You’ve just reached the end of a book . . . what do you do now? Savor and muse over the book? Dive right into the next one? Go take the dog for a walk, the kids to the park, before even thinking about the next book you’re going to read? What?
Most often I just dive in to the next book. I usually read at the same pace, which is almost frantic. For some reason, though, I just haven’t been reading as much lately (but that’s a totally different topic!). There are a few books, though, that have really left me wanting more or stopping for a good think. Usually these are stories with such real characters that I just have to know what’s next. Just have to know they’re okay, or at least that their story is resolved.
Dragonfly in Amber, the end of the 2nd book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series, left me so drained and saddened, I had to stay up through the wee hours of the morning to start the next book so I had some closure. I can count on one hand the number of books that I have been so invested in, I actually cried. My heartbreak for Jamie and Claire felt very real. I love it when books do that! Oh, and the end of Breath of Snow and Ashes, the 6th in that series, still makes me antsy for the next one. Wonder when she’ll publish it? 
The first book to do that to me was Where the Red Fern Grows. I cried so hard (I think I was 9) that I actually don’t want to reread that book.
Anthem and The Alchemist are good examples of “stop, think, and be still” when I finish books. But I have such a long list of TBR (to be read, for the uninitiated) books that I rarely pause long between reads.
I’ve heard so many good things about the Outlander series that I’ve finally put it on my Bookmooch list. This better be good!
Trish-you will love the Outlander series!
As for finising books, then what? - I usually have one I can begin rather quickly, so I do. I just love having a book to turn to. In fact, I usually have books already started in several places, so I can read wherever I am. Sometimes, like Becca, I really long for the next in a series - not known for being patient here… Lately, another element has been added. I’ve had several books for which I wrote reviews as soon as I finished reading them, since I’m now on the SCN Book Review Team. You can visit that site and we hope you do!! http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org/
Ahhh, Outlander! I wish I had never read it, so I could be picking it up now for the very first time. Nothing compares to discovering a book that grabs you from the first page, and is like nothing you have ever read before. There’s only one thing better - finding out it’s part of a nice long series!
My problem now is not finishing one book before I start the next. I went to a Lone Star Sleuth event that Susan Albert appeared at, bought several books there, started one of those. Midway through it I found a great book called “The Art of Travel with a Sketchbook” and started reading it as well. It made me want to go back and re-read Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, so I pulled that out. Then the new China Bayles that I had pre-ordered showed up and I decided I’d better get crackin’ on it, before the one that I agreed to review for SCN arrives in the mail! I don’t know what’s come over me. I never used to be this way.