Does reading bring out strong emotions in you?

[MatthewAlexander]

Yes. And it's not just sadness when something bad happens. I get really into books. I have characters I love, and characters I hate. Some characters annoy me so much. They could be doing something wonderful and I'd be like, "no ew go away". Books and characters make me angry and annoyed and sad and happy and giggly and...oh it's bad.

[sangeetha_nk]

Yes. Especially if the character is similar to me or an incident in the book that is vaguely similar to something that has happened to me.

[casper]

Yes. The books that stay with me are the ones that make me feel the most. And not always good emotions - some of the most memorable are the most shocking and have changed the way I think about things.

[scriptbunny]

It's very rare for me to feel very strong emotions while reading, not to say that it hasn't happened. I definitely need to be in a certain mood where I am more open to feeling generally. Certainly I'd say I'm not most emotional while reading, rather I find music to be a medium more suited for that sort of thing.

[Sarah1]

I was reading Ted Dekkers "Circle" series (a very involved story of good and evil), and I had read late into the night. In the middle of the night my telephone rang, which is not at all uncommon since I work for a funeral home. Luckily, my wife answered the phone and began speaking with the person on the other end of the line as she tried to rouse me from sleep. I am an especially hard sleeper sometimes. I woke up, but was convinced that I was in this parallel universe that Dekker wrote about in his books. It was a full two minutes before I finally came to myself, realized where I was and what was going on, and was able to coherently talk to the hospice nurse on the phone. All I could say was thank goodness for my wife's intervention!

Ha ha! Michael, thank you for sharing this delightful story! It really made me smile! I have never had an identical experience, but I know of two similar ones. One, my hubby and I were in Asia at the time, and we went to see The Matrix: Reloaded. If you've ever seen it, you know it's a very complex, kind of disorienting movie, and the characters move through this labyrinthine building whose doors open into other worlds. Well, when we came out of the movie, it was late at night, and there we were in this deserted mall in Asia that was constructed of several similar-looking towers. We felt like we were truly back in The Matrix, and it took us a while to find the way out.

Even more interestingly, a friend of mine was once sitting and reflecting on whether there might be a primal language that everyone started out speaking. As she was thinking deeply about this, her brother came up and spoke to her (in English). She did not understand him, and said, "What?", but he did not understand her. She was speaking something else. She had to realize what was going on, and kind of "switch" herself back to English.

I think that is really interesting. I wonder what was going on in your friends head at the time!?!

[JC117]

The sign of a good author is one that makes you feel part of the story, where you connect with the people and the story or people illicit stirring emotions from you. Those are the books I prefer.

I feel the same way. I was going to say that the best books do evoke the strongest emotions from us. There is nothing better than a book that makes you cry, bite your nails, or laugh out loud.

[Lovely_Ink]

I've been known to cry over a good book. If the story is really intense then my excitement tends to rise in anticipation of the outcome.

[emilyxwebster1]

I'm usually like a robot when it comes to emotions - I don't have any. But I become this laughing, crying, guffawing mess when I read. I don't know why.

[kasi33]

Books definitely bring out strong emotions in me. I am a big fan of the human condition, and I connect on many levels with other people. I love to analyze and read people, it keeps me interested. As with anything, when you deeply invest yourself into a topic, you are fully immersed and exposed, allowing harm to come to whichever part of yourself is out there. In this case, my emotions are open to any benign or malevolent force that shall come thru the reading. It is a sacrifice that you take when you open a book. You are on the journey with the character, whether you want it or not!

[Alexandra Bayer]

Of course! If the book is good, I feel all kinds of emotions while reading it.

[Alexsandra]

I have had many a good book bring about strong emotions in me and I say that's a really good book.It has also made me feel sad at the end because you have this feeling of wanting to know more about the people in the book and how they all turn out.

[Headbanginghunny]

Yes books bring out lots of emotions in me. I have gotten angry, cried, happy, anxious, and excited for characters in a good book. Jodi Picoult's books have made me cry for a long time. I feel good when I can connect with the characters and can relate to how real and multidimensional they are. Complex characters are the most human characters of all because we all aren't robots and only experience one emotion or one solution to a problem. We think and we have conflicting emotions and thoughts and aren't clear cut. Authors that can bring out the complexity and flaws of humans is a good way to feel connected and understood and therefore provoke more intense emotions.

[nikki_p]

Oh absolutely. Usually that's how I determine if it was a good book or not. If I didn't feel anything, whether it was happiness, longing, sorrow, anger, what have you, then it probably wasn't a good book!

[SidnayC]

Yes it most certainly does. When a character or story inspires me I just feel like bursting with joy in my tiny little room. But when a character or story annoys me... I get so annoyed and get this tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach like I want to destroy something

[emmadbaker1]

I always become strongly attached to the characters in a book but I've only cried a handful of times. That's just me though...as a kid I cried about everything up until I was 14 but now I can't even cry if I want to unless my emotions are on high. I trained myself to not cry in front of people because I hated getting so emotional and it sort of stuck, I guess. But when I'm alone in a room, like when I was finishing the 7th book of the Grey Wolves Series, I sob... More often, I will laugh out loud when I'm reading a funny part in a book and be stoic the rest of the time...