Do you ever finish a book on a total high?
Sadly this happens to me all the time. It’s like going to bed with a one-night-stand. At midnight he’s everything you’ve ever wanted and more. At 3 am you’re sated and replete, and ready to declare undying love and devotion to his bedroom skills (if nothing else). Then 10 am rolls around and his bathroom is a mess and his morning breath isn’t attractive at all and you’re ready to head for the hills.
Reading for me can be like that. At 3a.m. I close the book on a big happy sigh. I’ve got warm, fuzzy feelings and all I can think is “I loved that book!”. I wake up the next morning in love and happy and convinced the book was the best thing that ever happened to me.
A few days go by, or maybe a week, and suddenly the shine has worn off. All I can think about are the flaws. That supercute thing the hero did at the end wasn’t really enough to redeem him after all. The heroine’s propensity to blame the hero for everything that seemed totally justified in the moment is now immature and stupid.
I know this happens to readers with old favorites. A book read at 16 maybe isn’t so great at 36. While that happens to me quite often (and is one of the reasons I refuse to re-read certain books for fear of ruining my happy feelings for them), I’m not talking about seeing an old favorite from a new perspective. I’m talking about those books that only seemed wonderful on the surface; introspection kills them completely.
I often write reviews for books as soon as I finish them. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve gone back and read a glowing review only to be embarrassed for my shiny, happy, book loving self. “I said I loved x, y, z? Was I on glue?”
Who else suffers from the reading high?
What a fun question! I’m certain I’ve felt like this in the past, but I can’t think of specific titles right now. What’s interesting, too, is that sometimes I have the opposite experience. I finish a book feeling ho hum about it, and then I decide to re-read it and it grows on me.
This has happened to me many times, I can’t for the life of me remember specific books or even authors right now but I’ll be back when I do remember.
Like Kareni, I’ve had the opposite happen to me too…especially when I’m writing a review.
That has happened to me, but less frequently. My problem is I tend to over think things after the fact. In real life and in my reading.
I definitely get the reading high. Like you, I review (mostly) books as soon as I finish them. I find if I wait a couple of days, that the love has worn off and I start thinking to myself “why did you ever think this book deserved a 5?”. That happened to Azagoth by Larissa Ione. I thought I was in love with it. When I went to review it and started typing, it was like they were typing by themselves.
No, I pretty much just form my opinion & stick with it. I am glad I don’t have to analyse for anyone! Probably being a blogger would kill me for reading!
Oh no. I am now on a reading high. I just finished a book and can’t stop smiling. *sigh*