Lists

My 10 Favorite Bookish Feelings

Ten of one reader's favorite feelings brought on by books and reading

Nicole Froio

Staff Writer

Nicole Froio is a Brazilian journalist currently based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She writes about feminism, human rights, politics, mental health issues, pop culture, books and the media. She was born in São Paulo but moved a lot as a kid, which hinders her ability to root down in only one place in adulthood. Her favorite genres of book are fantasy, YA fiction, romance and any book that requires the main character to find themselves. An avid intersectional feminist, her tolerance for bigotry is extremely low. Blog: Words by Nicole Froio Twitter: @NicoleFroio

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About seven months ago, one of my favorite YouTube creators, Hank Green, made a video entitled “15 of my Favorite Feelings.” It’s such a simple, beautiful idea that other YouTube creators followed suit and listed their favorite feelings too. If you’re bored in any way, I’d recommend you take a browse: it’s refreshing to see such positive thinking in any kind of media.

Unfortunately, we don’t stop to think about the things that make us grateful or make us feel good every single day. I think everyone should keep a gratitude journal – looking back on what you were thankful for over a year is pretty cool. But we never stop to think about feelings we like specifically, and I think that’s because we are so complex that de-tangling feelings and why and how we feel those ways is way more complicated than it sounds.

I write all of this because I have found even thinking of 10 favorite feelings extremely difficult but it’s something I definitely recommend if you have time for it. So, without further ado, here are my 10 favorite bookish feelings.

  1. When you’re immediately caught in a book – I don’t find this feeling very often which is why it’s one of my favorites. My most recent read that had me feeling this way was The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.
  2. When shit gets real in a book you’re reading – Your heart almost leaps out of your chest and you’re worried about all of the characters. WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN? How are we going to get out of this situation? You want to jump up and down but you can’t because you’re reading!! Argh! The last book I felt this way about was Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray. (Also, to the Potterheads reading this post, the bit where JK Rowling writes: “The Ministry has fallen. They are coming.” is damn CHILLING!!)
  3. That feeling of “I WANT TO KNOW MORE” after you finish a book in a series you haven’t finished yet – You’ve become attached to these characters because you know there’s more to that story, you know there’s a real continuation and now you’re itching to get the next book in the series. The book(s) I’ve felt like this about the most have been pretty much all of the Harry Potter series.
  4. The heartbreak of an unhappy ending – I know, why should this be one of my favorite feelings? Because I feel like unhappy endings are realistic and can teach us something. Unhappy endings can make us think and want to change things. I don’t want to spoil anything here so I won’t tell you what recent read made me feel this way.
  • The satisfaction of reading a book in one sitting – I don’t know about you, but as an adult who is doing a Master’s degree I rarely have time to finish a book in one sitting. This is a huge accomplishment for me and the latest book I managed to finish in one sitting was a boring one: The No-Nonsense Guide to Religion by Symon Hill (it was mandated course reading for my course – insert sad smiley here)
  • Disappearing into a book for hours – Something else I don’t have loads of time for these days but absolutely love. This is the moment you’ve been into a book for so long that when you finally look up you tea has gone cold or it’s dark outside and you haven’t noticed time going by at all.
  • That “book ordered” feeling – This might be horrible for my bank account, but when I am feeling down I look at my Amazon wishlist and order a book for myself. Just the thought of having a new story within my reach makes me happy and I can look forward to something again.
  • The “I told you so” feeling you get when someone loves a book you’ve recommended – I must admit I am a little bit proud of being the person in my friend group who is asked for books recommendations. And when my friends enjoy what I pick out for them? Celebration time! My most recent loved recommendation was Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • The comforting feeling you get just by sniffing a book – old or new, the smell of a book (or the general smell of a library, for that matter) will always comfort me. It’s like I am coming home.
  • The feeling of despair and meaninglessness when you finish a series – okay, I shouldn’t like this but I do. It means I’ve been on a journey. And what else could I ask of a good book series?