Saturday, July 10, 2010

Why do Good Books Have to End?

Have you ever read a book that was so good you would purposefully set it aside just so you wouldn’t finish it too fast?

Have you ever read a book and wondered how the author knew your innermost thoughts?

The first has happened to me quite a few times, but the latter is more rare. “Eat, Pray, Love”1 by Elizabeth Gilbert hit on both levels for me and finishing it this past week left me feeling bittersweet.

I lived vicariously through her writing as she went on a yearlong journey around the world to discover who she was…and I learned a lot about myself right along with her. I felt many parallels to the worries and concerns and self-doubt that she was plagued with and was comforted to know that I wasn’t alone.

So as I neared the end of the book, I wished with all my heart that there would be another hundred pages left to read the next time I picked it up. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and so the book ended before I was truly ready to disentangle myself from the journey.

Fortunately, due to my lack of retention, I know I'll have many occasions in the future to re-read it again for the 'first time'...and I'm sure I won't want it to end then either.


1 “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert. Viking Adult, First Edition – February 16, 2006. 352 pages.

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