Oh my gosh, I totally get that feeling too. I'm currently on the last book of Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy (Golden Compass, Subtle Knife, Amber Spyglass) and I'm delaying finishing it because I know I'll be so bummed out when I"m done.

I loved East of Eden too... trying to think of a good palate cleanser for that book. Maybe Isabel Allende's House of Spirits? (trying to think good epic here... I'll keep thinking)

if i have finished a novel, i go for history.

and vice versa.

my little secret: after the fine fine superfine book, i will spend a week or more reading magazines: vogue, martha, marie claire maison or the new yorker. works for me...

I felt that way after I read Michael Cummingham's "The Hours." He wrote so beautifully. After I couldn't get another novel started, so I read it again...twice. The additional reads allowed me to "study" the writing more rather than experiencing it. After the last read, I felt I could move on and read something else.

May I suggest something funny and personal like "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson or "No Touch Monkey" (I forgot the author's name). These are light-hearted travel memoirs.

A new writer on my horizon: his name is Charles Martin, and he writes books without the belabored schmaltz of Nicholas Sparks... I've read two so far, his first The Dead Don't Dance and his third, When Crickets Don't Cry, but I kept the tissue box close, because I haven't been so moved about a man wanting to save his first sweetheart, and a little girl he is dedicated to save, as anything I have EVER read...

I'm looking forward to getting a copy of his sequel the DDD, in Maggie...

In my dreams lately, I've been reliving the book, and that doesn't happen often, if amuch at all... FWIW

Blessings,

moi

So what I'm building here is another list of books that will lead to yet MORE post-good book letdown. What a fabulous dilemma!!!

I'm going to go look for Charles Martin next. Y'all are the BEST.

Sounds like a great book, Lan!

I've devoured more than a couple Sci-Fi/Fantasy series (Zelazny, McCaffrey, Zenna Henderson) trying to stay just a few hours longer in the worlds the authors created.

I also suffer from 'PGBL'. The only cure is to go get more books!

I read too much to buy everything from B&N so on the day after a PGBL outbreak I go to Salvation army or Habitat and get an armload of the neglected books and give them a new home.