first book that made you cry

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― Aaron A., Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:54 (twenty years ago)

http://www.beyondbooks.com/lit71/images/00036742.jpg

― Aaron A., Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:55 (twenty years ago)

watership down, maybe? i don't really cry when i read so much.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 03:57 (twenty years ago)

wher the red fern grows

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:00 (twenty years ago)

wuthering heights

― happy fun ball (kenan), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:00 (twenty years ago)

Harry Potter 1 made me cry because the ending was so perfunctory and crap.

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:01 (twenty years ago)

Books don't make me cry, but the rape scene in A Clockwork Orange affected me quite badly, and it wasn't even spelt out in any detail.

― Autumn Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:01 (twenty years ago)

wher the red fern grows

this reminds me of The Yearling, which made me cry, but I'm pretty sure I read Bridge to Terabithia first

― Aaron A., Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:02 (twenty years ago)

i think it was either wuthering heights or jane eyre

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:02 (twenty years ago)

Bridge to Terabithia

― youn, Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:03 (twenty years ago)

It was definitely the Brothers Karamazov, when I was approx. 28 years old

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:04 (twenty years ago)

actually, you know it was probably even younger - i would say possibly black beauty or anne of green gables?

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:05 (twenty years ago)

youn OTM

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:06 (twenty years ago)

2nd book: Where the Red Fern Grows

― youn, Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:07 (twenty years ago)

A Prayer for Owen Meany

― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

i thought the bridge to terabithia was corny when i was a kid, sorry peeps.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:08 (twenty years ago)

..and?

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

and i'm just saying. don't cry, jim, this isn't the "threads that made you cry" thread.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:10 (twenty years ago)

well, it's also not the "books that didn't make you cry because you thought they were corny" thread either

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:16 (twenty years ago)

i was just sayin', don't get all sensitive like you just read it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:18 (twenty years ago)

i'm kinda surprised I didn't find it corny. I guess it was my first exposure to overbearing sentimentality, and I fell for it... but I'm sure I was a little more guarded afterwards.

― Aaron A., Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

yeah probably Where the Red Fern Grows. I don't remember if Terabithia made me teary-eyed, but I know I didn't think it was corny. Guess I wasn't as sophisticated as stence when i was 10.

― ()ops (()()ps), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

surely, the always-polite and courteous esoj never would do something as shockingly rude as interject his opinion on a message board.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

()ops now you gotta be precious too? wtf is wrong with you people? what's wrong with a little discussion? so i thot it corny, so what? the book i listed is about BUNNY RABBITS for chrissakes.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

just call me a faggot and be done with it hstencil

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

fuck you, your band sucks and nobody cares, go cry.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:22 (twenty years ago)

hahaha

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:23 (twenty years ago)

laughing to keep from crying.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:23 (twenty years ago)

oh i was just kidding. should've ended that with a ! and ;)

xpost stop it you two before i really give ya something to cry about!

― ()ops (()()ps), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:24 (twenty years ago)

Interesting bit about Terabithia's creation here:

According to Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia grew out of her son David's relationship with his friend Lisa. The children created an imaginary community similar to Terabithia. This friendship, however, came to a sudden end when Lisa was killed by a bolt of lightning. In part, the novel developed from Paterson's attempt to comfort her son, who was overwhelmed by the loss and its unexpectedness, but as the novel progressed, Paterson discovered that her difficulties in writing arose in part from coming to terms with her own mortality. Earlier she had dealt with the death of her mother to cancer as well as her own illness from a tumor.

So call it corny if you like but it actually reflected a real tragedy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:25 (twenty years ago)

ned it's just an opinion! also i find it strange that you'd stick up for the "authenticity" of it, given the usual attitude on ilm about "authenticity." i am sorry the author's kid died, i didn't know about until i read this thing you posted just now. but if my response to it at whatever age i read it is "invalid," that's too bad. i can't change it.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:27 (twenty years ago)

and i'm sorry, but lots of corny stuff is made of tragedy. ever see "life is beautiful"?!?

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

It's not the author's kid who died, but the friend of said kid. It's not a question of the authenticity per se, more like how the nature of grief leads us to try and interpret it in our own ways, and what works for some (including the creator) will not work for others, of course. The novel has to stand on its own regardless of whatever the background is.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:30 (twenty years ago)

Actually more interesting to me is this -- hadn't realized that the book had been subject to such controversy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:30 (twenty years ago)

Old Yeller or Where The Red Fern Grows

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:31 (twenty years ago)

i've never heard of this bridge! but i dont read much. moby is on television singing and playing a guitar and wearing a cramps tshirt. this is making me cry

― phil-two (phil-two), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:32 (twenty years ago)

okay ned, thanks.

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:33 (twenty years ago)

I really don't Bridge to Terebithia it corny at all!

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:33 (twenty years ago)

The Velveteen Rabbit

I mean, c'mon, look at how sad he is:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0385077254.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:35 (twenty years ago)

So overwhelmed is Remy that his grammar has just died.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:35 (twenty years ago)

kim wins!

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:36 (twenty years ago)

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0520077822.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.gif

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:37 (twenty years ago)

OH! FUCK YEAH, I REMEMBERED:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0395259398.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

the greatest book of all time!

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

awwww, i like the velveteen rabbit!

(here's everybody's chance!)

xpost - mike mulligan made you cry?

― hstencil (hstencil), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

mike mulligan had a somewhat happy ending though! I used to listen to that on tape while reading along like once a week.

― ()ops (()()ps), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:41 (twenty years ago)

actually i think i can go back even younger than black beauty, as i think i cried at blinky bill and snugglepot and cuddle pie. perhaps i was an especially tearful child.

― gem (trisk), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:42 (twenty years ago)

did seeing spot run send tears running down your cheeks?

― ()ops (()()ps), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:44 (twenty years ago)

I always though Mike Mulligan was, like, some fucked-up Dedalus story for kids. Mike Mulligan and his steam-shovel are trapped in the basement basically for all eternity because they dug too fast and too hard. Anyway, I was about five years old when it disturbed me.

― Remy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 04:51 (twenty years ago)

I remember reading this kids picture book about a monkey, and he got lost in the jungle somehow. I have no idea wtf it was (anyone know?) but I recall kid-me coming out of my room in tears going HES LOST AND SAD! WAHHH! to mum.

(stence, wtf, why you be so cranxor today).

PS Several Futurama eps make me bawl like a baby every time I watch them too.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 7 April 2005 06:16 (twenty years ago)

ALso I totally thot ppl would vote for the Iron Giant.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 7 April 2005 06:16 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 24 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

i don't recall crying over any books as a kid, but in 7th grade i got pretty choked up when Gandalf "died."

― andrew m. (andrewmorgan), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

I remember crying at a Piers Anthony story in Anthononology but they were tears of laughter (it was either at the story about the human milk farm or the story about the guy who fucks an intergalactic Barbie doll).

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

The end of the Narnia books freaked me the fuck out. I distinctly remember going, "Wait, did that really happen? And it's allegedly a HAPPY ending????????"

I know! I think I was scarred for life after that.

― Leon WK (Ex Leon), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:40 (twenty years ago)

I think partially it's because Lewis was surprisingly good at conjuring up desolation. The image of literally everything in creation running for their lives -- and only an 'elect,' if you will, getting saved -- was pretty fucked up.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:43 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I can't remember ever crying from a book. Hmmm.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:51 (twenty years ago)

Charlotte's Web, again.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

I really don't think a book has ever made me cry.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:55 (twenty years ago)

I can't even remember the first book to make me cry, since it is ridiculously easy to make me cry that I can't even remember all of the times I've cried over some sad incident in a book. It might have been The Velveteen Rabbit.

― Leon WK (Ex Leon), Thursday, 7 April 2005 14:57 (twenty years ago)

charlotte's web, i think. there's nothing like self sacrifice/death.

I was about five, it was my first exposure to death, I bawled. I ran into my parents room screaming my head off and they started checking to see where I was bleeding.

― Ash (ashbyman), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:08 (twenty years ago)

It's funny how books hardly ever make me cry, when everything makes me cry. A lot of the books I read when I was younger seemed to have an animals dying theme, which is still something guaranteed to have me sobbing even though I really don't like animals that much and I eat them all the time.

― Cathy (Cathy), Thursday, 7 April 2005 15:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure there was one earlier than this b/c I read everything, but I remember being really gutted when Prince Andrei died in War and Peace.. pretty sure I was 16 when I read that.

― daria g (daria g), Thursday, 7 April 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

Definitely Charlotte's Web.

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 7 April 2005 18:38 (twenty years ago)

American Psycho.

I'm not kidding, I promise. I did finish it though.

― sugarpants: kind of blurry, kind of double (sugarpants), Thursday, 7 April 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

Serious Answer: Charlotte's Web

Real Answer: Don't remember title but my brother threw it at my head.

― M. White (Miguelito), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:01 (twenty years ago)

A Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanan Smith

― shookout (shookout), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:06 (twenty years ago)

My mom just informed me that I cried during a reading of Blueberries for Sal because I thought Sal would never find her mom again.

― luna (luna.c), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:12 (twenty years ago)

For how many of you was the first book to make you cry also the last?

― ()ops (()()ps), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:45 (twenty years ago)

MIKE MULLIGAN and his STEAM SHOVEL WINS FOR ALL TIME!

anyone not upset by that is made of stone!

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 7 April 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://www.pwsb33.ab.ca/wokingschool/islandbluedolphins.jpg

― brian braindeath (badwords), Friday, 8 April 2005 01:19 (twenty years ago)

It was Olly the Onion I think. When his bike goes into the ditch. I dunno if that was the first book that made me cry (it wasn't the last) but it's the first I remember.

― minolta (minolta), Friday, 8 April 2005 01:54 (twenty years ago)

the only book that has ever made me cry is bastard out of carolina by dorothy allison

― di, Friday, 8 April 2005 02:00 (twenty years ago)

Not only Watership Down but also Plague Dogs. Great stuff! I seek the movie version of the latter, although I hear it's boringer than the movie of the former which is kind of that way, but I still like it.

Movie: Iron Giant

― -rainbow bum- (-rainbow bum-), Friday, 8 April 2005 02:11 (twenty years ago)

Oh gosh I totally forgot that The Little Prince made me cry - when I was about 16! I was sitting reading it in a car. Most embarrasing.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 8 April 2005 02:19 (twenty years ago)

OMG, I was just going to mention Blue Dolphins too. Don't remember if it was the first but it was so important in third grade. I don't really remember that many details about it though. I kind of suspect it's because I'm trying to block out the sadness.

I kind of regretted that I didn't do Terabithia in Gr 5. Our section did Anne of Green Gables instead (which I really liked actually - don't remember if tears were involved). "Terabithia" was such a lovely-sounding word and it seemed so much more emo. I've still never read it. I probably should. "The Happy Prince" was big too but I guess it's not a book unto itself. Don't know Velveteen Rabbit.

There's a short story that we read in Grade 9 that I can't remember author or title of. I've been trying to figure out what it was for a while. Something about a boy whose younger brother had some sort of mental disability I think. In anger he abandoned him in a storm in a forest or park. There was a part where the younger brother described some natural scene or phenomenon as "so pretty pretty". It was a key moment of sorts.

Why are so many kids' books so depressing? I was starting to get teary thinking about this thread (which may say more about me than the books I dunno).

xpost Le Petit Prince is beautiful. The cartoon was great too (at least it seemed so at the time).

― the fucker that will burn you (sundar), Friday, 8 April 2005 02:21 (twenty years ago)

indeed--bridge to terabithia followed by the little prince

― mookieproof (mookieproof), Friday, 8 April 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

Amazon recommends A Wrinkle In Time along with Island of the Blue Dolphins. This is too much to take.

― the fucker that will burn you (sundar), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:34 (twenty years ago)

Customers who bought this book also bought
* A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
* Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
* Where the Red Fern Grows by WILSON RAWLS
* From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
* The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
* Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

― the fucker that will burn you (sundar), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:35 (twenty years ago)

xpost Le Petit Prince is beautiful. The cartoon was great too (at least it seemed so at the time).

-- the fucker that will burn you

Best juxtaposition ever.

― sugarpants: bea arthur's secret lover (sugarpants), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:36 (twenty years ago)

i think i saw some weird movie version of terabithia first, which i loved. then i thought the book was weird because i was different.

i remember flowers for algernon getting me really emotional!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:39 (twenty years ago)

oh i loved tuck everlasting too! did anyone see that terrible movie version of it with rory from gilmore girls?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:40 (twenty years ago)

Charly messed me up pretty good. I never actually read "Flowers..." though.

― the fucker that will burn you (sundar), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:42 (twenty years ago)

Grapes Of Wrath. Read it my first year at Uni, and by the end of it was curled up on the floor sobbing over the phone to my best friend, like HEAVING crying, I was so distressed. The whole breastfeeding thing just sent me WAY over the edge. Great book though!

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:48 (twenty years ago)

I didn't read that till I was 15 but it was my favourite book evah when I did.

― the fucker that will burn you (sundar), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:52 (twenty years ago)

"A Prayer for Owen Meany"

me too. i'm not sure if it's my first, but it's definitely one of the few to provoke that response. i haven't read a lot of weepers really.

incidentally, that book is one of my favorites. i need to re-read that sometime.
m.

― msp (mspa), Friday, 8 April 2005 03:59 (twenty years ago)

This is just making me want to go and read all these books! I really like young adult fiction.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 8 April 2005 04:01 (twenty years ago)

I don't remember crying at a book. I cried at the moive version of Charlotte's Web though. And Autumn Street by Lois Lowry really bummed me out.

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Friday, 8 April 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

Do they still publish well written but totally depressing children's novels? Or is the children's book industry just badly edited series?

― tokyo nursery school: afternoon session (rosemary), Friday, 8 April 2005 05:14 (twenty years ago)

I can't remember crying when I read books when I was very little, and I read mostly sci-fi and fantasy in highschool, other than the odd book for my American Lit class or whatever. I think the first time I really sobbed reading a book was The Brothers Karamazov.

― marianna, Friday, 8 April 2005 07:48 (twenty years ago)

i hated, hated, hated, hated, hated bridge to terabithia.

― latebloomer: strawman knockdowner (latebloomer), Friday, 8 April 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

eight years pass...

The First Man

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dc/FirstMan.jpg

― c21m50nh3x460n, Sunday, 18 August 2013 04:47 (twelve years ago)

like marianna, never cried at books as a child. but I'm getting weepier as I get older (fear, loss, schmaltz, others' heroism, hangovers).

First book I cried to was Blood of the Lamb by Peter de Vries. It's damn sad (and very good).

― Fizzles, Sunday, 18 August 2013 06:46 (twelve years ago)

probably one of the redwall books idk

I wasn't really a weeper when I was a kid. I cried for over an hour when I finished Gravity's Rainbow last year, though

― imago, Sunday, 18 August 2013 10:00 (twelve years ago)

my first was 'black beauty' when i was eight and when it happened my parents were out and we were being babysat by a friend of theirs, a kind man whose children we played with, and i was so mortified about crying in front of him, and so convinced he was silently jeering at me for my babyishness and my ugly red swollen eyes, and so afraid he would tell his sons about it, i hated him for ages afterwards.

― estela, Sunday, 18 August 2013 10:24 (twelve years ago)

There could be entire books written on the complicated and seemingly perverse hatreds of young girls. I am sure your babysitter was a lovely man but I suspect he couldn't quite meet you in your inner world - and it was this failure to empathise which started the chain-reaction of dislike.

Anyhow, I just remembered mine. It was the middle one of Robin Jarvis' Deptford Mice trilogy, when the ghost of Piccadilly (the most dashing, handsome character, who's died a while back) meets with his one-time paramour, and the 'look said more than a million words could'. Robin Jarvis is quite an underrated latter-day kids' writer; I wonder if anyone else on here has read his stuff.

― imago, Sunday, 18 August 2013 10:32 (twelve years ago)

i think he was a lovely man and all the awfulness was a projection from me.

i sincerely adore your romantic streak.

― estela, Sunday, 18 August 2013 10:44 (twelve years ago)

The Plague Dogs (possibly Where the Red Fern Grows before that but I'm not certain whether I cried or was just super bummed)

― Spot Lange (Jon Lewis), Sunday, 18 August 2013 19:48 (twelve years ago)

biography of richard feynman probably?

― j., Sunday, 18 August 2013 19:48 (twelve years ago)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515TjxJ07XL.jpg

I was about 10 when I read this, iirc. Devastating anti-bullying story. Wish I could remember how it ended. It was one of the first novels I'd ever read, maybe the first, and I remember being freaked out at how raw and painful books for older kids and grownups were.

― cops on horse (WilliamC), Sunday, 18 August 2013 19:56 (twelve years ago)

'man, grownups ain't kidding around!'

― j., Sunday, 18 August 2013 20:04 (twelve years ago)

hari seldon's death in isaac asimov's 'forward the foundation,' when i was about 12. it was asimov's last book, written as he was dying, and it shows -- very sad.

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Sunday, 18 August 2013 21:20 (twelve years ago)

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