What’s the saddest book you’ve read recently?The book as a whole wasn’t sad, but there was one chapter in Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List which really got to me. Just hit a bit too close to home. A character, Robin (male) is describing his friendship with Robin (female) who wants to be more than friends. It is male Robin’s only chapter in the entire book, and it is written in a frantic stream-of-consciousness style. Here is where we get a bit personal. A few months ago I lost my yeah kind of a douchebag but still my best friend due to similar misunderstandings and this chapter just managed to really hit that nerve. Perhaps not universally sad, but definitely sad at the time that I read it.
“[...] I just want to do shit like talk to her and drink with her and sit and do homework with her, because when we do shit like that, it’s not nearly as boring as it is when I do it alone, because every now and then she’ll grunt or laugh and I’ll say, What? and she’ll come up with the most random shit, which totally makes me think she’s the greatest, only I don’t want to sleep with her. And Gerald, he was saying, Dude, you know there’s a word for that kind of relationship, and I was like, Please tell me what it is because this is killing me, and Gerald was smiling and taking a big drag before he said to me, Friendship, man–that shit’s called friendship.”
And just to make this post a little lighter, here’s a song I manage to get stuck in my head whenever anyone mentions crying, tears or hot boys from New Zealand – “Hurt Feelings” by Flight of the Conchords. They never fail to cheer me up when I’m down:
Booking Through Thursday, Flight of the Conchords, Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List, September 2009
Aw, I’ve definitely been there. Not death0sad but close to it!
It is definitely the mark of a good book when you are stirred by the 1st chapter.
Here’s mine:
http://thebookresort.blogspot.com/2009/09/booking-through-thursday.html
Some books just get to you, I guess.
Interesting that a particular scene in a book can haunt you and evoke these emotions in you. I have one of David Levithan’s books on the TBR pile and will be reading it that bit sooner now.
Oh, I think books are saddest when they affect you personally. Sometimes they just seem to be in tune with your life.
The one I chose was sort of a stream of consiousness too (sort of!), and I find books that get into people’s heads to be quite affecting.
There are definitely times in our life when a particular book speaks to you and those moments are almost magical…even though the event around it is sad.
This sounds really good and that is a sad in it’s own way scene, but really good.
It is pretty amazing that a complete stranger can speak to your heart on a personal level. (love the video)
What a douchbag!
haha you found me!
(Oh, and I know! I was just feeling overly nostalgic AND stupid when I wrote that.)