I read a book from time to time, but not many really touch me greatly. I think I have a pretty specific interest, but it's hard to grasp.
The themes that touch me are related to loneliness, solitude, especially self-inflicted, through sense of overwhelming responsibility and/or guilt. I always cry on "trauma backstory" scenes with children that become used to baby their parents, for instance.
I love when that tension is ultimately released, however – finding of a community, of meaning. I like when that is viscerally described, not as a matter-of-fact, but how it can actually feel. Though I don't remember examples that touched me from this side (the ones below are more about the loneliness itself).
The books that touched me the most are:
– Gone with the Wind (quite unaware of context back when reading it) – I like the "birth of a nation" beginning, but now I'm looking for the later parts: the tragedy, and the self-isolation.
– East of Eden – I liked, again, the "blank state" settled California, and again, years of depression and self-isolation of one of the characters.
– Wuthering Heights – I liked the extreme isolation, and ending.
– 100 years of solitude (the solitude, but too much) – isolation is touching, but hate how it ended.
by Man____aWatermelon