Which books bring you to tears?

[warlord]

Vector Prime, he killed Chewie! It is possibly the saddest moment I had well reading a book and I quit the NJO series after that. Also when Sturm dies in Dragons of Winter Night still gets to me even though I've read it like 5 times. Same goes for Raistlin in the end of the Twins series mainly because Raistlin is basically what I'd be if I was a book character I got a twin and he's the athletic one. So you can imagine the pain in seeing my literary self die.

 

[Digital M@]

I have not read the thread, but I will say


Where the Red Fern Grows
Of Mice & Men
Huckleberry Finn - I laugh to tears in several scenes

 

[Werdnam]

The Hunchback of Notre Dame, specifically the very end.

Of Mice and Men. Every time I think through the ending of this one I get emotional.

Watership Down. Okay, I didn't technically cry at this one, but it's a very powerful book for me. One of my all-time favorites.

 

[Storm Raven]

Wizard of Earthsea, when Sparrowhawk has been shipwrecked on a deserted sandbar and finds an old man and an old woman, unable to speak, and afraid of all human contact, and eventually realizes that these two have been on this tiny stretch of sand since they were small children. Made worse in The Tombs of Atuan when he realizes that they were abandoned there on purpose, by political enemies of their family, for reasons that a six year old girl and a seven year old boy could not possibly understand.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

The ending of Deadhouse Gates choked me up pretty good. There might have even been some tears. Coltane!

 

[Banshee16]

I tear up when reading Mountain of Black Glass, and then Sea of Silver Light....both in parts where Orlando is prominently featured...particularly at the end of SSL when we last see him.

The last meeting between Raistlin and Caramon in the Legends series usually got me a bit choked up as well.

Banshee

 

[Readerbreeder]

I have to second "Flowers for Algernon" as several others have done -- put yourself in that guy's shoes, and I don't think you can have any other reaction but tears.

Here's one that may get me openly mocked, but I'm game... I always get a little teary-eyed every time I read Laurana's eulogy for Sturm in Dragons of Winter Night by Hickman and Weis. Despite some of the failings the remainder of that story had, that scene has such a feeling of loss that I just can't help myself... maybe it has to do with the fact that I first read the book when I was younger and more emotionally open.

On the other side, Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has frequently reduced me to tears of laughter...

 

[Django]

The Innkeeper's Song by Peter S. Beagle

But then, pretty much anything else he's written gets me teary-eyed.

 

[jonesy]

The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren. I still can't believe it's been dubbed a childrens book.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Well, when it comes to laughing 'till I cry, Dave Barry always hits the spot. I'm not so fond of his novels, but MAN! That dude is funny!