A couple of days ago, my friend posted a status on Facebook:

“You can’t just go from a sad book to a happy book.”
“Sure you can, you just start reading.”
“No! There’s a grieving period, you don’t understand!”

The exchange was between herself and her husband. My friend is an avid reader. Truly, she puts me to shame. Her husband isn’t really book-y, so it’s understandable that he doesn’t quite grasp the severity of her dilemma. She experiences this conflict often and refers to it, as many do, as a ‘book hangover’. She speaks often of needing a period of emotional recovery between books if an ending is particularly brutal, whether the ending be happy or sad.

The same is true for me, but I experience it far less often. Sometimes it even gets me in trouble, or I’m at least a little less trusted by certain friends. I…