Top Ten Best Bookish Memories

Another top ten list from the Broke and the Bookish. I could only think of 8 though. Anyways. Here they are.

So, this is more of a memory of a particular time it was read. It wasn’t me reading it. When I was a kid, I’m going to say about 8, 9 years old, my mother read the Hobbit to my sister and me. She was like 5 or 6. I think my mother decided that it was time we learned about the world of the Hobbit and Middle Earth, so she read it to us. I just remember lying in a warm bed or on a warm sofa and my mother reading about Bilbo going on adventure and fight dragons. I think she went onto the Lord of the Rings, but we were a bit too young. I have read it twice after that, and I love the movie, cause I’m a die hard Tolkien-fan.

The first Harry Potter book came out in Norwegian when I was 11-12. I was lucky enough to have a mother who just would buy me books and then look at me until I started reading it. So, I did that. It is a blessing to have a book-loving parent. I read this book quickly. It’s the first book I remember reading for so long that I suddenly looked up and realized it was three in the morning. And then I did that the next night as well. I was just drawn in and just read it through and I’ve read it a lot.

Yes, I think we need to add the last Harry Potter book too, because the series was such a huge part of my childhood and teen years. I waited excitedly for it. My mother bought it, my sister took it, and because I got annoyed and didn’t want to wait I went and bought it, cause that’s what I do. I just, I love it. I cried and almost threw it on the floor, or grass. I read it in a day. My mom and dad had a hammock in the garden, it was sunny, I spent an entire day in the hammock/on our trampoline, and I read the whole thing. My parents pretty much got nothing out of my sister and me that day.

Other than Harry Potter the book series that dominated my teen years was Wheel of Time, again, mom. She gave me the first book for Christmas one year. And it took a while before I read it. We were going somewhere on vacation, it was a big book, I brought it. And I was pulled in and then that book series became the biggest book series in my life. Yeah, I’ve waited forever for the last book. When Robert Jordan died I had a moment of extreme self-pity, thinking what am I going to do now? Then Brandon Sanderson came and fixed it. He’s awesome. I just wanted to know how it ended. I wanted to know what happened. I wanted to know how Rand would save the world. I wanted to know everything, and I was pleased. I was happy with things, I cried about other things, and I think it was a fitting ending. I’ll have to reread the whole series, but they’re all big and it’ll take forever, so it’ll wait. But yeah, just the waiting, and the thinking about it and discussing it with my sister, loved it.

There’s nothing particularly special about how I read it, how I read it? I don’t know how to make sentences when I’m tired. There was nothing special about the circumstances under which I read this book. I just wanted to read it, cause it’s a classic. And I didn’t expect to love it so much, and I still don’t know why I just went into a haze and thought, I want this book more than anything. It’s amazing.

When I was a kid this was my favourite book. Before I became insane and brought an entire library with me on vacation I didn’t think far enough into the future to bring more than one book on a two-week vacation. I also wasn’t fluent in English at the time (I think I was 8) so I couldn’t just buy another book in France (which is where I was). Therefore, because I’m weird, I read Matilda again and again that vacation. I think I read it four times. It’s by far the most obsessive and weirdest things I’ve ever done. Once I read it in two days. I have since learned and now overcompensate and I bring an entire library with me on vacation. I still love Matilda, so it didn’t hurt me to read it four times in two weeks.

This isn’t so much about reading the book, although I do love that part, because I love that book. When I read it I thought: “my friend is going to love this book,” so for Christmas I gave her three books I loved reading that year, because I’m awesome. I’ve continued this, and did the same for her next birthday. I gave her Kushiel’s Dart and two other books. And I love the fact that when she saw me next she basically told me it was awesome. And we could talk about it and gush about it. It’s a spectacular book, it’s beautiful, and wonderful, and I love that I can share it with my best friend.

Okay, so this is a sort of long explanation. Are Kalvø is a Norwegian writer. Yes, that’s his name, it’s pronounced differently from the English word 'are'. He is also a comedian/actor/journalist, and he writes books, non-fiction mostly. They’re hilarious, because he is. The reason I am telling you this is because of a football game. In 1998 Norway played Brazil in the World Cup, and Norway won, 2-1. Which is amazing, Norway, as an entity, went crazy. Now, Are Kalvø thought it was a good idea to write an opera about that. And uh, we went to see that, and for some reason he was there, I don’t know why exactly, it wasn't opening night, or any other particularly special night. I have a sort of weird worship-y relationship to this man. I want his brain. Anyways, he was there, and I got his autograph, and he was funny an awesome! And that is good. I think it’s scary/worrying to meet your heroes, because they could disappoint you, and I only talked to him for like, say 2 minutes, which was probably a good thing. He couldn’t disappoint, all he did was be awesome. And I love his books. And meeting him was amazing, even, or maybe especially, since it wasn’t in like a book-related event.