I link memories to objects. This is one reason I own so many physical copies of books -- reading one over again often brings back the memories of the previous time(s) I read that book. Of course, a lot of books just remind me of sitting on my couch or on the swing in our backyard, as those are where I tend to read the most. But some books remind me very vividly of the place or time when I read them. Here are ten fifteen of those that cover the past 20+ years:
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Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes -- I remember reading this while curled up on a fancy couch by a fire in the lobby of a Michigan hotel one winter evening. Christmas was always a very busy and tiring time for my parents because my dad was a pastor and my mom was in charge of the music for the children's Christmas program at church every year. So we would often do some kind of overnight getaway a day or two after Christmas as a family. Just check into a hotel within an hour or two's drive, somewhere with an indoor swimming pool and hot tub. One night of swimming, a hot tub, and getting to watch an old TV show or two on Nick-at-Night (we didn't have cable at home) really refreshed all of us. One year, the hotel we stayed at had a fireplace with a real fire going in their lobby, and we all hung out there for a bit, reading and enjoying the ambience.
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas -- I remember taking my library copy along to the orthodontist when I was eleven years old, and insisting on taking it into the exam room with me so I could read while waiting for the orthodontist to come in and adjust my teeth. I had read a radio-play adaptation of just one small part of this book in a literature book for school, and I fell absolutely in love with it. I convinced my mom to let me check out the real book from the library, and I read the whole thing. Didn't understand the hashish stuff or some of the other, more adult subtextual matter, but I very much understood the plot, characterizations, and so on. It's been one of my top favorite books ever since.
The Man in the Box by Marylois Dunn -- I found this book on the shelves in the junior fiction section of our North Carolina library, quite at random, and became somewhat obsessed with it. In fact, I loved it so much, I wrote a little poem about how wonderful it was and tucked it inside the library copy when I returned it. I don't know if the librarians didn't notice it, or thought it was sweet and left it in there, but I know that poem stayed inside their copy for years. I know because I used to check to see if the book was on the shelves whenever I visited the library, and then see if the poem was still inside, and it always was!
The Princess Bride by William Goldman -- Although I'd loved the movie for years by then, I had never read the book until a friend gave it to me for Christmas my first year of college. I remember reading the book on the plane when I flew home for Christmas break and having such a hard time containing my laughter because I didn't want to annoy my seatmates!
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury -- I first read this book in my family's car on the way back to college to begin my sophomore year. I quick bought it at a bookstore before we left because I had heard that Mel Gibson was in talks to make a movie version, and I was quite a Gibson girl at that point, so that intrigued me. I was absolutely enraptured by the book, and it's still really the only dystopian novel I enjoy.
Dracula by Bram Stoker -- I bought a cheap paperback copy of Dracula at a bookstore in Toronto, Canada, while on choir tour in May of 2000. I'd become obsessed with vampires during my sophomore year of college, thanks to the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spinoff, Angel, and I decided I really ought to read the most-famous vampire book. I read it while sitting on our tour bus, driving from one concert stop to the next, then the next, and so on. I actually didn't care for the book much, but I stuck with it because I didn't have many other books packed.
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde -- For four years after we finished college and got married, my husband and I both worked third shift. I worked at Walmart, stocking shelves all night long. Because I worked full-time, I got a full hour for my lunch break, and I would spend my lunches in the breakroom nibbling a sandwich and reading. Reading, reading, reading. I remember laughing aloud over this book so often there, and how amused my coworkers in the breakroom would be because I found the book so funny. They used to say I read books the way they watched movies, which amused me because I once had a literature professor tell someone I watched movies the way other people read books. Those both make sense, though, as I experience stories in both mediums basically the same way.
The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King -- That same college professor recommended this book to me, but I didn't have time to read for fun while in college because I took a lot of reading-heavy courses in literature and history. So I wrote this down in a little book where I kept my list of things I'd like to read someday. I found it in our small-town Wisconsin library a few years later and was absolutely delighted with it. But my main memory of this book is buying a copy in a mall bookstore in Connecticut years later and rereading it in little snatches while my toddler sat on my lap to watch his daily dose of VeggieTales Silly Songs on YouTube. I can't hear "Monkey" without being immediately reminded of this book.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling -- I pre-ordered my copy of the final Harry Potter book, and the bookseller shipped it a week early by mistake! Scholastic Books offered me a free Harry Potter t-shirt and a gift card if I would agree not to read it before its release date, and I agreed. I used that gift card to buy a boxed set of the Chronicles of Narnia, and I honored my agreement not to read it before the day it released. I was still working third shift in 2007, I was pregnant with my first baby, and I had Tuesday nights off. So when I woke up around 5pm, I started to read, and I read all night long while my husband was away at work, and I finished the book before we went to sleep around 9am the next morning. It was glorious to just immerse myself so fully in that world. And then I didn't have to worry about any of my co-workers sharing spoilers when I went back to work the next night!
Middlemarch by George Eliot -- I took this book along to the hospital when I had to have my gall bladder out. I remember getting wheeled to and from the imaging center so they could take an MRI to see if I really had to remove it or not, and I was just merrily reading this chunkster paperback while they pushed me up one hall and down the next. The nurses and techs and other hospital staff had a great time teasing me about how I must think I was going to be there a long, long time if I brought such a massive book with me. It was a cheery touchstone in what was an otherwise unexpected and stressful event.
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North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell -- I basically never stay up past my bedtime reading. I never pulled a single all-nighter in college. When I am tired, I sleep. However! I took my kids to visit my parents a few years ago, and brought this book along. It was my first time reading it, and one night when I went to bed, I was about two-thirds of the way through the book. I figured I would read to the end of my current chapter and then go to sleep. Except, I just couldn't quit reading, and I ended up staying awake until 3 am and finishing the book. Which I regretted in the morning when my little ones woke me up at 7am, ready for breakfast and playtime. The book will forever remind me of my parent's guest bedroom in their North Carolina home.
The Annotated Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler -- I bought this at a really amazing Barnes and Noble in Baltimore and happened to take it along when I visited a podiatrist because I had to have a toenail removed. I was very glad to have this larger-than-usual paperback along to focus on and shield my gaze from what the podiatrist was doing.
Borden Chantry by Louis L'Amour -- I bought a lovely, battered vintage paperback copy of this at a hole-in-the-wall used bookstore up in the Shenandoah Valley while we were on a family vacation last year, and read the whole thing while cozied up in the cabin we had rented. Which is now my gold standard for where and how to read a western, to be honest. They hit different when you're in a cabin built in the 1700s and snuggled up under a soft throw while curled up on an antique loveseat.
The Black Swan by Rafael Sabatini -- I took this book along to the pool while my kids swam there last summer, when I couldn't swim because I had broken my arm and my surgical incision hadn't healed yet. If I couldn't splash around in the water, at least I could read about adventure on the high seas!
Beauty by Robin McKinley -- I read this book on the flight home after an idyllic visit to my best friend earlier this month. I finished it just before landing again, and the happiness of the book's ending got all tangled up with my joy over such an incredible visit and my gladness at being home with my husband and kids again.
Do you also have vivid memories of where you read particular books? What did you do for Top Ten Tuesday this week? Please share!
