Know the feeling? You’re skipping merrily along. Loving a new book. Buried in an engaging, entertaining story with top-notch writing. You feel like you’re on a first-name basis with most of the characters. Would love joining them for a hot cuppa and a good chat. Or invite them over for dinner.

Then, all of a sudden, the book winds down. The story concludes. The characters resolve whatever they’re resolving. Or not.

But one way or another, the book ends.

You sigh. Because, why wouldn’t you? You’ve been carrying these characters around in your head for… hours. Days. Maybe weeks. Or more. You’re so invested in these characters and their lives that leaving them feels… sad.  Like you’re saying goodbye to dear friends. And closing that last page?

Double sigh.

Because you wished it would never end.

And have you noticed? A good book always ends too soon. Always.

Mom distinctly recalls one of the first books that ever evoked this feeling. She was in the fourth grade. Or maybe it was the third? Like, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. The book was Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds by Joy Adamson. True story of Elsa, an orphaned lion cub. Elsa was raised by humans who loved her enough to set her free.

Others (most are fiction. Non-fiction titles are noted with “NF.”):

1. Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

2. Where the Red Fern Grows – Wilson Rawls

3.  Peter Pan – J.M. Barrie

4.  The Silver Brumby – Elyne Mitchell

5.  Through Gates of Splendor – Elisabeth Elliot (NF)

6. At Home in Mitford – Jan Karon

7. Because of Winn-Dixie – Kate DiCamillo

8. Island of the Blue Dolphins – Scott O’Dell

9. The Christmas Box – Richard Paul Evans

10.  A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens

11. Les Miserables – Alexandre Dumas

12. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl

13 & 14. Brighty of the Grand Canyon, King of the Wind – Marguerite Henry

15.  A River Runs Through It – Norman Maclean

16.  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith

17. Waking the Dead – John Eldredge (NF)

18. Christy – Catherine Marshall

19. The Robe – Lloyd C. Douglas

20. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens

21. Keep Walking, Your Heart Will Catch Up – Cathay Reta (NF)

22. A Year in Paradise – Floyd Schmoe (NF)

23. The Applause of Heaven – Max Lucado

24. Walking Home: Common Sense and Other Misadventures on the Pacific Crest Trail – Rick Rogers (NF)

Lots more.

You?