Chaos Reading discussion

A blog post from Elliot Bay Book Company about books that break your heart, including a list of books from young children's through adult. I got teary just looking at the list. A quote from the post:

"I don’t know about you, but I love and hate them all in the same breath. I worry over having my heart broken by a book (especially if the story involves animals), but even as I protest I find my hands wrapped around another heartache I want to absorb."

The Art of Breaking Hearts

Ooooh - great topic, Whitney! I definitely remember having my heart broken over Charlotte's Web as a child. I haven't read many of the others on the children's lists.

I'm incredibly sensitive about animal storylines. I can read (or watch) the most horrific scenes involving people, but I cannot stand so much as a frowny face on a cat. Literally. If I can see a cat's eyebrows, it will have ruined my day. Case in point:


I've never even read Watership Down but Bright Eyes (the Simon & Garfunkel song that used clips of the animated Watership Down film) used to make me cry as a kid.

A book that completely broke my heart as an adult was the graphic novel We3. It's about animals, in fact pet animals that have escaped from a government laboratory....sob. :(

The only non-animal-related one I can remember breaking my heart is Captain Corelli's Mandolin. While it's not my favourite Louis deBernieres book, it definitely made me cry.

Here's the booklink: Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds

Never read the book, but that's another one that used to make me cry. Beginning to realise just what a snivelling brat I must've been!

Oh dear gods. This:
Hyakumankai Ikita Neko (The Cat Who Lived A Million Times) by Yoko Sano
English Translation: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

Ruth Picardie's book absolutely broke my heart ...particularly the bit her husband wrote at the end when he talks about watching her sleeping in a chair. I feel upset just thinking about it.Before I Say Goodbye: Recollections and Observations from One Woman's Final Year

I have to say that The Giving Tree doesn't break my heart, it just pisses me off. That boy is terrible to that tree. And Love You Forever is just plain creepy. I'm sorry Mom, but breaking and entering isn't love, it's stalking...

I guess I wasn't a very sentimental kid :(

On the other hand, I'm getting much more sappy with age. I recently listened to Bridge to Terabithia (read by a fantastic Robert Sean Leonard) and cried not only during the book, but also during the author interview bonus material. And another book not on the list that made me cry recently is A Monster Calls. I literally had to stop reading at points because I was afraid I would short out my Kindle.

Yep, the animal books always get to me. But then, I get distraught when I see a lost animal poster.

This was one of my childhood favorites, I read it over and over and over. The people who gave it one or two stars on GR have no soul. The Cat Who Went to Heaven.

Watership Down was a weeper, I thought the movie was well done also, and the end always tears me up (in a good way). I didn't read The Plague Dogs, but that movie also does it to me.

Theo wrote: "I literally had to stop reading at points because I was afraid I would short out my Kindle..."

:-)

Theo wrote: "I have to say that The Giving Tree doesn't break my heart, it just pisses me off. That boy is terrible to that tree. And Love You Forever is just plain creepy. I'm sorry Mom, but breaking and enter..." On the other side of the fence,
The Giving Tree is a life long favorite. I can remember reading this to my daughter, while my Dad, who was ill at the time, listened. When I got to the and '..and the tree was happy', I heard a sniffle coming from my dad's corner. I was thirty five at the time and never more sure of my dad's love for his family. Sentimental? For sure.

As a child, Black Beauty. As an adult, Something Wicked This Way Comes. I was in my twenties when I read this and so sure that no one would survive their encounter with Mr. Dark that I actually cried when I was proven wrong.

Not quite a book: but The Paper Menagerie.

Yes, The Plague Dogs - but like Theo with The Giving Tree, it pissed me off more than breaking my heart. To think that not only could people do that to dogs in a book (and in MY Lake District!) but they can and do do that to dogs and other animals outside of books.

I'm so easily heartbroken, it's impossible to list them all.

Some of my favorite books! I love a good heartwrenching, depressing novel. Bridge to Terabithia made me cry so hard as a kid.

Also, Old Yeller. I distinctly remember listening to it on audiobook (cassette tapes!) during a family road trip and sobbing violently at the end. When we got to the next rest stop, I still had tears streaming down my face. The other people there probably thought my parents had been beating me or something.

I to hate books where animals suffer. I've given poor ratings here simply because of that (I call books like Old Yeller, The Yearling, and so on books of the Marquis de Sade school of child rearing). One book that broke my heart but I had to rate highly was Julius Winsome: A Novel. My review so you know what you're getting into:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

We Need to Talk About Kevin: best (and only, I think) novel as character study I have ever read. So good that you should never recommend it to anyone :-)

Leo wrote: "We Need to Talk About Kevin: best (and only, I think) novel as character study I have ever read. So good that you should never recommend it to anyone :-)"

Oh yes, definitely a heartbreaking book, and a very unique one as well. I read it last year and it really made an impact. My review is here, for anyone interested.

Derek wrote: "Not quite a book: but The Paper Menagerie.
..."

Oh gods, yes. I bawled my way through that one too.

BTW - Who knew there were so many buddhist-cat-gets-reincarnated books around? I seem to be attracting them right now..

Ruby wrote: "Derek wrote: "Not quite a book: but The Paper Menagerie.
..."

Oh gods, yes. I bawled my way through that one too. ..."

Wow. I'd thank you both for pointing this one out, but I'm a little devastated right now.

Whitney wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Derek wrote: "Not quite a book: but The Paper Menagerie.
..."

Oh gods, yes. I bawled my way through that one too. ..."

Wow. I'd thank you both for pointing this one out, but I'm a li..."

Yeah. "Devastating" is definitely the right adjective.

Adam wrote: "Flowers for Algernon probably got me for the wrong reason, but I was very young when I read it. I cried when the (view spoiler)[ rat died (hide spoiler)]."

Okay, that did it. Can people please use make sure they use the spoiler tags in our threads? Thank you!

Ruby wrote: "Adam wrote: "Flowers for Algernon probably got me for the wrong reason, but I was very young when I read it. I cried when the [spoilers removed]."

Okay, that did it. Can people please use make sur..."

I wouldn't have thought to spoiler that one either, Adam. And I also cried when that happened.

Whitney wrote: "Ruby wrote: "Derek wrote: "Not quite a book: but The Paper Menagerie.
..."

Wow. I'd thank you both for pointing this one out, but I'm a li..."

NOT MY FAULT! Ruby pointed that one out to me. :)

And, I agree, I wouldn't have thought to mark that scene in Flowers for Algernon as a spoiler. Though it is, in a sense, an internal spoiler.

Another heart-breaking short cat story is 'The Price' from Neil Gaiman's Smoke and Mirrors. Neil also got me with his reading of his short story found here: The Man Who Forgot Ray Bradbury.

Whitney wrote: "I wouldn't have thought to spoiler that one either, Adam. And I also cried when that happened. ..."

I haven't read the book - I don't know how important or otherwise that scene is to the plot, but it's not on the dust jacket. All I know is that it's something I now know happens, ahead of time. Maybe that will matter when I read it, maybe not.

For the most part, I'd just try to leave details out or stick them in spoiler tags unless they're something that's included in the public synopsis. You don't know how it'll affect someone else's reading experience.

Hehe - all good, Adam. You weren't the only one of us to do it, just the most recent :)

Well...this discussion thread sort of makes that obvious. Any book or story mentioned here is now "revealed" to have broken someone's heart so there's little Adam could do. What could he have said, "I read a story about a cat that broke my heart but can't tell you the name because that would be a spoiler"?

Think of it this way...you don't know what happens and being in this discussion guarantees you're going to know certain stories and books may break your heart.

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Well...this discussion thread sort of makes that obvious. Any book or story mentioned here is now "revealed" to have broken someone's heart so there's little Adam could do. What could he have said,..."

A valid point. I agree that specifics should probably be spoiler tagged though. I'm not super sensitive to spoilers, but I know some people are.

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Well...this discussion thread sort of makes that obvious. Any book or story mentioned here is now "revealed" to have broken someone's heart so there's little Adam could do. What could he have said,..."

I don't believe the title of the book in question was "A Rat Dies In This". ;)

Ruby wrote: "I don't believe the title of the book in question was "A Rat Dies In This". ;) ..."

Yeah - because it was a mouse!

I agree that it's a minor spoiler, my comment was only meant to convey sympathy for Adam's gaffe in that I wouldn't have thought about it that way initially either.

And, yes, I suppose if you say a book is heartbreaking, you are giving something away. To the same extent you are giving something away if you say a book is a story of revenge, or a story of a boy becoming a magician. Anyone upset by that level of reveal has to have spoiler-skin one micron thick, and they probably shouldn't be on Goodreads in the first place.

Whitney wrote: " ...Yeah - because it was a mouse! "

Yaaay! So I didn't see a spoiler! Oh wait...... :(


Uh oh. Looks like somebody else just got their heart broken by We3!
http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/...

Ruby,

Innocent mistake but I agree with your spoiler aversion. If it was worth making someone cry then the book was obviously building to that point and you lose that part of the journey with it (so to speak).

It happens though, my sister is the worst spoiler ever, especially if she really likes something. She even spoilers herself and reads the ends of books before she's finished!

Leo wrote: "Ruby,

Innocent mistake but I agree with your spoiler aversion. If it was worth making someone cry then the book was obviously building to that point and you lose that part of the journey with it (..."

LOL - self-spoiling!

The book I just finished made me cry, Me Before You. Tagged a Chick Lit with an airy romantic cover, this book from 2012 is much more than it seems and in the end is an examination of what life means, depending on the life one lives.

Of Mice and Men, I only read it a few months ago, totally gutted me.

Ahh...one of my "pet book hates". I had a high school teacher who REALLY liked Of Mice and Men and could never get my dislike.

lol sucked in!

Graham wrote: "Of Mice and Men, I only read it a few months ago, totally gutted me."

I didn't love that book in high school either, but I totally am with you on the "gutted" bit though. There are some really heart-breaking bits.

Oh yes, Of Mice and Men is so heart-wrenching.

the most recent heartbreak for me left me using up a half box of kleenex at 3 in the morning. Keep in mind, I'm a 6'4" manly guy.

it was The book Thief: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19...

I recommend this to everyone. A more human book you'll not find.

Yeah, I'm a fully macho "manly man". Hunt, camp and so on but Julius Winsome: A Novel did it for me.

Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Yeah, I'm a fully macho "manly man". Hunt, camp and so on but Julius Winsome: A Novel did it for me."

Wow. That's the first time I've seen a Listopia List on the book's GR page give out a major spoiler for the book. How annoying.

The main one for me is A Snowflake in My Hand, which I've read many times. It's about terminally ill cats at the Animal Medical Center in NYC. Every time I read it the tears stream down my face. A wonderful book, but very heartbreaking.

Norweigan Wood by Haruki Murakami made me sad for days. Still my favourite book of ever though.

Where the Red Fern Grows and Remembrance are the only two books so far that have succeeded in making me care enough about the characters to cry.

Hmmm. It took Margaret relighting this thread after two years+ for me to notice I'd lost track...

Leo wrote: "She even spoilers herself and reads the ends of books before she's finished! "

My wife used to do that. I'm not sure that she still doesn't, but she's learned not to let on to me!


John wrote: "the most recent heartbreak for me left me using up a half box of kleenex at 3 in the morning. Keep in mind, I'm a 6'4" manly guy.

it was The book Thief: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19..."

Really? I've never considered myself a "manly guy". the Book Thief did nothing for me. I believe I called it "precious". (I would have read it shortly after your comment here).

For me it was The Road. Sobbed from start to end.

I distinctly remember crying over Captain Corelli's Mandolin. And it wasn't his best book by any stretch. But that one scene......

I found Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper heartbreaking. The protagonist is a cat named Prudence and the story is told from the perspective of the cat.

Olivia wrote: "I found Love Saves the Day by Gwen Cooper heartbreaking. The protagonist is a cat named Prudence and the story is told from the perspective of the cat."

Oh god. I wish you hadn't told me that! I can't even stand to see a cat with a frown. :(