purple95 Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 As I read the posts in Kell's thread entitled, "The little things you remember...", I likened the subject to a slightly different take I have on the topic. I oftentimes recall what book I was reading at a particular time or in association with a particular event in my life. Examples: During my freshman year in college I was reading Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor when I should have been reading textbooks. Yes, I DID graduate. During my honeymoon, I was reading a book about clocks. The name of the books escapes me, other details of the trip do not. During a trip to a relative's funeral I was reading a book of stories by Poe. This was not planned. I had started the book several days prior to the trip. I have many, many other such memories. I've made no attempt to catalogue or otherwise track these associations, they just pop up from time to time. Anyone else associate a particular book with a special event or time period in your life? dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 I was visiting friends who live right near Swindon when I first read The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I took it with me specially so I could read it while I was in the area which was its setting. I also read Anne of Green Gables and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan on that same trip. I enjoyed all three books immensely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbielleRose Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 For me the Harry Potter books have always been associated with sickness or trouble. I vowed never to read Harry Potter. I ended up changing schools a week before my senior year started so I didn't know anyone in school (and to top it off I transfered from public school to a very small Catholic prep school). After going through most of the modest library I finally caved and began Hary Potter about a month before Christmas break. For Christmas that year my family took a 3,000+ mile (round trip) road trip to Phoenix, AZ. I read the 4th Harry Potter book on the way down and then re-read 1-4 while we were in Phoenix because I came down with pneumonia and was bed bound for the whole trip. I bought the 5th book at a truck stop in Flagstaff, AZ and read that twice on the drive back. If it wern't for Harry Potter that trip would have been horrible When the 7th Harry Potter book came out a couple years ago now I went out at midnight to buy it. On the way home I was driving 5 miles an hour over the speed limit at 2 a.m. and was pulled over by a cop. He, thinking I was drunk, checked all through my car for alcohol (there was none). He then asked me why I was speeding at 2 a.m. I held up my new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book and told him I wanted to get home so I could read. He looked at it and let me off without so much as a warning! The moral of the story: always use Harry Potter as an excuse for speeding... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nollaig Posted December 12, 2009 Share Posted December 12, 2009 When the 7th Harry Potter book came out a couple years ago now I went out at midnight to buy it. On the way home I was driving 5 miles an hour over the speed limit at 2 a.m. and was pulled over by a cop. He, thinking I was drunk, checked all through my car for alcohol (there was none). He then asked me why I was speeding at 2 a.m. I held up my new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book and told him I wanted to get home so I could read. He looked at it and let me off without so much as a warning! The moral of the story: always use Harry Potter as an excuse for speeding... That is truly awesome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicola Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 The moral of the story: always use Harry Potter as an excuse for speeding... That's amazing!! I always associate my one and only girls beach holiday with Harry Potter 7. I started it at the beginning of the week and on the last day I was so engrossed by the ending and everything coming together that I forgot to 'turn' every hour and ended up with a sunburned bum! It was a pretty uncomfortable journey back home! Also, on the night that very book came out, no one would come into town with me so I thought I'd get up really early the next morning and rush out to buy it. Anyway, I woke up at 6 that morning to find a copy of it posted through my letterbox with a note from my Sister who had qued for an hour at Borders, then drove all the way over to my house at 2 in the morning with it. The sweetest part is that she doesn't really read so it wasn't like she was buying herself a copy and got me one while she was there....she went purely to make me a happy bunny. It's one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AbielleRose Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 That was so sweet of your sister! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weave Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I remember reading 'Gideon' by Stephen Laws the morning I got married and that book was about a man who ruins women's relationships ~ nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peacefield Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 I finished reading The Dante Club on my flight to Providence back in '03, and I remember being so excited to start that trip because one of the stops on our road trip was Cambridge, MA to see the Longfellow house. I re-read parts of it while I was there and it made the trip that much more memorable. Even though the work was fiction, getting to stand in Longfellow's house where he, Holmes and Lowell stood in real life, and then going through Mt. Auburn cemetery where they were all buried added to the fact that that's one of the best vacations I've ever had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigWords Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 When I was twelve or thirteen I got pushed off a bus and badly hurt my knee. Couldn't straighten my leg for the better part of a month, and in the time I spent sitting and lying on the couch waiting for it to heal I read through half a dozen of my mother's Louis L'Amour books. It took me years to disassociate the Jubal Sackett books with the memory of how badly my knee hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anisia Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 When the 7th Harry Potter book came out a couple years ago now I went out at midnight to buy it. On the way home I was driving 5 miles an hour over the speed limit at 2 a.m. and was pulled over by a cop. He, thinking I was drunk, checked all through my car for alcohol (there was none). He then asked me why I was speeding at 2 a.m. I held up my new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book and told him I wanted to get home so I could read. He looked at it and let me off without so much as a warning! The moral of the story: always use Harry Potter as an excuse for speeding... That's so awesome --- I associate Harry Potter (vol.7) with flying. I read a lot of the 7th volume while flying to and back from Germany, the day after it came out (after staying at the bookshop till 2am to get my book!). I never forger there was an eclipse in 1999 because we had friends over from UK and they brought me Harry Potter 3. It was the first time I'd heard of the books and it was the first volume I read, during the week they were with us. I was addicted immediately I always think of my brother when I talk about (or re-read) a Romanian series of books called Ciresarii. He's the one that gave me the first volume (it was a favorite of his too) and the series become a favorite of mine as a teenager. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimera Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 The sweetest part is that she doesn't really read so it wasn't like she was buying herself a copy and got me one while she was there....she went purely to make me a happy bunny. It's one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me That is so sweet Nicola! I was 11 and friends of my parents were staying over for a few days when I read the 1st HP Book. They'd brought it for me as a gift and I thought it was stupid at first... Only read it cause it got me out of the sunday walk ("oh look at her, she just wants to know what happens next... Leave her at home! ) Needless to say that first impression didn't last... My dad had just gotten back from a business trip to the states when I read the 2nd HP. He brought it back with him and my brother proceeded to confess he'd already read it from the school library weeks before... I was SO mad at him for not sharing! Fast forward a few years (and volumes)... I was just back from a holiday abroad when the 4th HP entered our lives. My mum came to pick me up at the airport but didn't even notice I had arrived cause she was too engrossed in it. I had just finished passing the french equivalent of the A levels when HP 5 came out, which earned me the right to read it second. I was working in a bookshop when HP6 rolled out... and I was alone at home for a few days so knew I'd have no competition when the package arrived. On the delivery (publication) date I only had to work in the afternoon so I had planned on digging into the first few chapters before leaving for work. But the postman was late (probably slowed down with the weight of all the books ). I remember sitting in the garden all morning, waiting for him to show up. He finally did, 10 mn before I had to leave. I then had to endure hours of staring at huge displays of the HP6 and cashing copies for excited customers who hadn't even realised it was coming out, and didn't really read english but just bought it on a whim thinking "I'l learn". Torture I tell you! I was on an internship in India when HP7 appeared. I knew I wouldn't have the patience to wait over a month to read our family copy in France but I din't want to buy a second, overpriced, copy in India either. I had been told though that fake copies were aways printed and sold in the streets barely a day after publication date... So, shame on me, I planned on getting one. Unfortunately this time the Indian government decided to prove that they could prevent that from happening, and did massive raids on the illegal printing houses. I stalked the place where they were meant to be sold for a week but no copies ever appeared I resisted buying a legitimate copy and tried to protect myself from spoilers... until the front page of one of the most prominent newspapers threw it in my face: Harry and Ginny Potter live! was their head title... After that I just threw myself at the first bookshop I came across. ... A tad HP obsessed, me ??? Not at aaaaalllllll! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucybird Posted December 13, 2009 Share Posted December 13, 2009 When Harry Potter 7 came out I was in London, me and some friends from a Harry Potter forum I visit were going to the midnight opening but I got a migraine so ended up not actually being able to go to the release (I'm still annoyed I missed out). The next day I didn't have a chance to buy it because we were doing all sorts of things but somebody had already finished theirs so I kept stealing it when we had reading breaks! I think of school with Harry Potter 4, I got it a day early- when I got home there was a message for me on the phone so I raced down to get it! The next day I took it to school and because barely anyone else had had a chance to buy it 9it was released at midnight, but few people went to the release or could pick it up before school) everyone was asking me about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scarlette Posted December 14, 2009 Share Posted December 14, 2009 I met my boyfriend around the time I read my very first novel by Anne Rice - Blackwood Farm. I think I was 17 or 18 at the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ben Mines Posted December 16, 2009 Share Posted December 16, 2009 a book about clocks Was it Longitude by Dava Sobel? It tells the story of John Harrison, the English clockmaker. Great book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purple95 Posted December 16, 2009 Author Share Posted December 16, 2009 Was it Longitude by Dava Sobel? It tells the story of John Harrison, the English clockmaker. Great book. Ben, Nope. The book was a basic introduction to clocks and watches, very much on a beginner's level. I have always had a passing interest in horology and have read quite a bit on the subject through the years. However............Longitude has been on my to be read list for a year or so. Thanks for the reminder. dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BookJumper Posted December 17, 2009 Share Posted December 17, 2009 I read Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter cover to cover while holed up in a train bathroom, on the longest journey of a rather stressful Interrail through Spain that saw me lose my 300E ticket a few days into the holiday. I was so scared of being discovered and thrown off the train that I was physically nauseous (the train's blasting air con didn't help); only Hawthorne kept me sane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.