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Books You Only Read Once: Stories So Profound You Won’t Ever Be the Same
Boy, do we love a re-read. We can wax poetic about them ad nauseum. Even C. S. Lewis agrees, saying “To me, re-reading my favorite books is like spending time with my best friends. I’d never be satisfied to limit myself to just one experience each with my favorite people.” Those novels that you take for a second or third spin become a touchstone when life overwhelms you.
But that’s not why we’re here. Today, we want to discuss the books we can only read once.
The one-read book is filled with beauty, yes, but it’s a terrible beauty. An experience that can keep you up at night with its haunting prose, protagonists that go through so much and get so little, worlds that keep spinning in your brain long after you finish the final chapter.
You know the kind of book we mean – your friends tell you that you MUST read this book but warn you that you need to be in the right frame of mind. The ones you want to put down but can’t because each moment spent with these characters leaves you desperate to have them come out on the other side better than where they started. You become engrossed, realizing too late that happy endings are not always guaranteed.
Despite the dire warnings, these books need to be on your #TBR. They’re heartbreaking and anxiety inducing, but oh-so-good. Here they are — with the caveat that you will not be the same after you’ve read them.
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Do you love dogs? Do you love the magic that happens between dogs and their humans? Do you also want to sob? Then Where the Red Fern Grows is for you. No spoilers but yeah, have a tissue handy.
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Yes, there is an incredible show out there based on this novel but we’re always of the mind that the source material is the way to go. After reading this, you’ll want to burn your red clothes and just wear black because you’re going to be in mourning for a while.
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Oof. Room is the kind of book that will destroy you. Honestly, how we’re even able to talk about it years after having finished it is a miracle. The trauma of this experience will linger with you and you will never look at walk-in closets the same again.
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How long can love endure? How do you stay the same after years of the inequity of this world burns you to ashes? And — are soulmates still soulmates after your soul is shattered? You’re probably asking yourself, why should I read this book? BECAUSE IT IS A MASTERPIECE.
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In a world of complete destruction, you keep going on. To what, you don’t know. You just keep putting one foot in front of the other with only the things you can carry, the love of the one beside you and the road ahead. This won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is unflinching look at the best and worst of which we are capable.
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A Little Life is an opus delving into how you never really heal from trauma. They start as earthquakes that continue as little tremors for the rest of your life. These characters and the brutal look at life as a victim will haunt you for a very long time.