This week’s Booking Through Thursday asks:
“What was the most emotional read you have ever had?”
If by emotional it means books that made me cry, I would have to choose from a rather limited field. I am admittedly not a very sentimental person. Books or movies generally do not make me cry. Only very few books have ever made me cry. Right now only Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton comes to mind.
There aren’t many big moments in this story. But there are a lot of little moments that makes this book what it is. Moments like Mr. Chips’ first day at Brookfield, his memories of Katherine, working at Brookfield through the war years, having the new school boys over for tea. It is little details like this that made this book an emotional read for me. And the ending, although admittedly sappy, pulled at my heartstrings. After finishing Goodbye, Mr. Chips I was bawling like a baby. I guess that makes it the most emotional read I’ve ever read.
A Paperback Life 
When I was in college, I read the entirety of Goodbye, Mr. Chips one afternoon in the school’s library, way down in the basement stacks. Did the same thing a couple of years later. I don’t think I ever checked it out. I picked it up because the 1969 movie (which I never saw!) has Peter O’Toole as Mr. Chipping. Lovely book.
Yes Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a lovely book. I’m so glad to find someone else who loved it. Loved your experience with it! The book was down in the basement stacks? Shows how obscure even a best seller can become after its heyday.
Most of the fiction, literature and film theory, and poetry was is the west basement. I spent a lot of time down there!
Good to know! Finding hidden treasures like that is always gratifying. 🙂
I like writers who can make little moments have great emotional significance. Would have to check this one out.
I’d have to warn you though. Goodbye, Mr. Chips is majorly sappy. It’s not my usual style. But I still loved it.
I haven’t read this one, but now I’ll have to check it out. Here’s MY THURSDAY MEMES POST
I hope you do check Goodbye, Mr. Chips out and like it. It’s a book that’s close to my heart.
I haven’t heard of this But will have to check it out. I’m opposite I’m quite the cryer when I want to be. But I like it. Here’s my BTT
I doubt that many people has heard of Goodbye, Mr. Chips. It’s a bestseller from 1934, the kind of thing only a person like me would be interested in!
Incidentally, Robert Donat beat out Clark Gable (nominated for Gone with the Wind) at the Oscars for Best Actor in 1939 for his portrayal of Mr. Chipping in Goodbye, Mr. Chips.