When I come to the end of a really good book, I feel myself becoming slightly sad. A truly good story invites you in and makes you feel as though you’ve gotten to know the characters on a personal level. At the end of that experience, it’s understandable to go through a period of mourning. You’re saying goodbye to friends, and odds are good that you’re never going to see them again. (Even Sue Grafton’s alphabet series ended at Y.)
It’s the same way I feel at the end of a trip. There’s too much to see in this world for me to repeat my outings, so if I’ve had a wonderful time, I gaze at the landscape knowing it’s not going to be part of my world anymore. I’m very grateful that I had a chance to be there, but life is short, and I have miles to go before I sleep.
This is why “epilogue” is one of my least favorite words. While I appreciate an author’s instinct to wrap things up and kind of send the reader one last postcard, that word is the moment when I can no longer deny that this particular journey is coming to an end.
Nooooooo! Don’t leave me! But at the same time, it was wonderful to meet you, and I’m excited to meet the next character in the next book.
Adieu, adieu… epiloguing is so bittersweet.
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The View from a Drawbridge 
Well, you assuage that by picking up the next book on your read-list…
Oh, and I do. 🙂 Does that make me a fair weather friend? An opportunist? Hmmm…
I prefer “postscript” because it lends itself to adding more and more and more. Or how about “afterword” which could be infinitely expanded to more-and-more-words-after! I mean, we are still talking about Shakespeare and it is five hundred years later, right?
You’re most definitely a glass is half full kind of person, Valarie, my friend. 🙂