thing every day. I keep thinking, “Is this it? Is this all that I should expect?” What’s a book that made you feel alive again? As corny as that sounds lol
Edit: This all came on after listening to Jacob and the Stone (from Minari lol). It doesn’t have to be a crying book, but I am okay with that long as the book doesn’t make me feel empty at the end haha
by norwegianjohncena
10 Comments
Starry Messenger
Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
By Neil deGrasse Tyson
Csardas, a book that follows a Jewish family from WWI until after WWII. I cried. I never actually got to finish the book, only got to read about a third of it. And don’t really intend on finishing it, I want to remember those characters as they were when I stopped reading because I know what’s coming.
I read it in a time period where I was not doing so well due to health issues; and also feeling emotionally numb. That book made me so angry, sad, and frustrated. But it was nice remembering how all those emotions felt and I had a good cry after.
The Kite Runner, also very sad and bittersweet.
Idk why when I’m feeling numb sad books are my go too, maybe it’s because it’s easier to feel sadness, dwell on it a bit and it’s like all the other emotions rush out after.
Project Hail Mary. It’s just a fun sci fi romp. But it’s very sweet and emotional and it left me feeling joyful and refreshed for days. Still feel warm thinking back on it…
I recently read Demon Copperhead – while it wasn’t particularly emotional I ended up thinking about it and making sure I spend more time on my priorities in life for at least a few weeks after I finished. It has won all sorts of awards which I’m a bit surprised by, but it is good.
[Read This Book on a Silent Hill: Meditations, that they won’t tell you](https://www.amazon.com/Read-This-Book-Silent-Hill-ebook/dp/B0BFR3XXK8)
Don Quixote. It is several sweeping adventures inside an even bigger sweeping adventure. I literally cried when I finished the book for no other reason than it was over.
I recommend the memoir Fox and I by Catherine Raven and A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. They’re both very poignant but they aren’t especially heavy. Fox and I is about the relationship a reclusive biologist forms with a stray fox. A Psalm for the Wild-Built has a lot of really incredible moments of human intimacy. If you want something that will make you cry and/or make your heart feel heavy, The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah or Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. If you want something that has something to say in an unemotional way and is mostly lighthearted and fun, Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher. If you want something horrifying that will make you say wtf from star to finish, Lone Women by Victor LaValle.
There’s two approaches I’d consider here, I think. One is to find solace that you’re not alone in this feeling. *The Stranger* by Albert Camus, sometimes called *The Outsider* is a novel that is about that feeling. *At the Existentialist Cafe* by Sarah Bakewell might also hit the mark. It’s possible you might also relate to Ernest Hemingway, who tends to have low-affect prose and emotionally constrained characters and somehow makes it beautiful. *The Sun Also Rises* would be the obvious choice there.
The other approach is to read books by authors who fight back against the nothing. *On the Road* by Jack Kerouac is about finding the magic and meaning in life, while *Walden* by Henry David Thoreau is a memoir by a man who “wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms”. *Siddhartha* by Herman Hesse is another option in the same direction.
Linda Hogan and Robin Wall Kimmerer
This is pretty much exactly what Becky Chambers’ Monk & Robot duology is about, actually. The first one is A Psalm for the Wild-Built. Just really warm, hopeful little books.