# Books that made you cry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 15, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737 "2012-10-15T01:17:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/81 "2012-10-18T12:31:00Z")
I get that crying is more of a threshold for most people, but I’m surprised people don’t laugh out loud more often from reading a book. I not only do it all the time, too often to count, even on re-reads of books (most recently in re-reading Neil Gaiman’s _Anansi Boys_ last week), but I sometimes even laugh out loud just _remembering_ something I read when an association for it comes up in RL. Like when I saw a flowerpot falling off of a high shelf and immediately thought _Oh no, not again_. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Cheer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fish_cheer/32/17179_2.png) [@Fish\_Cheer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Cheer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/82 "2012-10-18T13:50:42Z")
Most recently, _One Day_ by David Nicholls. (I loved the book so much that I refuse to see the movie.) I KNEW what was going to happen when she got on the bike, and I was thinking “no! please don’t do that! not now, not after all of this!” ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/83 "2012-10-18T16:14:55Z")
I cried at the end of **The Dogs of Babel** , when the hero finally achieves communication with his dog and his wife’s death is explained. ---
**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/84 "2012-10-18T18:17:55Z")
Marley & Me **sobs hysterically** And there was a book I read years ago, can’t remember the title, or author or anything, other than it was about a woman who started breeding German Shephards and a puppy got lead poisoning **wails** ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/85 "2012-10-18T19:47:35Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > I get that crying is more of a threshold for most people, but I’m surprised people don’t laugh out loud more often from reading a book. I not only do it all the time, too often to count, even on re-reads of books (most recently in re-reading Neil Gaiman’s _Anansi Boys_ last week), but I sometimes even laugh out loud just _remembering_ something I read when an association for it comes up in RL. Like when I saw a flowerpot falling off of a high shelf and immediately thought _Oh no, not again_. I don’t do it often, but it happens on occasion. Sometimes I laugh so hard and so much that I can’t breathe. I’m more likely to laugh out loud when reading the boards, though. Sometimes, truth is funnier than fiction. ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/86 "2012-10-19T02:00:59Z")
Do NOT read \*Postcards \*by Annie Proulx especially if you are living alone halfway around the world from your family. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/87 "2012-10-19T11:23:34Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Did you ever read _Mistress Masham’s Repose_? I’d never even heard of it. I’m going to order it - I owe you one! (Will it make me cry?) ---
**Author:** ![jordanr2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@jordanr2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jordanr2)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/88 "2012-10-19T12:16:55Z")
This is geeky, but I cried at the end of the last volume of Leon Edel’s Henry James biography (spoiler alert: it was when Henry James died). More recently, Tana French’s _The Likeness_ (another one where the ending got me), John Irving’s _In One Person_, and Alice Munro’s story “The Bear Went Over the Mountain.” ---
**Author:** ![LVBoPeep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@LVBoPeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LVBoPeep)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2012, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/89 "2012-10-19T12:40:49Z")
_Nop’s Trials_ written by Donald McCaig - it’s a dog book for grown ups. Without spoiling it- it’s not the usual dog story ending although it’s got plenty of heart break and suspense. There’s a very sad portion when a pup that is stolen along with Nop meets an untimely end but the anxiety of Lewis’ search for the dog he loves is particularly touching and the cause of most of my tears every time I read it. The aforementioned _Lonesome Dove_ also qualifies, as does _Dead Man’s Walk_ when the black bean happens to go to my favorite non-Gus or Call character in the series :(. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737.md?page=4)