I have a question for you… Do you get emotional when you read books? Do laugh out loud (or even silently) when you read a funny scene? Do you cry when something devastating happens to the main character? Do you blush when the protagonist ends up in an embarrassing situation?
I’m an emotional reader. To me, when a book can make me laugh or cry, that’s a good book. But I’ve heard others tell me they’re not emotional readers. It’s just the way they are.
So, that made me curious about you as readers. Which kind of reader are you?
Take the poll below…
And then talk to me in the comments! Let me know what kind of emotional reader you are…
Of Maria Antonia 
I didn’t know there was a word for reacting to a book! I do laugh out loud at funny parts and there are some books (coughLitttleWomencough) I can’t read in public because I end up crying. So awkward to explain. “No, I’m not upset, it’s just that so-and-so has died and it’s soooo sad!!”
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Re: Little Women. Absolutely! Anne of GG also comes to mind.
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Oh! Anne of GG gets me every time! I recently read a YA novel called Girls Like Us by Gail Giles. I was in the library and was bawling.
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That’s why I usually keep my reading for home. But sometimes you can’t. 🙂
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Anne of Green Gables contains the worst character death in all of literary history.
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I agree with you 🙂 if a book can make me empathize enough to cry with/for the people in the book then it has done a huge chunk of its work. Laughing aloud is harder but I’ve done it a few times for some books, without fail for Wodehouse
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Wodehouse makes me laugh out loud too–many many times 🙂
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Yeah, come to think of it, I probably don’t laugh out loud too often. But if a book can make me smile, I count that!
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🙂
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Yes I would say I consider myself an emotional reader. But for me it also depends on how good the book is 🐱
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Agreed. A good book always brings out emotion in me.
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I do laugh and cry with some books – even fear for the characters, feel for them so yes, I do qualify.
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A good book will do that, won’t it? Make you fear for the characters.
There’s an adorable scene in one of my favourite books, Rilla of Ingleside. She watching a “movie” (okay, not a book, but a movie is similar) and she calls out loud — in the middle of the movie house — to the character on screen… “The knife is in your stocking. The knife is in your stocking!”
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🙂 I still haven’t read Rilla–the only one of the Anne books I haven’t read.
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Seriously, this is one of my favourite books. I hope you get a chance to read it soon.
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This is pretty much her only novel that I haven’t read. I’ve read all the others, Emily, Pat, Marigold, Jane…
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I am but it also depends on if I like the book and I’m invested in the characters. Sometimes I cry not because it’s sad but because I love it so much and at super tense moment I often let out a breath I didn’t know 8 was holding lol.
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*didn’t know I was holding
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Those are the best kind of books, aren’t they?
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If a book doesn’t make you invested in the characters then the author hasn’t done their job. Story is one of the basics—we all have one and the need to share it is a basic human need. If you aren’t emotionally involved with either the story or the characters then put it down and find a better one. Life’s too short for bad books. And there are so many good ones!😀 (thanks for letting me rant)
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Yes, this.
The reason for my post is that I’ve had people tell me that they’re not emotional readers. Like apparently ever. And I just don’t get that.
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No. Me either. Why read if you’re not involved? (Said the librarian 😀)
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I get totally involved in good stories and laugh and cry easily. I have to be careful when reading in public.
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I know, right? I usually keep my reading for at home on account of that reason.
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Very emotional. I remember one book, I’d cried before I’d even got through the first chapter. 🙂
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Absolutely. I tend to get very emotional when reading certain books, getting this tension if a character is about to go into a dangerous place or crying when a character’s death is described. But it doesn’t work for all books in my case. It’s only when I feel particularly attached to the book, its characters that I start getting emotional.
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Yes, I agree that it tends to be for certain characters. It’s like they get to be your “friend”.
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I did not know I was an emotional reader until I read some books. I cried when I finished reading Revolutionary Road for the first time, and then I cried again when I finished reading it for the second time. With some books, you just have to have a heart made of stone not to be moved.
I also feel I am an emotional reader because I dislike when some characters in books build their happiness on other characters’ unhappiness. I find I always sympathise too much with secondary characters who are just left behind too quickly and who are not given their credit in the story.
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Ah, yes. Those secondary characters we grow to love!
My favourite books are ones that can make me feel emotional on multiple readings!
Thanks for commenting 🙂
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Did I miss the poll? Nuts! I rarely react very emotionally to a book, but there will be times when I am reading out loud and dramatizing the actors and I will tear up, whereas maybe I wouldn’t have if reading silently. One book that did illicit the whole gambit of emotions from that I recommend is “Wonderland Creek,” by Lynn Austin.
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Thanks for weighing in. Interesting about reading silently vs. reading aloud. I used to read Charlotte’s Webb aloud to my third grade class every year, and boy did I come to dread the end of that book!
I’ve read Wonderland Creek! 🙂
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