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Books Triggering Memories of Reading Location


Brian.

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Firstly I apologise for the sucky title,  I tried to think of a better way to word it but just couldn't come up with anything better. Everyone knows that sometimes a piece of music or a smell will trigger a strong emotion or memory connected to a place or a moment in time. Does anyone experience this but when thinking about a certain book? Not many books do this to me but there are a few.

 

  • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky always brings me back to my old office at work because it is where I read most of it and unusually it provoked quite a lot of conversation with my colleagues, most of who don't read.
  • Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami always reminds me of being at my then girlfriend's (now wife) apartment for some reason even though I didn't read much of it there.
  • 100 Year of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez always reminds me of Barceloneta beach as that is where I read it during a holiday.
  • The Adventures of Brer Rabbit by Julius Lester reminds me of reading in bed at night as a child.

 

Or perhaps they remind you of a certain person?

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I first discovered Truman Capote by reading Lawrence Grobel's Conversations with Capote in my late teens.  I remember reading it at work, and trying my best to hide the book cover from curious eyes.  A middle-aged Capote standing on a beach in a long, flowing white nightshirt is a dubious pleasure.

 

Dracula by Bram Stoker.  For maximum effect, read as a young teen on a winter's night, tucked up in bed with shadows all around you.

 

A large illustrated book about The Beatles.  I can't recall the exact title of it, alas.  I would haul it around to my gran's on a weekly basis as a kid, and sit on her couch and read it, ignoring the TV and everyone else in the room.  :lol:

 

Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, in my mother's sunny conservatory at home.  I left it there once by mistake, and my aforementioned grandmother found it, and started reading it out of curiosity.  She was HORRIFIED.  Oh, how we I laughed!

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I read The Stand by Stephen King while I was on holiday in the UK (at my boyfriend's mum's house) and I had the stomach flu.

 

I read The Pillars of the Earth while I was on holiday in the UK too (again at my boyfriend's mother's house), but that memory isn't quite as strong as the one for The Stand.

 

I read The Client by John Grisham (Dutch translation De Cliënt) on holidays in France when I was an older child or young teenager, I had finished all of my own books and De Cliënt was a book my parents brought on holiday.

 

I remember reading several of The Wheel of Time books in the train on the way to and from university, as well as The Banned and the Banished series (I remember not wanting to stop reading one of the books, but it was my station to get off!).

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I experience this every time I read practically any book set in Iceland - especially if its set in the capital city of Reykjavik, which I know well. Reading such books always makes me want to go back there, but although there are always good deals on air fares its expensive once you get there and I have invariably booked somewhere else - so many places too little time! 

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