The Next Best Book Club discussion

The Brothers K and The River Why by David James Duncan and The Second Coming by Walker Percy. The emotional involvement I felt with the characters in each of these was...every word I can think of is completely inadequate to describe how I felt.

I would definitely say the Harry Potter series. I envy people who are able to now read them for the first time ever.

I'd also say the Dark Tower series, which is another amazing series that I would love to experience again for the first time.

The Book Thief and I Am The Messenger by Zusak.

Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

The Virgin Suicides.
Th Invention of Morel.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
And Then There Were None.
Watchmen
etc.

definitely The Master and Margarita

That is such a good question. I have often felt that way after reading a book.
It is hard for me to choose, maybe The Historian by Elisabeth Kostova, or The Time Travelers Wife.
Blood and Gold by Anne Rice
Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough

Pride and Prejudice would be up there.

The Harry Potter series. I remember I couldn't wait for the day the books would finally come out on bookstores.

Probably the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman and Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

I would pick The Book Thief and Anne of Green Gables.

That is a hard one. But books I really miss are

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Matilda
To Kill a Mockingbird
Outlander
Harry Potter
Adventures of Kavilar and Clay
Madame Bovary

All these books gave me a shiver up the spine on the first page I knew I was getting something special.

'Interview With The Vampire' by Anne Rice
'The Witching Hour' by Anne Rice
'Gone Away Lake' by Elizabeth Enright

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund

Definitely Harry Potter. Although there is something fabulous about the experience of re-reading them (I would know; I have done so many times), reading them for the first time was exhilarating. I would buy them at midnight when they were released and then go home and read all night and into the next day until I had devoured yet another one.

The anticipation was so great. And in the time in between book releases, I would speculate so much as to what would happen. It was one of the greatest, and nerdiest, experiences of my life.

The Count of Monte Cristo
The Odyssey
The House of Mirth
White Apples

Jessi, I know EXACTLY what you mean. I was the exact same way! :D

El, I have to agree with you on The Count of Monte Cristo too. Oh my gosh, I just loved that book with every fiber of my being. Edmond Dantes has his own special corner of my heart.

The Half Brother and Waiting for Godot - there should probably be more but can't think of them now - I have re-read both of them at least four to five times but there's nothing like reading it for the first time when everything is new and exciting.

Mine would be:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Actually the whole series)
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Hawaii A Novel by James A. Michener
Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark
The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

I would love to know how Jem and Scout grew up after "To Kill a Mockingbird". Oddly enough, I live in the same small to medium community as Mary Badham, who played Scout, so I know how she, the actress, turned out. I do not know her personally, but I have friends that do. However, I'd like to know more about the growth of the characters of Scout and Jem..

The Harry Potter series... they were amazing to read and to wait for the next one.

I miss the Vampire Chronicles too, all of them.

The Anne of Green Gables series.
Children's Classics (Dr. Seuss, Bernstein Bears, etc)
Oedipus, Antigone, Medea
The Last Herald Mage
The Mists of Avalon

Lord of the Rings.

Though I love re-reading the books too. I also wonder with the differences they made in the movies what it would have been like watching them without knowing the story first...

Oh, holy cow, this thread stirred up some memories! In high school I read Russka The Novel of Russia when it was new (91? 92?). Who knows why i picked it out at the bookstore? The red cover, or its heft? Or maybe I was pushing my parents to see how much they would spend on a new book for me? At the time, I had immersed myself in Isaac Asimov, so this was a far-afield genre.

I was a very, very bored and unchallenged student, so I think the immensity of the history and story really appealed to my underused brain. This really was one of those "right book at the right time." If I reread it today, chances are I'd not be as swept up in the story.

At any rate, this book, above all other influences, is what propelled me to become an exchange student a few years later. I immediately signed up for Russian classes at our local university, joined the foreign exchange club at school and eventually hosted 2 exchange students.

It's crazy what a book can spark!

'Half Magic' by Edward Eager

'Harriet the Spy' by Louise Fitzhugh

Actually I have to add another book i miss. Rules of Attraction by Brett Eastern Ellis. I was 20 when I first read it, the book was so mindless and at the same time raw, I loved it. It made me realise what words and a well placed comma or a metaphor could do.

I don't think I have read the same way since.

Jane Austen's Persuasion =) From all of her novels, this was the one that completely captivated my attention; I could not put it down until I found out what happened to Anne and Wentworth and Mr. Elliot xD

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind was another book where I just got lost into the story and atmosphere. It was an amazing feeling =)

The Stand -- Stephen King
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams

'Watchers' by Dean Koontz
'The Witching Hour' by Anne Rice
'Servant of the Bones' by Anne Rice

I felt like I was in mourning after I finished Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series. I couldn't even read anything for about a month after Lord of the Rings. I missed that world so much. With Harry Potter, I was one of those late-comers. I didn't read them at all until they were all out so I really did get to read them back to back and it was amazing.

The other book that was somewhat like those two examples for me was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when I was a kid. I think I first read that book when I was around 11 and it was the first book that really captured me heart and soul.

Beach Music by Pat Conroy
Gone With the Wind
Shell Seekers by Rosamund Pilcher
Pillars of the earth by Ken Follett
Just A few of my favorites.

Edgar Allan Poe's short stories. His was amongst the first storybooks I read in elementary school, such memorable spook for a little boy.

Mine would be the Goosebumps series from childhood and Enid Blyton The Naughtiest Girl in the School. I used to beg my mum to drive me to the book shop to spend my pocket money on them! As an adult, the Harry Potter series was amazing and I too used to queue at midnight for the latest release!

Shōgun has always been very special to me and I wish I could re-read without knowing what was coming next. Sadly, you only get that once.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is another I wish I could experience for the first time again. I wish I didn't know how it ended. My heart clenches as I type.

The Thorn Birds is another that breaks my heart every time, but I will never cry as deeply as I did that first time. But I still cry every time. (sap)

I would have to say the Harry Potter series because it was just so wonderful to read. And I've kept all my Agatha Christie books (Sherlock Holmes too) because they are the first mystery series I read and I truly developed my love of mysteries from reading them.

I'm reviving a dead thread! This is such a cool question.

After just finishing I want to erase and re-read , a similar, darker novel that impacted me so deeply when I first discovered it.

All of my favorites - Gone with the Wind, Exodus, The Source, The Drifters, Penmarric, The Great Garsby, Cashelmara, Ethan Frome and on and on and on. Too many to list.

These are the books for me that almost hurt to finish - had the feeling I'd never read something so good again. Luckily, the next great book is always around the corner!
Smilla's Sense of Snow - Love the structure of this story, told in three parts: The City, The Sea, and The Ice
Watership Down
The Color Purple
Love in the Time of Cholera
White Oleander
Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
East of Eden
The Catcher in the Rye
The Road

Tabitha wrote: "I'm reviving a dead thread! This is such a cool question.

After just finishing I want to erase and re-read , a similar, darker ..."

Yes! White Oleander has one of the most gripping first paragraphs I've ever read:

"The Santa Anas blew in hot from the desert, shriveling the last of the spring grass into whiskers of pale straw. Only the oleanders thrived, their delicate poisonous blooms, their dagger green leaves." - Janet Fitch

The first books that come to mind are Ender's Game and Artemis Fowl (the first book). I remember just imagining the worlds of both those books and just that feeling of being totally engrossed in a world.