If you learn in advance that a book you're thinking of reading will likely make you cry, do you still pick it up or do you avoid it?

General
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If you learn in advance that a book you’re thinking of reading will likely make you cry, do you still pick it up or do you avoid it?

Extra credit: What’s the last book that made you really cry?

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I don’t mind tearing up at a good book. However, I have been avoiding books that are known to be really sad or depressing. Last book that made me cry (but not “ugly cry”)…The Correspondent by Virginia Evans.

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I have to admit if there’s a chance a book will move me to tears, I avoid it.

I looked through my reading spreadsheet from last year, and there were several stand-outs that made me choke up - Theo of Golden, This is Happiness, and Book of Lives among them - but I honestly don’t think I’ve read anything that made me cry cry in years.

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I would pick it up for sure! The last one that really made me cry - When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén. I don’t cry easily, so when I book leads me to tears I know it’s had a real impact.

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It depends on how I’m feeling emotionally. If I’m feeling worried about something I stay away from books that have the potential to make me cry even if they are uplifting or bittersweet. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen too often. I also try to vary my reading by moving between fiction and nonfiction, topics, genres, time periods, etc. I like to mix serious and light books over time.

The last book to make me cry was Call of the Wild by Jack London.

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It depends on the mood I’m in. If life is going fairly well I can. For me its claustrophobia. I was reading this book where the character gets stuck in a cave. He is in this cave for maybe 4 or more chapters. I will never know. I had to put it down.
I love the way a book can pull you in so far that you are feeling what the character feels. I never get that watching a movie or tv show

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Yes! We all need a cleansing cry from time to time. It’s cathartic.

I just bawled through Heart the Lover.

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If that was the prevailing comment about the book I would avoid it, or if more than one person had the same impression. An author with the talent to evoke emotions of all kinds is worth reading, one that panders should be avoided.

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I still read it. However, I am an emotional person and I cry at movies and commercials at times. :joy:

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I choose books from my tbr based on my current reading mood. I would not by put off by the warning a book will make me cry, but it would sit in my tbr until I am in the mood for a sad book.
Fredrick Backman writes hopeful melancholy like no one else, and his most recent book–My Friends–made me cry.

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Fredrik Backman is a master of complex characters and heart wrenching plots. Good choice!

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I will still read it. A good cry is very cathartic. Still Alice is just one of many books that made me cry like a baby. Lisa Geneva was spot on with her character of Alice and Alzheimer’s. I am a professional caregiver. I work with clients with it.

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This is a bit off-topic, but my Book Club just did a comparison of Hamnet (the book and the movie). Because I love Maggie O’Farrell’s exquisite writing, I read this and loved it, but I am going to pass on the movie. During these dark and troubling times, I didn’t think I could shoulder any more grief :broken_heart:

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@Nancy_B I totally agree about the film version of Hamnet. Too sad for me!