Topic: Books that evoke verbal and physical reactions

[olmue]

LOL, I'm glad you liked it. I can think of a number of books that have evoked verbal and physical reactions (uh...throwing them across the room?), but they aren't ones I'm likely to post a nice review about. 

[tonka]

The book that elicited verbal reactions from me was Mr Darcy Takes a Wife (highly recommended...definitely NOT for kids!), which made me actually snort darjeeling tea out my nose in a coffee shop (more than once).  It's a bodice ripper for the intellectual set.  Absolutely brilliant.

[circe68]

I agree with Tonka! Really enjoyed that book. I rarely buy brand new books, but after reading the first chapter at the bookstore, I had to buy it. When I was finished, I donated it to my local small town library. The next one, Darcy and Elizabeth is pretty good too!

[Bracken]

Oh my gosh, "The Lovely Bones" made me sob like a little girl every time I picked it back up!  I also cried pretty hard towards the end of Deathly Hallows (the forest scene), which was really embarassing because I was on a summer study abroad program (we were driving on a coach back to Cambridge) and the professors were genuinely concerned about me.

[m.pritchett]

Oh my gosh, "The Lovely Bones" made me sob like a little girl every time I picked it back up!  I also cried pretty hard towards the end of Deathly Hallows (the forest scene), which was really embarassing because I was on a summer study abroad program (we were driving on a coach back to Cambridge) and the professors were genuinely concerned about me.

Ditto about Alice Sebold's novel!

But Oh my gosh! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I cried so, so, so, so, SO hard in about five thousand different spots. But the forest scene was definitely my worst, and that was the last two hours I was reading. And of course, I was in the car with my dad and my brothers. So I was sitting there, my hand next to my face, trying to pretend like I wasn't sobbing like a lunatic over a book. I seriously lost it when I read that part. I don't even know what it was. It was just so sad.

Glad to know I'm not the only person who sobbed during that!

[Julia]

...
But Oh my gosh! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! I cried so, so, so, so, SO hard in about five thousand different spots. ...
Glad to know I'm not the only person who sobbed during that!

I had to put the book down and walk away I was so distraught. Later I had to walk downtown to meet up with my daughter & her boyfriend - and I felt like I was in some alternative universe. Reality felt less real than the book had... I was definitely still under the influence!

[buglady5]

More HP material here: 

I cried like a baby over Hedwig.  (What was that, the first chapter?)  Anyway, I cried like an ugly baby over Dobby.  I did much better during the forest scene, but I felt like I was performing on a stage.  Butterflies in my tummy...wanted to throw up...

Oh, how I miss HP!

buglady

[Bracken]

More HP material here: 

I cried like a baby over Hedwig.  (What was that, the first chapter?)  Anyway, I cried like an ugly baby over Dobby.  I did much better during the forest scene, but I felt like I was performing on a stage.  Butterflies in my tummy...wanted to throw up...

Oh, how I miss HP!

buglady

I was more upset about Hedwig and Dobby than Fred because they were so unexpected!!  I just remember being REALLY angry when Hedwig died (I mean, I understood why it was necessary... but still) and heartbroken with Dobby! 

[m.pritchett]

And the Mugglenet book had a list of odds for the characters who they thought were going to die in HP7.

Yeah. Dobby was the least likely on the list with odds of 100/1 and "...practically guaranteed to make it through."

HA!

[Catherine M]

Deathly Hallows got to me, too. In fact, I've put off rereading it for that very reason. Two other adult books that evoked this same response were Gone With the Wind, which I read when I was eleven, bad me, and Outlander by Diana Gabaldon.

Catherine

[Pippa]

Olmue, what a great topic! 

I love books that make me laugh out loud coz it so rarely happens. "Cheaper by the Dozen" made me not only LOL, but brought tears to my eyes I laughed so hard.  Sophie Kinsella's "Shopaholic", the first one, did that to me in one part, and Louise Rennison's "Confessions of Georgia Nicholson" had me giggling many times.

Crying, on the other hand, happens more often. My first big bawl over a book was C.S. Lewis's "The Last Battle". I was a kid at the time and lurved Narnia so was heart broken. "Deathly Hallows" stands out as a sobbing-fest. When Harry went to the woods I was so traumatized I HAD to read the end of the book or I thought I was gonna fall apart in an agony of grief.

Since then I've hurled several books as far from me as I could in utter disgust ("Dr Illuminati" by Martin Booth was the last I really objected to) but my list is much longer of the books I just couldn't be bothered finishing.

Fortunately, there have been many, many wonderful, moving stories that have swelled my heart and made me soar. That list is so long I wouldn't know where to begin with it ... besides, most of the titles have fallen out of my head.   

[andracill]

I cry at the end of any book that I truly adore (because it's over) --but books where the circumstances grabbed me (or the MCs) definitely include HP -- I reread Deathly Hallows at the gym and actually sobbed while on the elliptical as I read about Dobby's death (silly me -- I'd forgotten it was coming).  Jeanne Ray's books make me laugh so hard I'll cry (and they always have touching moments too, where I'm blinking away tears).

When I was little, Ellen Conford's books would make me laugh till I cried.

[m.pritchett]

I cried reading 'Looking for Alaska' by John Greene

But I pretty much cry at anything...

[Bish]

I bawled and SO DID NOT WANT the Lord of Rings trilogy to end.

[eileenmf]

I cried alot during Deathly Hallows, too - Dobby and the Forest scene of course.  I was actually on a cruise out of Copenhagen last summer when it came out.  It had been released at midnight the night before our ship left port (so much fun going to the release party in Copenhagen with my kids) and on board, there were a bunch of adults carrying the book around deck, and we'd all keep asking, how far are you, and then run away before we let something slip.

It was an excursion-packed trip, so I read most of it late at night, sitting in the tiny cabin bathroom. 

What about scary books?  I remember reading Stephen King's IT when I was about 17.  I was babysitting, and it scared me so badly that I had to put it down, and I had to finish it during the daytime.  And I still think clowns are scary because of that book.

[Stephanie Ruble]

Oh my gosh, "The Lovely Bones" made me sob like a little girl every time I picked it back up! 

I read "The Lovely Bones" during jury duty and cried and tried to hide the fact that I was crying. I wish I had brought a different book.

BTW, I didn't get picked for a jury. I don't think the book had anything to do with it, but you never know.

[JustinDono]

I startled ny friend when I was reading "Half Blood Prince" for the first when I got to THAT part and went "NO WAY!" really loudly.
I swore rather colorfully and loudly when I read through "Eldest" for some of the truly wall-banging prose/characterization/plot decicions Paolini made.

[olmue]

Well, I didn't start the topic, but I don't know where the inciting post went to. However, it looks like I'm not the only one who misses HP.  And yes, the forest scene in DH--every time.

Although there are times, like the past few days, where I've really wished I could rant at the universe and throw things like Harry does to Dumbledore's office at the end of OOTP.

[SproutQ]

I cried when I first read Bridge to Terabithia in the 5th grade.  I remembered loving it, but didn't look at it again until 25 years later.  I read it in the public library and cried audibly again.

[Emily_YA]

Perhaps I should post this anonymously... but oh well, I'll be brave!
I cried during the first third of Stephenie Meyer's New Moon. (Prerequisite for tears: Must read Twilight first). My reaction probably had something to do with fears over my own relationship ending at the time I read it, but my whole body racked with sobs. I still won't read it again.

Oh, and of course Laurie Halse Anderson's Speak
And even Christopher Pike's The Midnight Club

[Lunchbox]

When I was seventeen I read "Jaws."  It totally grossed me out but I couldn't put it down.  I lived in Florida but stopped going in the water when I went to the beach.  After seeing the movie I couldn't even take a sit-down bath for three days!

"The Exorcist" (read it at sixteen) almost made me throw up and I had to sleep with the light on for a few nights.  Decided to pass on the movie.

As far as kids' books go, I had a blast reading these with my kids in recent years:

The Stinky Cheese Man
The Dog Who Had Kittens (It's about a basset hound--My daughter always loved the part where I howled with the dog)
Custard the Dragon (by Ogden Nash)
Oocha!

I laughed my head off at all of these, especially the illustrations.