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Chatterbox: Blab About Books
Books that made you cry
For me, that's...
For me, that's barely anything really, because I don't generally cry at books or movies. It just doesn't happen to me for some reason, even if I want to. So instead, I have a list of books that made me almost-cry, or were just really, really, depressing.
Inkspell
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
All Summer In a Day by Ray Bradbury (My teacher read this to us in eighth grade. You have to read it, it's so good- but SO DEPRESSING. I live in Washington State, in a part where we get even more rain than Seattle. So I think I empathized with the character a little too much.)
Sisters Grimm- The Everafter War (I think. Though it may have been the one before that.)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (I actually did cry at this one. My dad read it to us when I was six.)
and Warriors the New Prophecy, that one where they're on the mountain I forget the name.
I'll remember some more as we go on I'm sure.
So: What books have made you cry? Or almost-cry? No spoilers. Don't directly say who died or anything like that. You can say stuff like the chapter title though. Have you ever cried at something in a book that most people wouldn't consider very sad? You can do spoilers for that one.
The Book Thief and A Vicarage Family are the two most recent ones that come to mind.
Admin
submitted by Emily L., age 16, WA
(May 18, 2012 - 8:53 pm)
(May 18, 2012 - 8:53 pm)
I didn't cry in either of those books. I'm doing a play of Charlotte's Web, and whenever we come to the part where Wilbur leaves the fair, (that isn't the sad part, but their's another sad part at the same time.) everybody starts cracking up except for the director and two other girls. We don't know why it's funny, but it's really awful because Lily, who laughs the hardest, and I are the only ones on stage and we have to say the lines that set off all the laughing. And Lily's Charlotte, so we really have a big problem.
(May 28, 2012 - 8:53 am)
I cried in that one! That is one of my favorite books.
(May 28, 2012 - 2:13 pm)
I read Where the Red Fern Grows for a book club. I'm not sure if I cried, but it was sad.
(July 30, 2012 - 11:48 am)
Okay: I definitely just remembered another one.
The Nightengale and the Rose, from the Fairy Tales of Oscar Wilde. Possibly the most depressing fairy tale of all time, even more so than the original Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Anderson. Also the only truly cynical Fairy Tale I've ever encountered.
(May 25, 2012 - 4:51 pm)
I cry a lot when I read, now that I think about it. SPOILERS ALERT. I cried while reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, when Sirius died. I cried when reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, when Dobby died. I cried when I read Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. And when I was seven, I cried when I read Charlotte's Web, and I also cried when I watched the movie. I only remember that because I cried when I was in the theater and it was really embarrassing. I probably cried (or almost cried) at a lot of other books, but I don't remember any more right now.
I really cried in Charlotte's Web, too.
Admin
(May 27, 2012 - 2:49 pm)
@Sally and Admin:
I do not cry in Charlotte's Web. I laugh. I just recently started, since I'm doing the play. SPOILER ALERT. My director said that when she first read it, she was sneaking under the covers and when she finished it, she goes into her living room crying and her parents ask her what's wrong and she says "Charlotte died." And they had a neighbor named Charlotte! That is a funny story.
That's the part where I cried.
Admin
(May 29, 2012 - 5:23 pm)
The only other series that I cried about is the.. Err... The Girls of Lighthouse Lane.
Every single one of them... XD.(there are four)
Disclaimer: I do not usually read badly written slush, but I read these books I fourth grade and remembered them since then.
(June 6, 2012 - 8:52 am)
I rarely cry about books, but I cried when I read The Enchantress by Michael Scott. I met him the other day and got my book signed. It was sooo cool!!!
Why is Spammy all squigly now?
(June 6, 2012 - 3:04 pm)
A book that's rally depressing is The Lost Children. Could someone please remind me why I read it? I almost cried like twice, but not for the main charcter. It is a sad book, but it's also good.
but
.
(June 7, 2012 - 7:19 pm)
I cry a lot in real life (I can even cry on command), but I don't cry for movies, or books, or songs. Does this mean I'm not a very empathetic person? I always thought I was really empathetic as I could understand each character really well (unless the book was written really bad or I greatly hated the character in question), but I never really cry for them. I sometimes cry later while imagening myself into the story (which I do quite a lot, I'm home alone all day and hopelessly bored), but never while I'm reading.
(July 25, 2012 - 1:53 pm)
Psychologists recognize a difference between cognitive empathy and affective empathy. Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand how people think; affective empathy is feeling sympathy and so on, being happy when someone else is happy and sad when they're sad. A person can have quite a lot of one kind of empathy and very little of another. For instance, sociopaths can generally understand people just as well as anyone but do not sympathize with them, while people with autism and Asperger's syndrome have difficulty understanding other people but are generally no less sympathetic than anyone else would be when they can recognize an emotion in someone else. For book characters, you seem to be experiencing a lot of cognitive empathy but less affective empathy.
However, this does not necessarily mean that you don't have much affective empathy in general. Many people just sympathize much more with people they know, or people who actually exist. Also, delayed sympathy is still sympathy. You don't have to cry at the moment you learn about something to cry about it; some people don't work that way, which is perfectly fine. And imagining yourself in someone's place is a common way that people empathize, although the effectiveness of this strategy depends heavily on how much you have in common with that person, and whether you would do and feel the same things in his/her place.
(July 29, 2012 - 11:39 am)
When I was little, I never cried while reading books or movies or anything. Then, I read Where the Red Fern Grows, and one year later The Yearling in maybe 5th or 6th grade. I feel like those books just opened the emotions up, so now I cry in books much more often. Along with those two books, I have cried in The Book Thief (and almost massacred my pillow in the process), The Fault in Our Stars, Cyrano de Bergerac, and more, but I just can't seem to remember the rest. Oh! Robin Hood as well. Anyway, I may think of more later, but that's all for now. I think sometimes it's easier to cry and be pulled apart in movies because sentimental music is always played at exactly the right time to pull at one's heartstrings. I also have a tendency to cry when other people cry in the book (so when Little John started crying in Robin Hood, there was no hope for me). Thanks for the great thread, Emily!
I frequently cry at movies and while reading. Crying is a good way to release emotions, and people usually feel better after a good cry.
Admin
(July 29, 2012 - 8:16 am)
I just finished the Fault in our Stars while on the road home from Maine, and I spent 15 minutes in the car just crying and telling my siblings //spoiler alert// that Augustus died. Not that they knew who Augustus was.
(July 29, 2012 - 2:47 pm)
I read the Fault in our Stars all this morning, in Maine. I had accidently read your spoiler, so I was prepared. But I still smashed my face into my mattress at the end of the book. If I ever met Augustus Waters, he would probably be my best friend. And everybody's best friend. He was awesome.
(August 23, 2012 - 4:52 pm)
Mockingjay almost made me cry, and even though Lord of the Flies didn't make me cry, i think it deserves to be mentioned because it's so creepy and disturbing in some places.
(August 2, 2012 - 4:42 am)