Do you avoid books you know are going to be sad?
I have watched movies that I’ve known beforehand will be sad or depressing but I find movies don’t affect me as much as books.
With a movie you are watching the characters experience the story in front of you, and while you may sympathise with them for those few viewing hours (and sometimes a little more if it got you thinking), the experience is rarely a lasting one.
A book however uses your imagination to draw you into the story. It taps into your emotions and relies on your own visual projections of the characters. Books take longer to read and so you are often entering that world alongside your daily interactions of work, friends, family, hobbies. It’s as if you are living the story.
I find sad books much more emotionally draining on me and have avoided some that I have thought sounded interesting but didn’t want to put myself through the turmoil. I’m obviously missing out by doing this - both as a reader and a writer.
I know there’s nothing like a heart-wrenching scene in the middle of the story to keep the audience reading. I know some of the best stories can be about the human element triumphing in some of the worst situations. I just wonder sometimes how these books can be marketed on the hardest part of reading. It seems to be quite a popular spin these days.
