You may not know what a book hangover is, but you’ve had one.
For readers, it’s a common-enough feeling: You can’t bring yourself to start a new book, because you’re still living in the one you just finished. The lens won’t shift. The filter won’t change. You’re stuck.
And there you have it, a hangover no hair of the dog will cure.
My first book hangover came at age 10, when L.M. Montgomery’s classic “Anne of Green Gables” wound its roots so thoroughly through me that I renamed every inch of my mother’s garden, just like Anne. Her world was my world.
I visited Anne again this past summer. She had the same power, slipping her hand into mine and switching my glasses to rose-colored.
But not all books are so kind — and neither are the subsequent hangovers. So I asked Chicagoans about the books that left them reeling the next morning.
Here’s what they said.
Eric Charles May
62, author of “Bedrock Faith” and writing professor at Columbia College Chicago
The book: “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison
The hangover: May can’t shake the last line (Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?). “It’s not that Ellison is giving a surprise ending, it’s that he says something that forces you to reconsider the whole book. That wowed me the first time I read it in high school and every time since. … Sometimes a work of art articulates a crucial question so profoundly that, as readers, we have no choice but to contemplate it after we put it down.”
The cure: For May, there is no cure; he doesn’t want to get over his hangover. “The books that stay with you — I never want to be free of them. I never want to be out of their clutches.”
Maggie Cusick
29, general collections services librarian at Newberry Library
The book: “The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern
The hangover: “There are these scenes of description of this magical circus that are just — when I think of it, I picture swirling color, swirling light. I’ve never read anything quite like that, that gave me a kind of visceral, visual experience.”
The cure: Cusick — like her favorite characters — is a time traveler. She picks up her bags and moves to another place, another century. “I don’t let myself go for more than a few days without finding something new to read.”
Ryan Maxwell
25, accounts payable clerk at Winston and Strawn
The book: “The Paris Wife” by Paula McLain
More Top Picks Best Slip On Shoes For Seniors With Arthritis
The hangover: “It transported you to Paris in the 1920s. You can envision walking down the rainy streets in Paris and getting drunk in a cafe with friends. … I think the thing that makes a book stick with you is they point out a certain truth about life that you weren’t really aware of before. Nothing makes you think as much as a book does.”
The cure: Maxwell said he seeks out similar books. “Have a list of books you want to get through. It helps to have recommendations from friends.”
Molly Kelly
35, teen services librarian at Chicago Public Library
The book: “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” by Becky Albertalli
The hangover: “The characters were super endearing and very authentic. You felt like you got to know them. You kind of want to know what happens to characters after the book. … I think it’s the world the author creates and how well the characters are developed, and really just connecting to a story and making the characters feel very real.”
The cure: “One of the main things I do is tell everyone I know to read it so I have someone to talk to about it. I tend to let it linger for a day or two, so I can kind of enjoy that feeling. Then I slide into a new book because there are other ones that give you that feeling.”
Portia Turner
22, book seller at The Book Cellar
The book: “Carry On” by Rainbow Rowell
The hangover: “It has some of the strongest character development I’ve felt in a long time. I loved every voice she created. I had a hard time putting the book down. … I love the feeling of a book hangover. I always feel I have a book hangover most on the book where I can see the future. It ended well because I know the characters are still doing something.”
The cure: “My cure is just to read something as different as possible.”
Elizabeth Greiwe is the Tribune’s Editorial Board coordinator.