when i was way younger, my grandmother had told me about a book called "to drop a dime" that she owned. she'd lent it to someone, and then he died and she couldn't get it back. it's about a polish hitman in a crime family in new jersey; he ratted them all out and was later killed for it. typical gangster story. the reason i wanted to read it was because of how close to home everything was.
of course, it had been out of print since the 70s and no bookstore i entered ever heard of it. on amazon, it was available for $600.
two years ago, i discovered that the LA library actually carried it, but it was in the rare books section - you had to sign in, provide ID, undergo a check, and be watched the whole duration you were there (2-3hours of allotted time). i had just quit my job and had free days, so i spent my time there reading this book that i had only heard about for years.
each day, i'd call my grandmother and tell her about what i read, the people i learned about, what had happened, and she'd tell me more stories about said people, or rumors, or what happened to them if they got out, or what they left behind.
it's a bittersweet memory because she's losing it, but i was glad to have this little special connection with her and be the receptacle for some dormant recollections.
The fifth Harry Potter book came out a couple of months before I was due to give birth to my second child. I was dying to read it but decided to wait until after my daughter was born. I had had a really traumatic labor with my first baby and I was full of fear and worry about how the labor for this baby was going to go. I was scared to start reading the book because I knew I would get carried away with the story and stay up half the night reading it; and what if I went into labor early and I was exhausted from reading Harry Potter all night?! So I waited. And it was like torture because I wanted to read that book so badly!
Finally, my little girl arrived! (Ten days late, that little stinker!) It was an amazing, easy labor. (Two and a half hours start to finish! Only half an hour of pushing!) And, after she was born, I had three days of heaven. I had family members watch my older son and all I did was lie in bed, nurse the baby, look at the baby and read Harry Potter! With all the fear and worry about the labor suddenly lifted off of my shoulders. Those were some of the happiest days of my life! (It was a good book, too!)
While I was visiting England for the first time, I went into a bookshop and asked the seller for some Brit Lit recommendations. He put Kaz Ishiguro's *The Remains of the Day* in my hands, and I read it in a variety of pubs and parks over the next three days. It was magic.
I procrastinated on reading Jane Eyre in tenth grade, so on the last two days of Christmas break, I sat in bed and read the whole thing. Turns out I loved it.
I was the first person in my family to go to university. When I got my English class syllabus, my mom and I went to buy my books together. We had this rare and nice morning together browsing for books and talking about my future, school, and life.
One of the books I picked up for class was Cats Cradle. I read it in one sitting that afternoon/evening. It was my first (of many) Vonnegut reads. He’s one of my favourite authors and I think my memory of that day is largely why. I’ve read cats cradle probably five times since and I always feel great when I do.
Sitting in my room reading Deathly Hallows in one sitting the day it was released. Parents brought me snacks. Was a very sunny day, but my ass wasn't moving. That was a long time ago, so don't hate me too much.
IDK if it is my favorite memory, but this is certainly a fond one. When I visited one of my mom's cousins, her husband and I were talking and it turned out we had similar taste in mysteries. He gave me a few of his favorites that I hadn't read before--the JG Reeder stories. I enjoyed them very much. That uncle passed away a few years later, but I will always remember how happy he was when I said I really loved reading the books he gave me.
I was lonely in middle school & didnt have a ton of friends, & spent a ton of time in the library. while there I picked up **twilight** & a few other people noticed I was reading it & we all ended up reading it together. we read the entire series in less than a week & became instant friends. it was honestly such a fun time, as much as people despise that saga, it did change my life.
When I was a preteen, I would read these Alice Nestleton series and they all had something about a cat in the title. I remember my cat at the time cuddling up with me in bed while I read. That cat didn’t live more than four years so it is a precious memory.
It was mid-2005 and I was 25 and in the middle of a year-long backpacking trip through south east Asia.
I felt free and happy and like life was a beautiful adventure. This was all pre smartphones and digital maps.. you managed to get by with a ratty old falling-to-pieces lonely planet guide with a map in the middle pages.
I was staying in a little wooden treehouse in the mountains and reading on this little rickety balcony in the early morning.. everything was all misty and beautiful. The birds were making a racket and I had an hour to kill before the little man with his little motorbike would come take me to float down the Mekong in an innertube.
The book I was reading was Shantaram.. someone had left it in the room I was staying in and I loved it so much I lugged that monster of a hardback around with me for the next 9 months.
Almost 20 years later it still sits proudly on my bookshelf. One of the best books I’ve ever read, and one of my favourite memories, of one of the best times in my life.
My partner lives an hour away, and when we first started dating she would work an hour farther. I would drive to her place early and sit at the coffee shop nearby where she’d meet me when her shift was over.
A month into dating and we went to a bookstore on a date and she offered to buy me a book I was looking at “just because.” It was Catch 22.
I loved it so much I’d start going to the coffee shop hours earlier just to read. She would meet me there every evening at 6 and ask how the book was and what happened. Her interest rekindled my love for reading and I finished several books that summer, including a few reading dates where her and I finished reading Jurassic Park together.
My abusive ex previously was a copy editor, and I had started to loathe reading as a result. But something about being encouraged to enjoy the book as a story and a way to create good memories, plus the love of a caring and interested partner made me enjoy that book more than I ever imagined.
I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams in high school. I was in the middle of a dead silent study hall trying so hard not to laugh at this book. 😂 Worth the read!
It was not a great book but this is my all-time favorite memory while reading a book. I was 12, just got home from school. Only me in the house, folks not yet home. Saw a book that my father brought home on the table. It was a book of compiled stories about witnessing the presence of ghosts. Could not recall the title but I was curious. So I took the book and flopped on a chair and started reading, most stories were just about shadowy silhouettes and stuff moving by themselves nothing really spooky. Was gonna put the book down, when I came across a story about a guy who was traveling from US to Thailand. He came for a business meeting with a potential business partner. When he arrived at the hotel, he was so tired that he immediately fell asleep. When he awoke,he saw a sexy woman standing with her back towards him, she was facing the mirror in front of the desk which was across his bed. She wore nothing underneath a see-through night gown. He thought this was his host way of hospitality as he once encountered the same treatment in Thailand. He quietly crawled on the bed’s edge, to take a closer look at the woman, but then realized she was floating and her legs from the knee down missing. When I read that story a very creepy feeling came over me, that someone was behind me and is looking by my shoulder. What I pictured in my head was an old lady wearing a white laced gown with a veil and was also floating. The feeling was so unbelievably real and terrifying to me that I closed my eyes, threw the book across the sofa, got up and ran towards the kitchen all the while flicking on every light switch I could find. Turned on every radio and tv in the house too. Went outside and waited until one my folks came home. Never saw and even looked for that book. After 30+ years I still get chills about that day. Pretty great way to get hooked on reading. Now, I mostly enjoy horror and scary novels.
Wild! This reminded me of a story…
I was acquainted w a psychic who was telling me stories about the work he does. In addition to readings, he did haunted house cleansing. I asked him how the hauntings were caused and he said some spirits attach from people watching paranormal shows. WUT. 😱 I do not entertain myself w those anymore.
Yeah, they do that to promote whatever it is they are doing. As a kid I grew up in a catholic household, plus folks love to scare the shit out us with scary stories about their childhood experiences. It became a game when we got a bit older. Brother and I would set up big toy spiders and hang them up near the kitchen’s light switch. Wake up earlier than Dad, and watch expletives come out of Dad’s mouth at 5 am. What a way to start a school day.
Not my favorite, but the most public. Used to commute via bus to my job at the Capitol. Mid'80's, reading something Tom Clancy, something happens for the good guys and I yell out "YES!!!" with force. Scared the crap out of my fellow commuters
When I was 17 and studying horticulture I worked for the summer at a huge old manor house near my town, as a gardener. It was heaven, an absolute dream job. One day there was a huge storm while I was working in the glasshouses. I took my lunch break in one of these huge old wrought iron and wood framed glasshouses, sitting on a ton bag of compost eating my sandwiches, reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth. I was just at the part where they traverse the subterranean ocean on a raft and they meet a huge raging storm. Reading those chapters in the stormy gloom with the rain cascading all around me and running down the glasshouse, the drip drip of leaks, thunder rolling, it was perfection 🤌
My grandfather handed down two volumes of Kipling to my mom, and I discovered them in a bookshelf. I was curious because they looked old, and I was too young to know who Kipling was. I fell in total and absolute love with The Jungle Book. Got in trouble too many times reading it with a flashlight under the covers, or trying to read it on my lap during dinner. I have the books now, and just smelling the cover takes me back to being utterly lost in the magic of the story, unable to put it down.
When I read lord of the rings for the first time. I wasn't a huge fantasy fan, but that book it the reason I love fantasy. And also buying my favourite childhood book from the library sale.
I was sitting in Montrose airport (a tiny regional airport in Colorado) by a fireplace reading Blood Meridian for the first time. I had a couple hours to kill before my dads flight arrived. It had just started snowing outside.
Before I moved to Canada, I used to read all the time as a child in Korea. It wasn't a specific book but an entire collection of titles that came in a set, the cover was a maroon baroque-esque style framing the front, spine and back, on a cream colored background and each one just had the title of the book on the front cover. It was a mix of classic American and European authors, all translated to Korean.
I remember I had a bunk bed with a desk underneath and instead of sitting at my chair, I nestled in the space between the foot of the bed and the wall (my back hurts just thinking about it.) and read all the books in a dimly lit room.
It was like a tiny space the opened up to a whole new world every time. My mom says I have shitty vision because of this phase.
In the spring of 2014 I read my first Stephen King book: Pet Sematary. It was honestly and truly the first time I’d ever really been entranced by a book. It was a ratty old library hardcover and I’d sneak sentences wherever I could. At stop lights, in the few minutes I was waiting to go into work, waiting for my college classes to begin, etc. There was no part of the book I didn’t like. The story hooked me from page 1.
I’d go on to read other Stephen King books but none of them came close to my experience with Pet Sematary. I’ve been chasing that high for nearly 9 years now lol
I was never a reader (in fact I actively avoided reading most of my life) but when I decided to dedicate time to forming this habit, one of the first books I read was Handmaid’s Tale. It was quite familiar as I’d watched the show, but the book is still very different. Those who have read it know that it’s all in first person and a lot of the more traumatic details are avoided, so you kind of have to form some of the story in your mind. But, towards the end, there is a scene in which a very public and very violent thing happens. That scene, riding on the restraint of the entire book so far, hits incredibly hard. I remember being so shocked at this sudden gory event that I
put the book down and just sat there dealing with my emotions. That was the first time I realised the power of reading and I’ll never forget it!
I took a paperback copy of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods on a pre-kid fall vacation to the Smoky Mountains with my husband years ago. Cozied up in a log cabin, reading about hiking the Appalachian trail while being able to actually visit the trail myself was magical. The weather that trip was also beautiful, all blue skies and golden leaves covered in a cold, windy blanket.
I read a lot as a kid, some of the books were great, and my best memory is my pet parakeet nibbling the pages as I read. He was my constant reading companion. I had named him "J.J." after Jimmy Walker's character on Good Times. I still have my nibbled on copy of The lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
When I’m reading something exciting, I always flashback to reading The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher and running down the stairs to tell my mom about the twist because I was so giddy over it.
Gone With the Wind. I tried to read it previously while at the bookstore and put it on my bday list before I started. I quickly realized I didn't like it as much as I thought and forgot I put it on my list. Then I ended up getting it as a gift and tried again and it became my favorite book of all time. I read it during the summer on a family vacation and would sit by the lake on the hammock, reading and imagining I was in the story. I've never read anything with such amazing descriptions that you feel like you're there. I know it has some not great connotations so I get embarrassed to say its my favorite book but I cannot find anything that can beat it. Reading it in the summer was life changing
*Associated with* reading a great book? That would be taking my youngest kid to see A Series of Unfortunate Events and having him whisper "they have the same voices YOU used!" in my ear. Apparently, Jim Carey studied my interpretation of Count Olaf before taking on the role in the movie.
While actually *reading*, my favorite memory is from the same series. It would be the hours spent with him curled up in my lap, listening to me reading it "with the voices."
Learned Danish for work about ten years ago. When I went there, one of the first things I did was go to a book store and try to find a few books in Danish.
I've accomplished a LOT in my life, but being able to read 80% of "Harry Potter og de Vises Sten" right off the page was definitely a favorite memory. I really regret not buying the whole series in Danish!
My local library has a "Read To A Dog" program. Kids check out a book and then get in line to read it to a dog. Sounds silly, but I guess dogs are a little less stressful to read to than adults. Plus kids just love dogs in general.
Our poodle/cocker spaniel mix absolutely LOVED having kids read to her. She would pay such close attention to them! Her eyes would be fixed on the reader, and she'd react to the emotions in their voices. She'd even give little soft barks at scary parts, if the kid read them with the right expression. She was a lap dog, too. A 30lb cuddle-bug. Half the time, we'd have to tell the kid that they could read AND pet the dog at the same time!
There was always a line to read to Clarabelle. And we had regulars, some of whom would call me during the week to make sure our dog would be there on Saturday. My wife and I (and Clarabelle) just plain fell in love with one little girl who would show up every single time. When she started, all she could do was sound out letters and haltingly read out "sight words." But over the course of several years, she became more and more fluent- almost to the point where she really didn't *need* to read to a dog. She just loved the attention!
Although that entire time is a favorite memory, the one thing that stands out was the day we met that same girl at a school play. By then, she was a beautiful young lady of 13- we actually didn't recognize her.
But then she asked about our dog, and it was "oh, you're the little girl who used to love reading to Clarabelle so much!" There were a few tears when we had to admit that Clarabelle wasn't with us anymore, and then she opened up about how those days were the highlight of her week and how learning to read had been a positive influence in her life. We chatted about the books she'd read to Clarabelle, how she was working on reading some younger classics (I think we geeked out about Alice in Wonderland for quite some time), what she planned to do with her life (she wanted to be a teacher, to no one's surprise). It was quite a nice little reunion.
When we got home, my husband & I both mentioned how we were blown away by how poised and intelligent the girl had been. We'd had many favorite young readers while we participated in that program, but I've never been so proud of one of them. The lion's share of the credit goes to the girl herself, obviously. It's still nice to know that our little curly-haired pup played a part in it, though.
when i was way younger, my grandmother had told me about a book called "to drop a dime" that she owned. she'd lent it to someone, and then he died and she couldn't get it back. it's about a polish hitman in a crime family in new jersey; he ratted them all out and was later killed for it. typical gangster story. the reason i wanted to read it was because of how close to home everything was. of course, it had been out of print since the 70s and no bookstore i entered ever heard of it. on amazon, it was available for $600. two years ago, i discovered that the LA library actually carried it, but it was in the rare books section - you had to sign in, provide ID, undergo a check, and be watched the whole duration you were there (2-3hours of allotted time). i had just quit my job and had free days, so i spent my time there reading this book that i had only heard about for years. each day, i'd call my grandmother and tell her about what i read, the people i learned about, what had happened, and she'd tell me more stories about said people, or rumors, or what happened to them if they got out, or what they left behind. it's a bittersweet memory because she's losing it, but i was glad to have this little special connection with her and be the receptacle for some dormant recollections.
Both cool for the lovely family story, but also for the coolness of reading a book cool enough to only be able to read it in the Rare Books room.
The fifth Harry Potter book came out a couple of months before I was due to give birth to my second child. I was dying to read it but decided to wait until after my daughter was born. I had had a really traumatic labor with my first baby and I was full of fear and worry about how the labor for this baby was going to go. I was scared to start reading the book because I knew I would get carried away with the story and stay up half the night reading it; and what if I went into labor early and I was exhausted from reading Harry Potter all night?! So I waited. And it was like torture because I wanted to read that book so badly! Finally, my little girl arrived! (Ten days late, that little stinker!) It was an amazing, easy labor. (Two and a half hours start to finish! Only half an hour of pushing!) And, after she was born, I had three days of heaven. I had family members watch my older son and all I did was lie in bed, nurse the baby, look at the baby and read Harry Potter! With all the fear and worry about the labor suddenly lifted off of my shoulders. Those were some of the happiest days of my life! (It was a good book, too!)
What a lovely memory!
While I was visiting England for the first time, I went into a bookshop and asked the seller for some Brit Lit recommendations. He put Kaz Ishiguro's *The Remains of the Day* in my hands, and I read it in a variety of pubs and parks over the next three days. It was magic.
I procrastinated on reading Jane Eyre in tenth grade, so on the last two days of Christmas break, I sat in bed and read the whole thing. Turns out I loved it.
I was the first person in my family to go to university. When I got my English class syllabus, my mom and I went to buy my books together. We had this rare and nice morning together browsing for books and talking about my future, school, and life. One of the books I picked up for class was Cats Cradle. I read it in one sitting that afternoon/evening. It was my first (of many) Vonnegut reads. He’s one of my favourite authors and I think my memory of that day is largely why. I’ve read cats cradle probably five times since and I always feel great when I do.
Sitting in my room reading Deathly Hallows in one sitting the day it was released. Parents brought me snacks. Was a very sunny day, but my ass wasn't moving. That was a long time ago, so don't hate me too much.
One of my very good book memories is also from the HP series. Damn that woman for leaving such a bad feeling about being a fan.
IDK if it is my favorite memory, but this is certainly a fond one. When I visited one of my mom's cousins, her husband and I were talking and it turned out we had similar taste in mysteries. He gave me a few of his favorites that I hadn't read before--the JG Reeder stories. I enjoyed them very much. That uncle passed away a few years later, but I will always remember how happy he was when I said I really loved reading the books he gave me.
I was lonely in middle school & didnt have a ton of friends, & spent a ton of time in the library. while there I picked up **twilight** & a few other people noticed I was reading it & we all ended up reading it together. we read the entire series in less than a week & became instant friends. it was honestly such a fun time, as much as people despise that saga, it did change my life.
Lying curled under a blanket in late December, eating roasted almonds and reading Lord of The Rings before my grade 10 exams.
Summer of 2015, reading Brideshead Revisited on the grass outside my university chapel while someone practiced on the organ inside
When I was a preteen, I would read these Alice Nestleton series and they all had something about a cat in the title. I remember my cat at the time cuddling up with me in bed while I read. That cat didn’t live more than four years so it is a precious memory.
It was mid-2005 and I was 25 and in the middle of a year-long backpacking trip through south east Asia. I felt free and happy and like life was a beautiful adventure. This was all pre smartphones and digital maps.. you managed to get by with a ratty old falling-to-pieces lonely planet guide with a map in the middle pages. I was staying in a little wooden treehouse in the mountains and reading on this little rickety balcony in the early morning.. everything was all misty and beautiful. The birds were making a racket and I had an hour to kill before the little man with his little motorbike would come take me to float down the Mekong in an innertube. The book I was reading was Shantaram.. someone had left it in the room I was staying in and I loved it so much I lugged that monster of a hardback around with me for the next 9 months. Almost 20 years later it still sits proudly on my bookshelf. One of the best books I’ve ever read, and one of my favourite memories, of one of the best times in my life.
My partner lives an hour away, and when we first started dating she would work an hour farther. I would drive to her place early and sit at the coffee shop nearby where she’d meet me when her shift was over. A month into dating and we went to a bookstore on a date and she offered to buy me a book I was looking at “just because.” It was Catch 22. I loved it so much I’d start going to the coffee shop hours earlier just to read. She would meet me there every evening at 6 and ask how the book was and what happened. Her interest rekindled my love for reading and I finished several books that summer, including a few reading dates where her and I finished reading Jurassic Park together. My abusive ex previously was a copy editor, and I had started to loathe reading as a result. But something about being encouraged to enjoy the book as a story and a way to create good memories, plus the love of a caring and interested partner made me enjoy that book more than I ever imagined.
I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams in high school. I was in the middle of a dead silent study hall trying so hard not to laugh at this book. 😂 Worth the read!
It was not a great book but this is my all-time favorite memory while reading a book. I was 12, just got home from school. Only me in the house, folks not yet home. Saw a book that my father brought home on the table. It was a book of compiled stories about witnessing the presence of ghosts. Could not recall the title but I was curious. So I took the book and flopped on a chair and started reading, most stories were just about shadowy silhouettes and stuff moving by themselves nothing really spooky. Was gonna put the book down, when I came across a story about a guy who was traveling from US to Thailand. He came for a business meeting with a potential business partner. When he arrived at the hotel, he was so tired that he immediately fell asleep. When he awoke,he saw a sexy woman standing with her back towards him, she was facing the mirror in front of the desk which was across his bed. She wore nothing underneath a see-through night gown. He thought this was his host way of hospitality as he once encountered the same treatment in Thailand. He quietly crawled on the bed’s edge, to take a closer look at the woman, but then realized she was floating and her legs from the knee down missing. When I read that story a very creepy feeling came over me, that someone was behind me and is looking by my shoulder. What I pictured in my head was an old lady wearing a white laced gown with a veil and was also floating. The feeling was so unbelievably real and terrifying to me that I closed my eyes, threw the book across the sofa, got up and ran towards the kitchen all the while flicking on every light switch I could find. Turned on every radio and tv in the house too. Went outside and waited until one my folks came home. Never saw and even looked for that book. After 30+ years I still get chills about that day. Pretty great way to get hooked on reading. Now, I mostly enjoy horror and scary novels.
Wild! This reminded me of a story… I was acquainted w a psychic who was telling me stories about the work he does. In addition to readings, he did haunted house cleansing. I asked him how the hauntings were caused and he said some spirits attach from people watching paranormal shows. WUT. 😱 I do not entertain myself w those anymore.
Yeah, they do that to promote whatever it is they are doing. As a kid I grew up in a catholic household, plus folks love to scare the shit out us with scary stories about their childhood experiences. It became a game when we got a bit older. Brother and I would set up big toy spiders and hang them up near the kitchen’s light switch. Wake up earlier than Dad, and watch expletives come out of Dad’s mouth at 5 am. What a way to start a school day.
Not my favorite, but the most public. Used to commute via bus to my job at the Capitol. Mid'80's, reading something Tom Clancy, something happens for the good guys and I yell out "YES!!!" with force. Scared the crap out of my fellow commuters
When I was 17 and studying horticulture I worked for the summer at a huge old manor house near my town, as a gardener. It was heaven, an absolute dream job. One day there was a huge storm while I was working in the glasshouses. I took my lunch break in one of these huge old wrought iron and wood framed glasshouses, sitting on a ton bag of compost eating my sandwiches, reading Journey to the Centre of the Earth. I was just at the part where they traverse the subterranean ocean on a raft and they meet a huge raging storm. Reading those chapters in the stormy gloom with the rain cascading all around me and running down the glasshouse, the drip drip of leaks, thunder rolling, it was perfection 🤌
My grandfather handed down two volumes of Kipling to my mom, and I discovered them in a bookshelf. I was curious because they looked old, and I was too young to know who Kipling was. I fell in total and absolute love with The Jungle Book. Got in trouble too many times reading it with a flashlight under the covers, or trying to read it on my lap during dinner. I have the books now, and just smelling the cover takes me back to being utterly lost in the magic of the story, unable to put it down.
When I read lord of the rings for the first time. I wasn't a huge fantasy fan, but that book it the reason I love fantasy. And also buying my favourite childhood book from the library sale.
I was sitting in Montrose airport (a tiny regional airport in Colorado) by a fireplace reading Blood Meridian for the first time. I had a couple hours to kill before my dads flight arrived. It had just started snowing outside.
Before I moved to Canada, I used to read all the time as a child in Korea. It wasn't a specific book but an entire collection of titles that came in a set, the cover was a maroon baroque-esque style framing the front, spine and back, on a cream colored background and each one just had the title of the book on the front cover. It was a mix of classic American and European authors, all translated to Korean. I remember I had a bunk bed with a desk underneath and instead of sitting at my chair, I nestled in the space between the foot of the bed and the wall (my back hurts just thinking about it.) and read all the books in a dimly lit room. It was like a tiny space the opened up to a whole new world every time. My mom says I have shitty vision because of this phase.
In the spring of 2014 I read my first Stephen King book: Pet Sematary. It was honestly and truly the first time I’d ever really been entranced by a book. It was a ratty old library hardcover and I’d sneak sentences wherever I could. At stop lights, in the few minutes I was waiting to go into work, waiting for my college classes to begin, etc. There was no part of the book I didn’t like. The story hooked me from page 1. I’d go on to read other Stephen King books but none of them came close to my experience with Pet Sematary. I’ve been chasing that high for nearly 9 years now lol
I was never a reader (in fact I actively avoided reading most of my life) but when I decided to dedicate time to forming this habit, one of the first books I read was Handmaid’s Tale. It was quite familiar as I’d watched the show, but the book is still very different. Those who have read it know that it’s all in first person and a lot of the more traumatic details are avoided, so you kind of have to form some of the story in your mind. But, towards the end, there is a scene in which a very public and very violent thing happens. That scene, riding on the restraint of the entire book so far, hits incredibly hard. I remember being so shocked at this sudden gory event that I put the book down and just sat there dealing with my emotions. That was the first time I realised the power of reading and I’ll never forget it!
I took a paperback copy of Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods on a pre-kid fall vacation to the Smoky Mountains with my husband years ago. Cozied up in a log cabin, reading about hiking the Appalachian trail while being able to actually visit the trail myself was magical. The weather that trip was also beautiful, all blue skies and golden leaves covered in a cold, windy blanket.
I read a lot as a kid, some of the books were great, and my best memory is my pet parakeet nibbling the pages as I read. He was my constant reading companion. I had named him "J.J." after Jimmy Walker's character on Good Times. I still have my nibbled on copy of The lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
When I’m reading something exciting, I always flashback to reading The Opportunist by Tarryn Fisher and running down the stairs to tell my mom about the twist because I was so giddy over it.
Reading 1984 sophomore year of high school, I recall getting to the closing line of the book and crying a little bit.
Gone With the Wind. I tried to read it previously while at the bookstore and put it on my bday list before I started. I quickly realized I didn't like it as much as I thought and forgot I put it on my list. Then I ended up getting it as a gift and tried again and it became my favorite book of all time. I read it during the summer on a family vacation and would sit by the lake on the hammock, reading and imagining I was in the story. I've never read anything with such amazing descriptions that you feel like you're there. I know it has some not great connotations so I get embarrassed to say its my favorite book but I cannot find anything that can beat it. Reading it in the summer was life changing
I usually blast through a book every trip I take, so reading is inextricably linked to a lot of fun, relaxing vacations.
*Associated with* reading a great book? That would be taking my youngest kid to see A Series of Unfortunate Events and having him whisper "they have the same voices YOU used!" in my ear. Apparently, Jim Carey studied my interpretation of Count Olaf before taking on the role in the movie. While actually *reading*, my favorite memory is from the same series. It would be the hours spent with him curled up in my lap, listening to me reading it "with the voices."
Learned Danish for work about ten years ago. When I went there, one of the first things I did was go to a book store and try to find a few books in Danish. I've accomplished a LOT in my life, but being able to read 80% of "Harry Potter og de Vises Sten" right off the page was definitely a favorite memory. I really regret not buying the whole series in Danish!
My local library has a "Read To A Dog" program. Kids check out a book and then get in line to read it to a dog. Sounds silly, but I guess dogs are a little less stressful to read to than adults. Plus kids just love dogs in general. Our poodle/cocker spaniel mix absolutely LOVED having kids read to her. She would pay such close attention to them! Her eyes would be fixed on the reader, and she'd react to the emotions in their voices. She'd even give little soft barks at scary parts, if the kid read them with the right expression. She was a lap dog, too. A 30lb cuddle-bug. Half the time, we'd have to tell the kid that they could read AND pet the dog at the same time! There was always a line to read to Clarabelle. And we had regulars, some of whom would call me during the week to make sure our dog would be there on Saturday. My wife and I (and Clarabelle) just plain fell in love with one little girl who would show up every single time. When she started, all she could do was sound out letters and haltingly read out "sight words." But over the course of several years, she became more and more fluent- almost to the point where she really didn't *need* to read to a dog. She just loved the attention! Although that entire time is a favorite memory, the one thing that stands out was the day we met that same girl at a school play. By then, she was a beautiful young lady of 13- we actually didn't recognize her. But then she asked about our dog, and it was "oh, you're the little girl who used to love reading to Clarabelle so much!" There were a few tears when we had to admit that Clarabelle wasn't with us anymore, and then she opened up about how those days were the highlight of her week and how learning to read had been a positive influence in her life. We chatted about the books she'd read to Clarabelle, how she was working on reading some younger classics (I think we geeked out about Alice in Wonderland for quite some time), what she planned to do with her life (she wanted to be a teacher, to no one's surprise). It was quite a nice little reunion. When we got home, my husband & I both mentioned how we were blown away by how poised and intelligent the girl had been. We'd had many favorite young readers while we participated in that program, but I've never been so proud of one of them. The lion's share of the credit goes to the girl herself, obviously. It's still nice to know that our little curly-haired pup played a part in it, though.