All Books Aloud

What are book hangovers and what can you do about them?

• Elizabeth Brookbank & Martha Brookbank • Season 1 • Episode 10

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If you're a reader, you know the feeling: you turn the last page of a book and want to cry that it's over. You immediately feel bereft. You can't stop thinking (and even talking) about the characters, the story. You wish you could turn back time to when you were still reading or somehow enter the pages of the book and live in the world. No other book appeals to you, and you might even start and then abandon books trying to move on. You have a book hangover!

In this episode, we're talking all about book hangovers. What are they? What books have we gotten them from? What kinds of books tend to give us hangovers? Are book hangovers even a real phenomenon? If so, why do they happen? And, perhaps most importantly, what can we do to get over them? Join us to find out!
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Books we're reading in this episode:  

A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong
The Return of the King J.R.R. Tolkien
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
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Sources (links provided when available and citations shortened to fit) listed in the order they appear in the episode: 

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Intro and outro music: "The Chase," by Aves.

Do you have thoughts, questions, or ideas for future episodes? Email us at allbooksaloudpod@gmail.com. And if you want to learn more about the podcast, visit our website at allbooksaloudpod.com.

If you liked this episode, please consider leaving us a review to help us reach more listeners.

And if you'd like to see more bookish content from Martha & Elizabeth, follow us on Instagram and TikTok @allbooksaloudpod.

Read on!

[All Books Aloud intro and theme music]

Elizabeth: Hi Martha!

Martha: Hey Liz, how are you?

Elizabeth: I'm doing well. 

Martha: So what are you reading right now?

Elizabeth: I am reading a few different books. I am still reading A Rip Through Time. I think last time I said A Rip In Time, but it's actually called A Rip Through Time by Kelly Armstrong. It's very cross genre.

 It's the historical fiction that has time travel and [00:01:00] also has, a mystery thriller element to it. I also think that there might end up being, a love story element to it. It has a little bit of everything and I am really enjoying it.

And then, Alex and I finished reading The Two Towers and so now we're on to The Return of the King. Our last Lord of the Rings book, yes. , So I'm excited about that. 

I think that I said in the last episode how I've recently discovered that Spotify is starting to include audiobooks with your subscription. Which I was really excited about for some reason. I don't know why. I think it's because it's like a deal. I'm like, those are real savings! I'm already paying for Spotify and now I also get audiobooks.

 So it's this book that has been on my list for a while. But for whatever reason I just didn't get to it. It wasn't high up there. It's called The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels. And it looks like it's gonna be a series because in parentheses it says Dangerous Damsels number one. by India Houlton, [00:02:00] and I absolutely am loving it.

It is so fun. Oh my god, it's delightful. I can't believe that it's taken me so long to read this book because I just am loving it so much. 

So it's set in Regency/Victorian England and it's very similar to the real world, but slightly off kilter, it's basically Victorian British society, but there is this whole class of people who are magic, or who know magic. And they're called pirates and they. Go around living among normal people, but they also, steal things and rob banks , they fly their houses around the country and exist in this, special status where, the government and people just , steer clear of them because they have these magical powers that, the authorities can't contain.

And it's this accepted thing. But the way that [00:03:00] this world is introduced is just. I don't know, I can't say enough about it. It's just so much fun to read and to figure out , because it opens and you're like, what is happening here? , what are these people talking about?

But then it becomes clear, we're not dealing with a just straight up historical fiction, something else is going on here. And the characters are just delightful. The prose is so witty, I can't recommend it highly enough, and I know I haven't said a lot of specifics about it, but , I don't want to say so much that it, , takes away from that experience of getting into it, because it's just so much fun.

But I definitely think you should read it, Martha, and if you listen to this podcast and you enjoy, a lot of the same books that Martha and I do, you will definitely like this book, so you should read it.

Martha: it sounds right up my alley. I don't know why it's not on my TBR already. , 

Elizabeth: I can't believe that I didn't read this book. Right when it came out. , if I had known how much I would love it, I would have just read it immediately. If you like Bringing Down the Duke and [00:04:00] all those books, you will definitely like this book. It's like those books, but with magic.

Martha: Yeah, that's so cool. I'm into it. And the narrator's good. You're liking the narration.

Elizabeth: Yes, I love the narrator. It's a British woman, so.

Martha: Oh, perfect.

Elizabeth: I'm back in the world of British voices that for whatever reason I have a bias toward when I'm listening to audiobooks. 

Martha: Perfect. 

Elizabeth: Yeah, it's great. So what are you reading?

Martha: I am a little more than halfway through, , Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, and it's just so great. It is a little bit different than I thought It's two half sisters who didn't know the other existed, they lived in different villages, and one sister was married to a British slaver, and the other sister was captured and sold as a slave, and the story starts out with they [00:05:00] are both At the castle on the Gold Coast.

One is living in the castle and one is in the dungeons getting ready to be sold and shipped off to America. So that's how the book starts. And then each chapter is a new character, within the family line. So it follows the families through eight generations and shows each generation's point of view and where we're at in history with Slavery.

And right now, I don't know exactly what generation I'm on, but the Civil War is over, but that doesn't mean that all Black people are actually free. The story is very powerful, and it's not one that I will forget.

And It's very much a story doorway. It's a page turner. Whenever I start a new chapter, I'm like, I want to know what happens to , this family member and what their story is. It's a great [00:06:00] book.

Elizabeth: Cool.

Martha: Highly recommend it.

Elizabeth: Last time we talked, I feel like you were just getting started on it. So , it's good to hear that it's as good as you anticipated.

Martha: Yeah. Yeah. Even better. I honestly, I was thinking it might not catch my attention and it might be hard to get through . But no, it grabs your attention and I just want to keep reading and not put it down, so. If you like historical fiction, definitely give it a try, or , if you're a story reader. And I'm about 20 minutes away from finally finishing Harry Potter on audiobook. I'm close, and then I will be moving on to all the other books on my TBR, I was just reflecting about Harry Potter. You know, I usually relisten to the series every year, but I feel like talking about it and doing the episode. that we did on, can you separate the book from the author and just how much we've discussed [00:07:00] the series and what it means to me. I almost feel like that was enough catharsis for me. And maybe next year, I don't need to listen to them. We'll see how I feel. Yeah, we'll see how I feel next October.

But there's just so many books I want to read it's taken me Like two and a half months even with the rate that I listen to audiobooks to get through all eight books. So we'll see

Elizabeth: That's so fascinating. Yeah, because you talked on that, separating the book from the author episode, about how you feel like listening to it is healing your inner child. But maybe you also needed those conversations about it to fully heal

Martha: And understand why I keep doing it.

Elizabeth: Oh, I love that. I mean, not like, oh, I love that you're not going to listen to it anymore.

But I just feel like if that has brought you full circle, I think that's a great outcome. I do have a hard time rereading things for that same reason. There are some books that I will reread, and I know we've talked about doing an episode on [00:08:00] rereading. I have a really hard time doing it for that exact reason, just because there are just so many books that I want to read, that the idea of spending time revisiting one that I've already read is hard for me.

But of course, the experience of reading it could be different, as you've probably found, because you're different, right? So, the no two readers read the same book we've talked about also applies to the time in your life that you read a book.

Martha: Yeah, that's why I feel like I'm not ready to commit at this moment To not rereading it in 2024 but we'll see

 I feel like I've turned a little corner, but we'll see how this year goes. And then there's one more very special book I'm reading right now. I'm only three chapters into,

Elizabeth: my face.

Martha: I'm three chapters into Liz's manuscript and I'm sworn to a bit of secrecy so I can't say much about it, but I will say I'm really enjoying it and I'm

Elizabeth: [00:09:00] yeah, my baby, she's out in the world being observed and known. It's very difficult for me. Yeah.

Martha: and you have to just let it go. You're still in the thick of, potentially revising it. So

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Martha: tell you, to just forget about it.

Elizabeth: Yeah. There's a lot to that. And certainly because I haven't been published yet, I feel like I haven't quite gotten to that point where I know what it's like to just have to let it go, so I don't know how to do that. But , , I know that it's not finished.

And I'm not entirely happy with it. And so there's something about letting people read it in that state that feels more vulnerable. , if I were like, this is the best I can do. This is a finished product. I want to think that maybe it would be easier for me to just let it go. But when I know that that's not the case and that there are things that are not done about it, then it feels a little [00:10:00] bit scarier.

Martha: Yeah, but it's exciting. It's such an exciting step, I think, because that's just one step closer to feeling like you are done and getting it published, hopefully.

Elizabeth: I hope so, yeah. Knock on wood.

Martha: yeah, it's a great story so far. Hopefully I can say a little more the further I get without giving away too much. I'll have to get your go ahead.

You're okay. Yeah.

Elizabeth: We'll see. Alright. I'm excited to talk about our topic today because I feel like it's going to be cathartic to get to talk about book hangovers. We're talking about wHat are book hangovers? Why do we get them? And what can we do about them? 

 I think that we are both well acquainted with this concept of a book hangover, but For any lucky listeners out there in the world who have never experienced a book hangover, how would you define a book hangover?

How do they show up [00:11:00] in your life?

Martha: Man, well you finish a book, and it's like you feel lost. It's like The return to reality is almost unbearable. , to have to go on with your daily life after finishing this book. I guess feeling lost is the best way I can describe it. , you're discombobulated and sad, and the thought of starting another book usually isn't appealing.

Is it similar for

Elizabeth: Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. I think that feeling lost gets to part of it. But for me, a big component of having a book hangover versus just Like, oh, I finished a book that I like, and I'm going to move on. Is that inability to just pick up the next book and start reading it?

 tHere are some books where when I finish them, it's like, oh my God, am I ever going to be able to read another book again? Because that book was just so, I don't know, it was so good. It was so powerful. It was so affecting. , yeah, for me, it's [00:12:00] not just. Feeling sad that the book is over or feeling affected by it.

Elizabeth: It's that feeling that I don't know where to go from here and I can't just pick up the next book on my TBR and start reading., 

Martha: okay

Elizabeth: mean, that's kind of my role on our podcast, right? And there is actually a little bit of academic research to look at, but mostly the research, unsurprisingly, about book hangovers is the purview of That niche corner of the internet, 

 the book blog, the bookstagram account, the book website. If you've ever read the website Book Riot, , if you haven't and you're into books and reading, you should definitely look at Book Riot because they have lots of good. Short articles about reading and books on there, but I did see a couple of interesting and some funny things.

 The site bookbub. com defines a book hangover as the inability to start a new book because you're still living in the last 

book's 

[00:13:00] world, which I think gets to what we were both talking about in a little bit more of a succinct way maybe. And then Reader's Digest, their website had a really funny collection of memes about book hangovers. And I'll probably share some of these on Instagram when this episode comes out. But there was one that I thought was particularly illustrative where it was signs of a book hangover, which include Staring blankly into space, uncontrollable crying, curling into the fetal position, talking non stop about the characters to anyone who will listen, and attempting to escape reality. I think that, what you said about the crash back into reality, out of the book's world, it seems to be. a pretty ubiquitous one to people who have experienced this and write about it on the internet. Are there any other elements of a book hangover that you feel like that those two didn't get to?

Martha: I think that's [00:14:00] Exactly what it is. And because it's such a commonly shared experience, I can confidently say that it is real, because I've seen some stuff like, is it even real? Are people just exaggerating? No, I think it is a real emotional state. of, feeling, like I said, just lost a little, maybe ennui after the book is over.

I think that you nailed it on the head in the intro, though. I was thinking about it while you were describing all of these other symptoms that when a book is really good, When I enjoy a book, and I think it's really good, I do like to let it wash over me, so to speak, after I'm done. , I generally don't start a book that same day, or maybe even for a couple days, if I really liked a book and I Let it marinate,

but the difference between that, just enjoying a book and wanting to savor it and a book hangover I think is the [00:15:00] inability to get into another book too soon.

Elizabeth: Yeah, I think so. So that's what it is. What are some books that have given you a book hangover in the past and why? Maybe are there patterns? Is it certain types of books that do this to us? 

Martha: It's interesting because when I was thinking about the kinds of books that I remember giving me hangovers, I think that most of them are because they're character driven. When I wouldn't necessarily call myself a character reader, I enjoy characters, but I think that I'm more of a story reader, those are the kind of books I like page turners, regardless of the genre, I like it when a book really captures my attention, and I don't want to put it down.

Elizabeth: Mm hmm. 

Martha: Pride and Prejudice, that was the first one I thought of. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice. The first time or the fifth [00:16:00] time, I don't care. I've reread it a lot, and every time I read it, it does give me that feeling. And what ends up happening is maybe not right away, but whenever I am ready to start a new book, I end up going into a Regency spiral and I try to read everything else that I feel like will be similar.

Elizabeth: hmm.

Martha: And that's how I get over that one or attempt to. Mm-Hmm.

Elizabeth: That's interesting what you said about the character driven stories. Maybe I've never noticed that because those are most of the books that I read, because I'm such a character driven reader. Mm hmm.

Martha: Mm-Hmm.

Elizabeth: the reason why I've never been able to put my finger on exactly what it is, because most of my books are that, so I wouldn't have noticed. I feel like part of it for me has tended to be also when I read series.

First book hangover I remember ever having in my life was when I [00:17:00] read. I read all of the Anne of Green Gables books when I was, I don't know how old I would have been. Like a young teenager, I want to say, maybe.

Or maybe even younger, maybe like 12. And I also watched the movies with, I can't remember the actress's name, but the old movies, right? Because I'm old. The ones that came out in the eighties, I think, and I just remember feeling like it's not sad. I mean, the Anna Green Gable Series, there are definitely, sad parts and obviously during those parts I wept like a baby during the books and the movies.

But overall, it's not a sad series you follow her life pretty deep into her life if you go through the full series. And, she's happy and she gets what she wants , everything's fine. But I just remember when there weren't any more.

That's what it felt like. It's like, oh, God, there aren't any more. [00:18:00] That's it. I can't live in this world anymore. And I just felt bereft. Like, no, I don't want to not be in that world anymore. , that's where I want to stay. And I actually sort of remember, I don't know if this is real or not, or if I just made this up, because it's such a vague recollection, but I remember having an interaction with mom

where I was just so upset at having finished these books, and mom was like, what is the matter? I thought you liked the books. And I was like, I did.

Martha: That's why I'm upset.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Yeah. She's just like, Oh my God. To the mother of teenage daughters, I really do feel

Martha: Yeah.

Elizabeth: for that.

Martha: Oh,

Elizabeth: was just so dramatic and she was just like, what is wrong with you?

Martha: That's funny. And, you know, Anne is kind of a dramatic character, so you were probably, , reflecting some of that in your [00:19:00] teenage angst about being done with the series.

Elizabeth: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Because I also wanted to be Anne of Green Gables. My middle name is Ann, as you know, and I, wanted my middle name to be spelled with an E. It's not. And I wanted to live in this world, and I was in love with Gilbert. I just wanted to crawl inside of it and, zip up the book cover and not ever leave.

 I also feel a little bit like, I was older, so it wasn't quite as dramatic, but I definitely had a little bit of a book hangover when I finished the Harry Potter books. So for me, I wonder if there's something about after multiple books, I am just so heavily invested that that's what does it to me.

Martha: Yeah, absolutely. I was gonna say that was the second thing on my list was the end of a long series. I have Harry Potter, Sarah J. Maas, even the League of Extraordinary Women that we read, and I think the longer the series, the worse The Hangover [00:20:00] is. And I also have a theory about Fourth Wing, because The Sarah J.

Maas universe is so big, and the timing of the popularity of those series I feel like lined up very well with the release of Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yaros, and so you would see a lot of content online if you're a part of that algorithm of if you love it. Thank you. A Court of Thorns and Roses, read this.

So I think a lot of these people reading, the Sarah J Maas universe had book hangovers. And when they tried to find something to help them get over it, they dove into fourth wing. And I think that's, yeah, similar, similar genre. And I really do think that that helped catapult that book into the popularity that it had.

Elizabeth: It's a good theory. I think it's as good a theory [00:21:00] as any. Do you feel like, though, that it's more the case with the series if you read all the books at once? Because I have to think that if you just are reading one book a year, it probably won't be like quite as all consuming as if you sit down like I did with the Harry Potter books or with Anne of Green Gables.

 I just read them one after another. , you're just, , living and

Martha: you're in it.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Martha: I do think that, , makes a difference if you read them all in succession.

Elizabeth: Yeah. The other thing that occurs to me while we were talking about Anne of Green Gables, actually, is that the part of you saying how dramatic my experience of this was, is that the books that I, the other books that I can remember that aren't having book hangovers. Because, I mean, I love Pride and Prejudice,, it's my favorite book, I would say.

When people ask me my favorite book of all time, that's, , basically usually what comes out. But I wouldn't say, I actually don't remember, because I've read it so [00:22:00] many times in so many different contexts, and I wrote my college thesis on it, and so I just have read and dissected that book, , to death.

I think for me anymore, it doesn't have that emotional

Martha: Mm

Elizabeth: element to it, but I don't actually even know if it ever did, whereas the first time I read Wuthering Heights, I definitely had a book hangover. And The Time Traveler's Wife, have you ever read that book?

Martha: No, I've seen the movie, but

Elizabeth: from that.

The book is better, as you might imagine. 

Martha: yeah. 

Elizabeth: And both of those just occurred to me when you were talking about the drama of it, because both of those books, they're very good, and I really liked them. But I feel like the part of them that would give me a book hangover, as opposed to other really good books that I've loved, is that the story is so emotional.

 There's so many emotions that you go through reading the story, and that the characters are going through in the story, and it's these big [00:23:00] feelings. I feel like Lessons in Chemistry was a little bit similar. I had a book hangover after I read that. And it's,

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: that book is so good, but it's so sad in places and so triumphant in other places. And you just go through this roller coaster of emotions. And so for me, there might be something to that, when a book does that to me.

Martha: Yeah, I think you're really on to something. I think that the more emotionally connected you are to the book, the more likely you'll have a book hangover. And I think that's a really Great point. And that could be any doorway, not necessarily just characters. Obviously, character is the low hanging fruit that you would be, emotionally connected to a character.

But I think it could be a setting. I think you could be emotionally invested in a certain setting or someone's story. Yeah, I think it makes sense that it just comes down to the emotional connection and what it makes you [00:24:00] feel.

Elizabeth: Yeah. And it probably is different for different people, the other thing that occurred to me when you were saying that is I was like, yeah, definitely, it could be any reading doorway. But maybe for me, it's that because that's how I am, that's my personality. So that's how I connect to the stories that are really meaningful to me, but maybe there might be somebody else for whom

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: necessarily the case.

I feel like that's getting closer to it. And that actually does tee us up really well to look at some of the academic research into book hangovers. A lot of what we've said is really born out , in the academic literature that has looked at this phenomenon because there is some.

 So again, from bookriot. com, there was an article where the writer was interviewing a, , psychologist from the University of Toronto. And it's similar to the reading research that we've talked [00:25:00] about in the past, especially on the genres episode, but also the first episode about the effects , of reading on, Theory of mind, they call it, or empathy, other studies call it, basically the ability for you to put yourself in someone else's perspective, or put yourself in someone else's shoes, or experience something outside of your own perspective. And She talked a lot about that being a big part of why we get what we call book hangovers. She talked a little bit about the sadness element that we've talked about with you might be a character reader if you feel like you've lost someone close to you after you're done with the book, right? So she did talk a little bit about that.

Elizabeth: But, She also talked about a more persistent book hangover potentially could mean that the central issues, this is a quote, the central issues raised by the book are still very active inside of your psyche and therefore you wish for more time to reflect and unravel the complexities that plague you that were brought up by [00:26:00] this book.

Martha: Oh, wow.

Elizabeth: And I thought that was really interesting.

Martha: That's fascinating, because we Might not even be able to identify what exactly that is. Sort of like how we dream and our dreams have meaning, but we can't always

figure out what they are because it's such a subconscious thing.

Elizabeth: Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I wasn't thinking about it like that. And I think it could be either conscious or unconscious, we might know that this is an area that's really fraught for us. But yeah, it could be something that we don't actually know what we're struggling with.

 I thought that that part of what she said was really interesting, and she was talking about how book hangovers, even though they're uncomfortable, or actually because they're uncomfortable, could be a really positive thing for our psyche. And that the longer that we struggle with it, the more likely that it is helping to transform us in some way,

because [00:27:00] you only ever change in that way through discomfort. dIscomfort and struggle and grappling with things is definitely one of the ways that we experience personal transformation. Right? So another quote I really liked from this book riot.

article was about reading being a powerful dysregulator of identity, allowing readers to exit themselves and be in a state that's more receptive to personal change or transformation. So again, think about that theory of mine, like you're stepping outside of yourself into the perspective of someone else.

 And so this academic again says, , I want to say her name, the way you spell it is D J I K I C is her last name. So. Ick, uh, I don't know. Um, her quote says, A hangover that lasts longer could include not just an emotion of sadness, but include more agitating emotions such as fear, anger, or hope, and could [00:28:00] potentially lead to seeing oneself in one's whole world in a different way.

In this case, the hangover would last longer than just a few days, and the mind would periodically return to the book even. weeks or months after the book was finished, and the person would use the experience of the book for his or her own inner change. So I just thought that was really interesting that, something that we joke about like, Oh, isn't this such a weird thing?

And there's memes about it and stuff. And , it is kind of funny, , to think about these fictional characters, , giving you such real world, , big feelings. But there could actually be a really serious process of personal transformation going on in your psyche as a result of these stories.

And, that is totally in line with the things that we talk about on this podcast. Art is powerful, and books are powerful, and , when I read that, , I was like, of course this is the case, of course books are powerful enough to, transform the way that you view the world, and that process might be a little bit uncomfortable.

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: So yeah, I thought that was really interesting.[00:29:00] 

Martha: Yeah, that's very profound and a lot deeper than I expected for it to go. But yeah, I'm having the similar reaction as you just described. Like, oh, of course. And you know, as is the irony of our human condition, that adversity makes us better. tAle as old as time. I love it.

Elizabeth: yeah, yeah. If this is something that you're interested in and you haven't listened to the other episodes where we talk about this type of research, we have in the genres episode, I think specifically, go really pretty deep into the research about reading and the concepts of that transportation or transportability, specifically a lot of this research is looking at children and which types of books provide this experience for them because we are always trying to get children to be readers, right?

Because there are so many benefits that come throughout their lives, , if they turn into someone who reads regularly. And so that transportation process is when a book That is distant from the world in which the [00:30:00] reader lives makes it possible for the reader to put themselves in the story and feel like they're experiencing it.

It takes them, transports them out of their own world into another world. And the research that we looked at in that episode had some results for certain genres, do that more for boys, do it more for girls, but the bottom line is that if you can find books that do that, then you're more likely to enjoy reading and become a reader.

And so putting it in the context with this book hangover stuff it all just makes total sense and even the empathy research that we also looked at really closely in that episode, if you're able to Feel as if you're experiencing something from someone else's perspective or, theory of mind, interpersonal sensitivity, empathy, whatever you wanna call it, 

Martha: Mm hmm. 

Elizabeth: yeah, that's potentially gonna change the way that you view the world in real life.

Martha: Mm hmm. Yeah,

Elizabeth: But that there might need to be a process for that to happen, for your mind to work that out.

Martha: [00:31:00] Mm hmm. I think we talked a lot about empathy and the research on that in the Do Audiobooks Count as Reading episode too, which is our very first one we published.

Elizabeth: Yeah.

Martha: So definitely go back and listen to those episodes if you haven't already, if you're curious about this research.

Elizabeth: Yeah. I thought that was cool. So the next time I'm having a booking over, I might just. So I'm going to go ahead and just lean into it and be like, what is this trying to teach me? I don't know if I'll actually do that. But you could,

Martha: Yeah, you'll be a little bit more mindful about it anyway now, I'm sure. Like, what is it about this book that really got to me?

Elizabeth: yeah, because sometimes you might know, but sometimes it might actually be illustrative to think about, okay, if the reason that I'm having such a hard time getting over this book is because it has riled something up in my psyche that I need to work through.

Right? Like what is it about this story that could [00:32:00] have done that, that might be interesting?

Martha: and maybe I should pay attention.

Elizabeth: Yeah, and I think that, now that we've talked about what they are and where they come from, one of the things I wanted to talk about is if we have any remedies for getting over them. But now that we've talked about this research, I'm thinking that one of my remedies might be something that I've actually never done before, but which is to do this sort of thinking about.

What is it that this maybe is trying to teach me? And to, journal about it or

Martha: Yeah, I was gonna say journal. Yeah, journal about it or meditate or some other, self reflective work.

Elizabeth: Yeah. But other than that, how do you usually get over a book hangover? Do you have any tried and true methods? mentioned that you sometimes will, take a break.

Martha: Yeah, sometimes it takes me a little bit to want to pick up another book if I do have a true book hangover. And usually when I do decide that I'm ready to try another [00:33:00] book, I'm trying to find a similar. Book, which I think since we've been talking about reading doorways And I've been learning more about the types of books that I like that's been a little bit easier to find New books that give me similar experiences, but other than that, I think sometimes it's helpful to watch the movie but As we've talked about before, that can also kind of backfire like you said in a previous episode, sometimes it's worth it to wait a while , to watch a movie that's based on a book, because when you freshly read the book, you remember all the details, you know, the whole plot, you could still recite it. Passages. And so it's a little easier to pick out the differences between the book and the movie. So that can backfire a little bit. But, in certain cases, I do like to watch the movies. Like Harry Potter, if I reread it and then I feel like, oh, I didn't quite [00:34:00] get enough or I'm sad it's over, you always have the movies.

 

Elizabeth: Yeah. And with that, you've seen the movies before, so you know that they're good. I feel like that speaks to one of the methods that I had too for getting over a book hangover, there are really two options in terms of the direction that you can go, right? You can try to do something that's completely different, or you can try to do something that's really similar to give

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: To recapture the feeling. So the movie would be something similar, especially if you already know that you like the movie. Reading fanfiction. If it's a classic, especially , there's definitely gonna be fanfiction.

Or even if it doesn't call itself fanfiction, if we're talking something like Jane Austen,, the number of books that are Jane Austen adaptations, or a story from a side character's perspective, or in the world of Jane Austen, there's just so much that, like you said, you can just go into a spiral of that

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: I actually find that that doesn't usually help me, looking for a similar experience. I usually go [00:35:00] in the opposite direction, where If I need to wait it out, if I have a real, real book hangover the way that the psychologist was talking about, that's not just a momentary sadness that the book is over, but that actual this might be doing some transformation work type of book hangover, I usually will consume a different type of media.

If it's an audiobook that I've just finished, and then I'm looking for something else to do while I'm waiting to be able to listen to another audiobook, I will listen to a podcast or often I'll listen to, the New Yorker does podcasts that are like short stories.

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: And that feels different enough to me.

It's not a novel. It's not a big investment of time , if I don't like it, I always just stop listening to it. But do you know what I mean? It feels different enough. Um

Martha: shocks it out of your system or something.

Elizabeth: and it's short. So I can listen to this little bite sized thing while I'm waiting to be ready to dive [00:36:00] into a longer thing again.

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: Or sometimes I'll alternate between a novel and a nonfiction book. I definitely did that more back when I was reading more nonfiction, which as we on one of the, I think the year end episode, I don't read as much nonfiction in the last few years as I used to, but will sometimes help to get me out of a book hangover as if I, just take a completely right turn from what it was, , if it's a romance novel or a mystery or whatever, I'll read a nonfiction book or listen to a literary short story or whatever. And I, I feel like the thing that I usually have to do is just wait it out in that

Martha: Yeah.

Elizabeth: Do something else and just wait for the feeling to dissipate.

Martha: Yeah, I think , it does just gradually go away and you probably don't even realize that it's gone And then that's when you'll pick up another book. I'm curious is it helpful for you to share the experience with someone else whether that's just talking about the book to them Or do you ever [00:37:00] try to get your friend to read it so you can talk about it I think for me, sometimes that's fun, but sometimes, this is gonna sound really weird, but sometimes it can almost create envy because they're experiencing it for the first time 

so you almost don't want to talk to them about it. Maybe that's if, if you're not quite over it yet, but you know what I mean?

Elizabeth: I do, I definitely know the feeling of being envious of them for experiencing it for the first time. I think it can be helpful to talk to someone about it, but mostly I think it's if you know that they've already read it and they also loved it. If I were to tell someone, like my friend Dana, we give each other book recommendations a lot, and we tend to really love the same books.

But if I were to tell her, okay, you need to read this book so I can have someone to talk about it, , I would be over my book hangover by the time she read it. And I would be like, I've moved on. But when there are books that we have recommended to one another that we loved, and She comes to me and says, oh, I read that book that you recommended [00:38:00] to me.

Like whatever it was like a year ago. I do love talking about it at that point, for sure. But I feel like that's not the same, catharsis of right in the, thick of the book hangover, being able to talk to someone about it, , you know? So I don't know. That's a little bit of a mixed bag.

Martha: Yeah, I guess that's where a book club can come in really handy. If you read a book in your book club that gives you a hangover, then you have a group of people you can talk about it right then, but still a little dangerous territory because not everyone might feel the same way you did, but you know.

Elizabeth: was going to say that. Yeah, it could be great because you're all reading the book at the same time. But my experience with book clubs is that everyone wants to talk about how much they loved or how much they hated the book. And usually people don't all feel the same. And so, So, if you go to a book club with a book that you love so much it gave you a book hangover, the last thing you want to hear is like Joe Schmo talking about how much he hated this book and he thought it was [00:39:00] terrible, 

 that's actually the reason that when I was in library school and Nancy Pearl was talking to us about running book clubs, because that's something that librarians do, especially in public libraries. I was laughing because it's been, I think it's been a couple episodes since I've mentioned Nancy Pearl. But one of the things that she would say is that when she's running a book club, she always, and she highly suggests that librarians do this, she tells people right up front that in this book club, we don't talk about whether or not we liked the book until the very end of the meeting. Because it's the least interesting thing that you could talk about, about the discussion, because , you either liked it or you didn't, and then where do you go from there?

 What's the conversation?

Martha: Yeah,

Elizabeth: , but even if you didn't like a book, you can still talk about the themes, the characters, how this plot was developed, there are things you can talk about. And, she would talk about how people are always just raring to say whether they liked the book or not, and she just won't let them.

She's like, no, you just can't say [00:40:00] whether you liked it or not until the very end. So when we would talk about books in class, she would hold us to that too. And it was really hard, especially when I really loved something or really hated it, I always wanted to say. But it does make for a more productive conversation if you don't say that right off the bat.

Martha: Yeah, that's great advice. , you would have to be a little more thoughtful about what you're gonna say. Because exactly like you said, our instinct is to say whether we liked it or we didn't. But , let's dig a little deeper. That's great advice. Thanks, Nancy, as always.

Elizabeth: As always, yeah. That also reminds me, talking about being a librarian, , something that you can do to help move on is that you can, of course, always ask your local librarian for a suggestion. For whichever direction you want to go. If you want a book that will give you a similar feeling, a similar experience, or if you want something that will be totally different.

Martha: Mm hmm.

Elizabeth: It could really be helpful, especially with the totally different to go to a librarian because that might mean that you need to read a [00:41:00] book in a genre or in a reading doorway that you're not familiar with. And the librarian might be able to give you a good suggestion. I'm also a librarian.

So if you're listening to this and you want me to try to do that for you, I can. Email us at , allbooksaloudpod at gmail. com. If you want a reading suggestion from me, I mean, you'll have to tell me a little bit about what you like and what you don't like and things like that, 

Martha: I would love to see. More people emailing us for reader's advisory because I think it would be so fun someday if we get enough people to email us to do a segment where we could read emails from listeners requesting reader's advisory and Liz could give it on the podcast. So

Elizabeth: Oh, my God.

Martha: it out there.

You guys, you should do that.

Elizabeth: not on the spot, though, right? I would have time to look at it before.

Martha: Yeah, you'd have time to, you, I'd give you time to think about it.

Elizabeth: Okay, good. I thought you were talking about like readers advisory. Go.

Martha: [00:42:00] No, no, no,

Elizabeth: I'm like, oh, my 

Martha: have time. You'd have time to think about it and give it your best effort.

Elizabeth: Oh, yeah, I would love to do that. Yeah, it could be like dating advice, but not dating advice.

Martha: like Dear Sugar, kind of, but for books.

Elizabeth: but for books. Yeah, I love it. Yeah, let's do that. Email us and tell us. Or if you want to tell us the book that gave you the worst book hangover that you ever had. I might also be able to make a suggestion based on that.

And also I want to read it. Because if it gave you a book hangover, that means that it's a great book, so I want to know what it is.

Martha: Yeah, definitely. So do you think we went over all the remedies, or do you have anything else up your sleeve, Liz?

Elizabeth: I think that we went over the big ones. That one article on Book Riot that I found where the person did the interview with the academic was the most serious treatment that I found about book hangovers.

 But there are, , a lot of the suggestions that we already talked about what they call hair of the dog, [00:43:00] which is rereading a book that you already know you love.

Martha: Mm, mm

Elizabeth: So you're not Risking going into a book that you're not going to like. , asking people for recommendations. So they suggest asking the internet, but I would definitely suggest asking a librarian.

I mean, unless there are people on the internet that you know are big readers and that have similar tastes to you, then go

Martha: mm hmm,

 Watching a TV show or a movie that you already know you love. Reading a graphic novel. So I think that's similar to my suggestion of going to a completely different type of media,

Martha: mm hmm.

Elizabeth: or asking for a recommendation outside of your usual taste.

So yeah, I feel like. Most of the sites that I found with suggestions for how to cure it, we've basically, already come up with it. So, the good news is that , we haven't been missing anything. The bad news is that there's no silver bullet for how to cure a book hangover. Sometimes you just have to grin and bear it.

Martha: Yep,

Elizabeth: I am gonna try journaling about [00:44:00] it the next time it happens to me, though, and see if that might help, because I've never tried that one before.

Martha: Yeah, I'm curious to see how it goes for you. If you do. All of these remedies are much better than suffering from a typical hangover, which in my experience, there was no remedy that worked. And now nowadays I'm more booking over some regular ones. Thank goodness. So

Elizabeth: yeah, I'm too old for the alcohol-induced hangovers anymore.

Martha: it's horrible. Well, hopefully we gave some good ideas for book hangover cures, but if there's anything we didn't mention that you like to use as a book hangover cure, please email us at allbooksaloudpod at gmail. com. We'd love to know what your cure is and go ahead and subscribe so you never miss an episode wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Leave us a positive rating and review. It really helps other listeners find us. [00:45:00] You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok at allbooksaloudpod and read on my friends.

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