Monday 10 November 2014

I Do Not Cry At Books (or, why last month was an exception to that rule).

This post would be titled October Reads but since we're already one third of the way through November (how? It was only just summer) we'll just say "books I've been reading recently" and have done with it.

Anyway, now onto the topic of crying at books. Do you? I don't. I cry at films (a lot) but books? Never. The Book Thief: I didn't shed a tear. Any Harry Potter: I was dry-eyed as ever. The Fault in Our Stars, A Game of Thrones: nothing. Maybe I'm just a heartless witch, I don't know. You guys know how much I obsess over books, and I do feel it deeply when those nasty authors do their terrible things (George RR Martin, I'm looking at you), but for some reason, I don't cry. Until mid-October, there was only one book in the world I'd properly cried at:

I don't know why I cried so much. I loved this book ... I guess I just related to the main character a lot. Have you read this? I haven't met anyone else who has ...
But that is off-topic. The point is, I don't cry at books. And then ...


Dear People Who've Not Read Skulduggery Pleasant,
Yeah, you can read this letter/review, but you won't really know what's going on. I suggest (and by suggest, I mean command) that you get out the house right now and down to the library/bookshop/someone's house from whom you can steal and read this series now. Do you know what you are doing by not reading this series? You're denying yourself joy. Just go. You don't even have to comment. I won't be offended. Go now. 

Dear Derek Landy,
Are you an angel or a demon? I love you. I HATE you. I especially enjoyed the fandom references. 

Dear Skulduggery,
I've been reading these books for quite some time, and it really crept up on me how I feel about you. I didn't realise until this last book. I love you. There, I've said it. I have many favourite fictional characters, but you, my friend, are up there at the top. 

Dear Valkyrie,
You have the best best friend in the world, do you know that? You're also pretty awesome yourself. Hang onto the people you love, Valkyrie.

Dear Ghastly,
I love you. That is all.

Dear Tanith,
Tanith, there's not much I can say to you that's not spoilers, but I'll send you a personal letter.

Dear Fletcher,
Fletch, we've had our differences. You can be pretty annoying and I don't love your hair. But you are great. Really.

Dear Gracious and Donegan,
You guys rock. I would totally buy your books!

Dear Dexter, Saracen and Anton,
You guys rock also. 

Dear Person Whose Name I Can't Reveal Because That Would Definitely Be A Spoiler,
I hated you, once. But we came a long way.

Dear Desmond,
Oh, you make me laugh.

Dear Vaurien,
Vaurien, the way of a Killer Supreme is not the way. You will learn, my favourite zombie.

Dear Clarabelle and Thrasher,
I would be your friend, I promise.

Dear Gordon,
We all know you are secretly Derek. Don't stop writing!

Dear Ending,
I seriously need someone to talk about this with. 

Dear Feels, 
I'm sorry for everything I've put you through. Such is the life of a bookworm.

Dear Tear Ducts,
You wept for The Dying of the Light. Know that Emily does not cry at books. This is a momentous occasion. 

...

...

...

...

Now I'm going to do a couple of mini-reviews as if my life, loves and feels are not totally at the mercy of some fictional characters.


A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

London, Paris. The French Revolution. Secrets, lies and family ties; a world bathed in blood and chaos. 

Before this, I had not read any Dickens, and I have to say I was feeling a bit dubious. Dickens is long, I thought. Dickens will be hard, I imagined. Will I even enjoy it?

Yes. Yes I did. A Tale of Two Cities was a stunning book: prose, plot, character, pace, it had it all. Classics can be scary, I know, but they are classics for a reason. This book gripped me and took me and shook me around; it broke my heart and didn't let me go until the last page had been turned and I was sitting, breathless, skin covered with goosebumps and the plot twists and characters and stunning writing still burning in my mind. Read it. You will not regret it. 

A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it! Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this. No more can I turn the leaves of this dear book that I loved, and vainly hope in time to read it all. No more can I look into the depths of this unfathomable water, wherein, as momentary lights glanced into it, I have had glimpses of buried treasure and other things submerged. It was appointed that the book should shut with a a spring, for ever and for ever, when I had read but a page. It was appointed that the water should be locked in an eternal frost, when the light was playing on its surface, and I stood in ignorance on the shore. My friend is dead, my neighbour is dead, my love, the darling of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the secret that was always in that individuality, and which I shall carry in mine to my life's end. In any of the burial-places of this city through which I pass, is there a sleeper more inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, in their innermost personality, to me, or than I am to them?" 

My favourite passage. 

Anne of the Island by LM Montgomery

The third book in the Anne of Green Gables series. Do you know that I love this series? Well, now you do. I love this series. 

In this third installment, Anne is at college. Lots of very exciting things happen and I was made very happy indeed (necessary, after The Dying of the Light). I won't give spoilers, but here, in the midst of a month that I always feel sorry for because it gets quite cast aside by a consumerist society obsessing over the materialistic, let's-eat-processed-food-and-buy-each-other-things-we-don't-need-fest once known as Christmas, is an appropriate quotation:

It was November - the month of crimson sunsets, parting birds, deep, sad hymns of the sea, passionate wind-songs in the pines. 

So tell me: do you cry at books? What was the last book you cried at? Have you read The Dying of the Light? CAN WE PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE ENDING??? Also, if you would like to fangirl with me over A Tale of Two Cities or Anne of the Island .... please do!

Emily x

10 comments:

  1. I've never cried during a book with one exception. I don't know maybe I'm a book robot, who knows? I've also been dying to read A Tale of Two Cities, but I just can't get into it. I'm not the best at finishing classics. I've only read Little Women, which I loved. :)

    Carly @ Books and Etc

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    1. Ooh what book?? You put me in suspense!! I'm just the same, though.

      A Tale of Two Cities is amaaaazing. Just persevere! I also love Little Women. :)

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  2. I literally only cried in The House of Hades when Leo left Calypso... *tear* (Okay fine, I cried at The Fault in Our Stars movie, but it's a movie so it doesn't count.)

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    1. Not read that ... Percy Jackson, yes? (Nope, movies don't count! I didn't see it but I bet I would've cried ... )

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  3. OMG OMG, I just saw a play of "A Tale of Two Cities" and it was probably the BEST performance of anything I've ever seen in my life.... I was just amazed by the story, acting, and history behind it (oh, and not to mention the actors for Darnay and Carton were HOT as ever). Sooo, obviously I couldn't help but not reading the book after seeing such a touching performance of it. Hopefully I'll be able to start it tomorrow.

    The Year the Gypsies Came actually looks really interesting... Did you review it anywhere?
    Also, Anne of Green Gables is one of my favorite childhood stories! Have you seen the movies? They're great.
    - July, http://julyaemmance.blogspot.com/

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    1. Wow, that does sound good! You should 100% see the book. I love plays. I don't get to see many but they are great.

      It is fantastic .... I don't think I've reviewed it on this blog, I'll check though ... ~interval of time~ ~off to check my review archive~ OK I'm back, and no I didn't. It's historical ficition, a sister story, also about mothers and daughters. Wonderful.

      YES. ANNE. SO MUCH LOVE. I've seen the first couple, I think. They are pretty great!

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  4. I SKIPPED MOST OF THIS POST BECAUSE IN A HURRY I APOLOGISE BUT HEY I HAVE READ THAT TOO WHEN DID YOU READ IT?

    I think I read it too young tbh..In my defense it was in the kids section, IT HAD BEEN MIS-SHELEVED, I was 10.

    I'm glad I was a mature reader,

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    1. I READ IT WHEN I WAS ONLY ABOUT 12 I THINK. Mis-shelving happens. I read Sophie's World aged about 10. Not appropriate. Really not.

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  5. I'm not a huge book crier, and I distinctly remember the first time I balled my eyes out was when I read Pat of Silver Bush by Lucy Maud Montgomery. I don't even remember why; it was so long ago, haha. I might have to read that book you mentioned:)

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    1. LM Montgomery, man. Hits me right in the feels. I'd really like to read some of her other books, when I've finished the Anne series!

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Thanks for commenting! :)