Joanne, I agree that “haunted” isn’t really the right term for this one. I’ve heard much about Columbine, and look forward to reading it.

Thanks to all for your very thoughtful comments. I’m intrigued by the books that you mention that have given you a similar experience — I have read many of them, and see how they would do that. The rest, that I haven’t read, are now on my reading list.

Joanne, I agree that “haunted” isn’t really the right term for this one. I’ve heard much about Columbine, and look forward to reading it.

Thanks to all for your very thoughtful comments. I’m intrigued by the books that you mention that have given you a similar experience — I have read many of them, and see how they would do that. The rest, that I haven’t read, are now on my reading list.

I’ve read lots of books that have stayed with me and I wanted to press on people and say “read this”.

But haunted to me points to unease and I would say that Columbine truly haunted me. It literally gave me nightmares and I was so distracted while reading it, I had to put down another book and just finish it.

I’ve read lots of books that have stayed with me and I wanted to press on people and say “read this”.

But haunted to me points to unease and I would say that Columbine truly haunted me. It literally gave me nightmares and I was so distracted while reading it, I had to put down another book and just finish it.

1. Rasa is Sanskrit for “The mood or sentiment that is evoked by a work of art. [noun]” and “it is also used to describe something many cultures don’t have the words to describe: the thrill of aesthetic pleasure, powerful emotional resonance, and mood or sentiment evoked when a person experiences a work of art.”

2.Yoin (yoh-EEN) is Japanese, and perhaps a bit too esoteric, but it’s defined as “Experiential reverberation that continues to move you long after the initial external stimulus has ceased.” It’s also explained as being the word for “any kind of moving experience that causes profound emotional reverberations.”

Neither of these quite defines the phenomenon you mentioned of not being able to get a book out of your head, but I’ve found that books that stick with me like that tend to be ones that have made some sort of emotional impact, which I might be able to describe using one of the words above.

1. Rasa is Sanskrit for “The mood or sentiment that is evoked by a work of art. [noun]” and “it is also used to describe something many cultures don’t have the words to describe: the thrill of aesthetic pleasure, powerful emotional resonance, and mood or sentiment evoked when a person experiences a work of art.”

2.Yoin (yoh-EEN) is Japanese, and perhaps a bit too esoteric, but it’s defined as “Experiential reverberation that continues to move you long after the initial external stimulus has ceased.” It’s also explained as being the word for “any kind of moving experience that causes profound emotional reverberations.”

Neither of these quite defines the phenomenon you mentioned of not being able to get a book out of your head, but I’ve found that books that stick with me like that tend to be ones that have made some sort of emotional impact, which I might be able to describe using one of the words above.