The Heartache of a Good Book

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Have you ever been in love? Have you ever cared so much about a person, be it a spouse, child, boyfriend/girlfriend, or dear friend that it physically hurts you to think about losing them?

Why is a good book like that? I sometimes call them magical books because of the effect they have on me. Magic is the only way to describe it.

You know what I mean (or at least, I hope you do so I don't feel crazy). While I'm reading a truly awesome book, I sometimes get a tightness in my chest. And that feeling that makes me keep reading. A good book demands that I give up sleep. It plagues my thoughts during the day. I make excuses to sneak of and spend time with that book. It's addicting.

Just like being in love.

But why to good things make us do crazy things? I think we can all agree that love is good. A good book is, by definition, good. Yet, we're talking about chest pain and sleep deprivation. It sounds like torture.

I'm sure there are a lot of really complicated, very different answers to this question, but here's my best guess:

That there's always a balance. High highs come with high risk, but we love it. We seek it. Because the height of emotion is the height of human experience.

What are your thoughts? Why have you chosen the life of a fiction junkie?