The "coffee" effect- does this happen to anyone else?

[Armand]

I truly, madly, deeply love fantasy thriller, but I'm deliberately avoiding them for the next month or so because my life is very busy.

The reason I'm avoiding them is because they have the same effect on me as a lot of coffee- which is to say that they keep me awake late into the night because- if the book is good- I have an incredibly hard time putting it down, and I'll wind up staying up until 1 am on a weeknight when I should have been in bed hours before.

Does anyone else have this problem?

Not only that, but when the plot is really pulling together, I swear that my pulse increases.

And not only do they keep me awake all night, but if the story is particularly good, even after I put the book down and go to bed, I'll lie there awake and thinking about the characters and plotlines and what I liked and didn't like, so that keeps me awake even longer.

The whole thing makes me sad because I have a lot of books that I'm dying to get to- but I've consigned myself to temporarily reading a book on the physics of time which is great, but doesn't have a plot that will keep me awake all night.

[Trike]

Yes.

Just the other night I was reading Daniel Suarez's Kill Decision and it was clear at one point there was about to be a car chase which would Change Everything™®, so I closed the book and said to myself (I literally said this out loud), "I'm too tired to read a car chase." because I had to get up in a few hours and I knew I wouldn't sleep once I got into that.

[[deleted user]]

Armand, have you tried reading your thriller for a while, and then putting it down and reading a few pages of the book on the physics of time, and then going to bed? Hopefully then your adrenaline level would subside, and also you'd have something less exciting at the front of your mind. Of course you'd have to be strong-willed and force yourself to put down the thriller! Just a suggestion.

[Julie]

Even if I manage to put down the book, I still lie awake in bed wondering about what will happen next so I guess it's best just to read it. Either way I'll be sleep deprived, but at least I'll know what happened if I read it.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Yep. Both the "not wanting to go to bed so I can read more" thing and also the "ending up lying in bed, anyway, thinking about the book".

Mostly this is a book that's really good (or, unfortunately, really bad), and, thus, on my mind. Sometimes it's just a world and characters I love and want to spend more time with.

I've also dreamed about books I've been reading... including dreaming alternate endings for books where I liked the books but not the resolutions.

Sometimes I get in this repetitive dream cycle where I keep dreaming about the same thing all night and I'm like "Ok, enough already! I'm tired of dreaming about that book!"

[Michele]

I'm entirely the opposite! I love a good murder mystery or thriller to get me off to sleep. The more dramatic and gory and action-packed the quicker I relax and dose off. My problem is staying awake long enough to read.

Horror fantasy will unsettle me before bed - but other than that I'm lulled off by most good fantasy or straight detective reads.

But then I've always had incredibly vivid violent film-like dreams for as long as I can remember and I haven't yet found a book to rival them and I usually enjoy the sort of dreams most people would call 'nightmares.'

[Armand]

thanks folks- good to know I'm not alone!

[Armand]

Chris wrote: "Armand, have you tried reading your thriller for a while, and then putting it down and reading a few pages of the book on the physics of time, and then going to bed? ..."

That's genius! Great idea Chris- I think you just changed my life! I'm trying it- like- today!

[Brenda]

Oh, for sure. And then you're groggy in the morning. If you go with it -- if you don't have to be up early every day -- then your body clock gradually shifts around, and you're leading a vampiric existence, awake in the hours of darkness and snoozing all day.
It is a point of pride for authors to write this type of book. I can brag of the fan letter I got from a woman who had bought HOW LIKE A GOD to read before going to bed. She was an accountant, and in the spring (tax season) she needed to wind down before slumber. So she ran hot water into the bathtub and settled in to read a chapter. Four hours later she became aware that her butt was chilled because she was sitting in a tubful of cold water and was halfway through the book. So she wrote me to complain.

[[deleted user]]

Michele wrote: But then I've always had incredibly vivid violent film-like dreams for as long as I can remember and I haven't yet found a book to rival them and I usually enjoy the sort of dreams most people would call 'nightmares.'

I used to have a lot of nightmarish dreams in my teens and twenties, often about forbidding castles on crags and old dark houses in the middle of swamps. Nowadays I seem to dream mostly about getting lost in the London transport network. This isn't as scary, but it also isn't nearly as interesting. I can't help feeling that as I get old and staid, my dreams are doing the same.

I don't try to write books that will keep people awake, but then I'm not a professional writer, so maybe I'm less ambitious. I do try to write books that I hope will help people escape for a while from the humdrum business of ordinary living, and also hopefully make them laugh.

[Traci]

I love puzzle stories. You know, the author gives you hints but you don't know what is going on? Like the TV show Lost-which btw I never learned what was going on. And the book series Malazan. I spent so much time thinking about those books, and questioning and guessing. You'd think I'd like mysteries, but I don't, it's actually my least favorite genre.

[Armand]

Colleen wrote: ..."I keep dreaming about the same thing all night and I'm like "Ok, enough already! I'm tired of dreaming about that book!" ..."

that's so funny!

[[deleted user]]

For years after my wife left teaching, she used to have dreams in which she was teaching a class of kids. She used to wake up in the morning and say, 'I've been teaching all night again - and I never get paid!'

[Julie]

I have terribly vivid dreams as well. It's actually quite confusing because sometimes I will dream I've told someone something when in reality I haven't, I've just dreamed about telling them.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I have that, too, Julie. I've also dreamt I did work I hadn't done - and that really sucked when I realized I still had to do it.


Recently I was reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas and for two nights in a row I had strange dreams about Hogan's Heros type Nazis.

[[deleted user]]

When I was a kid I used to dream that I'd been given some really wonderful toys. When I woke up and realised it was just a dream, I was very disappointed.

[Julie]

Chris wrote: "When I was a kid I used to dream that I'd been given some really wonderful toys. When I woke up and realised it was just a dream, I was very disappointed."

That would be very disappointing. :)

[[deleted user]]

The thing is, they were toys that were more wonderful than any toys you could actually get. At least, that was how it seemed in the dreams. And they were under my bed. So at first I used to look under the bed when I woke up to see if they were there, but they never were. After a while I stopped looking.

I should add that my real toys were pretty damn good, so I had no real cause for complaint. :-)

There's got to be a story here somewhere...

[Julie]

36 hours! Wow.

[Syed Zeeshan]

Canary wrote: "Yep. Once, I decided to go ahead and read myself to sleep and see if I could. 36 hours later and upon finishing my third book, I gave up. :D"

Lol.. so what did you do after you gave up? slept? or started another book? :p

[Deanne]

I've had really vivid dreams to do with work, still remember the one where I had a kidney transplant, should have known it was a dream when the transplanted kidney was put in the wrong place.
Do occasionally get so sucked into a book that I keep reading til 2 or 3am.

[Julie]

I was so engrossed with Ender's Game I read the entire book in one day, which is a big deal for me. Could not put it down. The Lost Symbol was like that too.

[Bill]

Oh yeh! But, I love a book that keeps me up all night. I can usually get away with it, being my own boss.

[Sharon]

Oh yes ... not as often as I'd like, especially now that I'm retired and on my own schedule, but always have been inclined that way.

I skip most of the computer time, don't answer the phone, heat up leftovers for meals and take the book to bed with me if it isn't finished, just in case I wake up and can't go back to sleep!

I love books like this and just wish there were more of them.

[Sarah]

Yes.

I've learned to categorize and divide my reading so that my right-before-bedtime-book doesn't keep my mind racing with life-altering questions as I ponder the meaning of the universe. Also, wine helps...

[E.J.]

._.
Perhaps not the same TYPE of book, but YES, YES, YES!
For me...
I could not put down "Thirteen Reasons Why" EVER.
I finished it in less than a day, and I still remember everything from it.

[Steven]

Sarah wrote: "Yes.

I've learned to categorize and divide my reading so that my right-before-bedtime-book doesn't keep my mind racing with life-altering questions as I ponder the meaning of the universe. Also, w..."

Wine never does anything for me. I tried everything from beer to Everclear, and alcohol just makes me get even more creative with how I rewrite the story in my head. Or try to find a place to insert myself somehow. Its pretty sad really. But by the time I get a quarter of the way into a book, its either a 'stay up all night reading' book, or its boring and I am finishing it on principle.

[Amy]

Yes. Once I get involved I forget time and it's suddenly 2am!