I read Louisa May Alcott’s “Little women, good wives” a few years ago and after I was done, I felt like grappling a telephone and screaming- “couldn’t Laurie have ended up with anyone but Jo’s sister, I mean come on!”. Thank God I don’t have her number and I can save my little dignity towards other things like em, “forgiving her”.
I digress, now to the quote above, how do we know we’ve read an amazing book. It differs for all us; for me- it’s feeling a certain level of calmness after reading the last line, sighing and wishing I had written the book; that’s when I know the writer’s got me.
The first half of Khaled Housseini’s “a thousand splendid suns” got me feeling like- it’d be a great honor to write like him, heck, I actually wanted to meet him. Upon getting to the second part (and please forgive me if you are his fan), I got tired of reading it cause I felt the storyline was dragging on. And then I read “To kill a mockingbird” and J.D. salinger’s words accurately describe my feelings.
What I want to say is this, how about we aim towards exuding a similar feeling from our readers. As much we try to say, we write for ourselves, it would still be a great honor at the end of the day to have someone say “darn, I love your book” or “I wish I could write like you”. We all could do with some motivation.
Here is to writing books which make readers wish they were our friends 😉
P.S which book have you read that evoked the above quote?
In response to writers Quote Wednesday Hosted by Silver Threading.
What an amazing quote!! I always say I have a book hangover! I get so emotionally vested in the characters and the plot I have a hard time pulling away. Thanks so much for sharing such a perfect quote! ❤
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Thank you Colleen. I know! Me too, it’s like it’s all real. There’s nothing like the feeling of reading an amazing book. 🙂
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The Laurie thing was freaking tragic, it made me incredibly sad as a kid and I still thinks it’s a travesty.
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Haha, me too! I mean of all the people, why did it have to be Jo’s sister. Took me a long time to get over it.
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I am terrible at getting emotionally involved with characters and plots. Great quote. The last book I read where I got so involved was ‘The Guilty One’ by Lisa Balayntine. Could not put the darn book down! Lol
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Hahaha, that makes two of us. Don’t know if you’ve read Ted Dekker’s “Three”, it got captivated all through.
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Persuasion by Jane Austen has/had that effect on me, if the author was alive I would write her a letter. Now let us talk about this Laurie and Jo situation, I was so disAppointment. I sulked through the entire plot twist.
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I know right?! It hurt me, I would have preferred Laurie being a lonely bachelor than marrying her… Hahaha, I guess I’m note over it yet 😀
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Sigh, they both seem happy in their other relationship with Jo with the boarding house and Laurie with his gentleman stuff, I had hopes for the two. There is nothing we could do about now but lament :(.
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Love this quote! I’ve felt that same longing to talk to the writer of a great book I’ve read. My head is always filled with so many questions! It’s especially frustrating when I am reading a book by an author that is no longer alive, when I know there will never be an any answers to my nagging questions 😦
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I know right?! Knowing the author’s passed means many unanswered questions.
And Thank you! 😊
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We all search for that amazing book that speaks to us like no other, and this quote just sums up our response to that when it happens, thanks for sharing. 🙂
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Yes we do, it is an amazing feeling to finally find it and read it. 🙂
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I had never seen this quote before, so I am very grateful to you, Ameena, for showing it to us this week.
It switched on a bright light in my head. This is exactly how I have felt whilst reading several books. I really wish I could have spoken with the author, or better still, with their fictional characters. I am sure that we have all felt that strong empathy with characters in book, so strong that we would like to sit down with them and have a chat.
I have been privileged to be able to actually speak to several authors whom I have admired.
The best was Conn Iggulden after I reviewed “Blackwater” on BBC Radio Oxford. I went on to read most of his more famous books.
I had some correspondence with William Horwood about “Skallagrigg”, one of my all time favourite books. You should check out my review of that one.
From the writer’s side of the house, and I am a relatively newly published author, I always love to have people approach me and talk about my stories and characters. Some have said that they became so close to one of my characters that they would have given anything to spend some time with her. Such comments made me very happy.
However, it went too far when a reader told me that some characters in “Eleven Miles” became so real to him that he looked them up on Google and was disappointed not to find them! You have to laugh.
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Reblogged this on Lance Greenfield and commented:
There must be times in your reading life when you have longed to chat with the author or one of the characters in the book that you are reading. I know that I have been in that position many times. This is a wonderful quote.
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When you come to think about it, I guess Amy and Laurie were a perfect fit for each other hahaha :p Amy always loved Laurie, and they were happy together. And professor Bhaer was exactly the person Jo needed, someone to help her and with the same taste of books. I love Little Women and I guess I’d like to write Louisa May Alcott myself, but if I don’t get to choose only one writer, I’d also love to write a letter to Agatha Christie. I wouldn’t mind having a cup of tea with both of them, to be completely honest! hahaha
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Nooooooo, hahaha. I love Jo and the professor, i thought thet were perfect but Laurie and Amy, i still cant wrap my head around. I cried for two weeks whenever the book came to mind 😀
Oh yeah, I’ve actually only read a few of Agatha christie’s book. Spent most of my reading days on Enid Blyton 🙂
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Oh dear, Louisa May Alcott really got you! haha
I also love Enid Blyton. I’m pretty sure her books were the first ones I’ve ever read! I grew up reading the Famous Five! Oh happy days! 🙂
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