This weekend was cold with a wintry mix of snow, rain, sleet, which means it was the perfect weather for staying inside curled up with a blanket and book. So that’s just what I did!
I read A Woman is No Man over the course of the weekend. Last night, I finished the book while drinking a glass of wine and this morning, I have a hangover.
A book hangover.
Does this ever happen to you? I feel like it happens to me a lot. Sometimes, I have a book hangover because I was so invested in the world the author created that I felt like I was living in it and I have a hard time accepting that it isn’t real (I’m talking to you, Harry Potter). Sometimes, I have a book hangover because I love the characters so much and I’m deeply affected by how their story turned out, whether because I’m so happy for them or so deeply heartbroken that their story could’ve been different. I often have book hangovers when there is one thing that could’ve been changed in a story that would have made the ending totally different (if only she had known the truth! If only he had delivered the package! If only the stranger would have shown up one day later! etc, etc, etc). Other times, the story was so thought-provoking that I’m analyzing/processing/digesting for days afterwards. Books like It Ends with Us, One True Loves, Before We Were Yours, and basically anything by Kate Morton – these books have given me some of the longest book hangovers. Some of them still haunt me.
I’m not sure this book is in that same league, but it is one that I’m going to have to process for a while. I’m not even sure where to begin. It made me grateful. It made me frustrated. It made me both hopeful and deeply sad. It made me think about many things. I’m going to wait until my February book review blog post to give my full thoughts on it, but I had to share these initial impressions in today’s blog post. For one thing, the fact that I spent my time reading this weekend meant I didn’t have time to write my planned blog post for today (ha!). For another, this book is on my mind and I’m not sure I could’ve focused on writing anything else right now. I went to bed thinking about it, I woke up thinking about it. I looked at my large TBR stack of books on my nightstand and thought “nope, not ready to look at any of you right now!”
Maybe tomorrow I’ll be able to pick up another book, but for today, I’m going to stay hungover.
Have you read any books that made you feel this way? What were they?
simplify the chaos 