I felt like I was in mourning after I finished Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series. I couldn't even read anything for about a month after Lord of the Rings. I missed that world so much. With Harry Potter, I was one of those late-comers. I didn't read them at all until they were all out so I really did get to read them back to back and it was amazing.

The other book that was somewhat like those two examples for me was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when I was a kid. I think I first read that book when I was around 11 and it was the first book that really captured me heart and soul.

'Watchers' by Dean Koontz
'The Witching Hour' by Anne Rice
'Servant of the Bones' by Anne Rice

The Stand -- Stephen King
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams

Harry Potter -- I would like to read them as new all in one go. I have re read them that way and it is fun, but not the same.

Exodus - I actually went around depressed for a couple of days when that one was over; I wanted so bad to know how it continued.

The Foundation Trilogy - what a great first read (and subsequent as well). Part of me wanted to live in that time to see how it all came out.

Jane Austen's Persuasion =) From all of her novels, this was the one that completely captivated my attention; I could not put it down until I found out what happened to Anne and Wentworth and Mr. Elliot xD

Carlos Ruiz Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind was another book where I just got lost into the story and atmosphere. It was an amazing feeling =)

Actually I have to add another book i miss. Rules of Attraction by Brett Eastern Ellis. I was 20 when I first read it, the book was so mindless and at the same time raw, I loved it. It made me realise what words and a well placed comma or a metaphor could do.

I don't think I have read the same way since.

'Half Magic' by Edward Eager

'Harriet the Spy' by Louise Fitzhugh

Oh, holy cow, this thread stirred up some memories! In high school I read Russka The Novel of Russia when it was new (91? 92?). Who knows why i picked it out at the bookstore? The red cover, or its heft? Or maybe I was pushing my parents to see how much they would spend on a new book for me? At the time, I had immersed myself in Isaac Asimov, so this was a far-afield genre.

I was a very, very bored and unchallenged student, so I think the immensity of the history and story really appealed to my underused brain. This really was one of those "right book at the right time." If I reread it today, chances are I'd not be as swept up in the story.

At any rate, this book, above all other influences, is what propelled me to become an exchange student a few years later. I immediately signed up for Russian classes at our local university, joined the foreign exchange club at school and eventually hosted 2 exchange students.

It's crazy what a book can spark!

Lord of the Rings.

Though I love re-reading the books too. I also wonder with the differences they made in the movies what it would have been like watching them without knowing the story first...

The Anne of Green Gables series.
Children's Classics (Dr. Seuss, Bernstein Bears, etc)
Oedipus, Antigone, Medea
The Last Herald Mage
The Mists of Avalon

The Harry Potter series... they were amazing to read and to wait for the next one.

I miss the Vampire Chronicles too, all of them.

I would love to know how Jem and Scout grew up after "To Kill a Mockingbird". Oddly enough, I live in the same small to medium community as Mary Badham, who played Scout, so I know how she, the actress, turned out. I do not know her personally, but I have friends that do. However, I'd like to know more about the growth of the characters of Scout and Jem..

Mine would be:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (Actually the whole series)
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Hawaii A Novel by James A. Michener
Where Are the Children? by Mary Higgins Clark
The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss

The Half Brother and Waiting for Godot - there should probably be more but can't think of them now - I have re-read both of them at least four to five times but there's nothing like reading it for the first time when everything is new and exciting.

Jessi, I know EXACTLY what you mean. I was the exact same way! :D

El, I have to agree with you on The Count of Monte Cristo too. Oh my gosh, I just loved that book with every fiber of my being. Edmond Dantes has his own special corner of my heart.

The Count of Monte Cristo
The Odyssey
The House of Mirth
White Apples

Definitely Harry Potter. Although there is something fabulous about the experience of re-reading them (I would know; I have done so many times), reading them for the first time was exhilarating. I would buy them at midnight when they were released and then go home and read all night and into the next day until I had devoured yet another one.

The anticipation was so great. And in the time in between book releases, I would speculate so much as to what would happen. It was one of the greatest, and nerdiest, experiences of my life.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger
Someplace to be Flying by Charles de Lint
Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund

'Interview With The Vampire' by Anne Rice
'The Witching Hour' by Anne Rice
'Gone Away Lake' by Elizabeth Enright

That is a hard one. But books I really miss are

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Matilda
To Kill a Mockingbird
Outlander
Harry Potter
Adventures of Kavilar and Clay
Madame Bovary

All these books gave me a shiver up the spine on the first page I knew I was getting something special.

I would pick The Book Thief and Anne of Green Gables.

Probably the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman and Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones.

The Harry Potter series. I remember I couldn't wait for the day the books would finally come out on bookstores.

Pride and Prejudice would be up there.

That is such a good question. I have often felt that way after reading a book.
It is hard for me to choose, maybe The Historian by Elisabeth Kostova, or The Time Travelers Wife.
Blood and Gold by Anne Rice
Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough

definitely The Master and Margarita

The Virgin Suicides.
Th Invention of Morel.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
And Then There Were None.
Watchmen
etc.

I would definitely say the Harry Potter series. I envy people who are able to now read them for the first time ever.

I'd also say the Dark Tower series, which is another amazing series that I would love to experience again for the first time.

The Book Thief and I Am The Messenger by Zusak.

Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.

The Brothers K and The River Why by David James Duncan and The Second Coming by Walker Percy. The emotional involvement I felt with the characters in each of these was...every word I can think of is completely inadequate to describe how I felt.

What books do you miss reading - being lost in for the first time?

Do you know what I mean by missing a book - wanting to be back in it for the first time discovering what happens to the characters.

If you could erase a book from your memory and then read it again as new... what book/s would it be?