TOP TEN TUESDAY | BOOKISH MEMORIES

I’m not really sure where I’m supposed to go with this prompt. I have so many memories that involve books, but they’re hard to share unless I could somehow project those memories like a film, and somehow also include the feelings I had at the time. But I’ll try!

1. I remember curling up on the floor next to our fireplace while my parents pulled an armchair and some cushions up close and read to me. I remember the Narnia books, and I remember Travels with My Aunt.
2. Reading the first chapter book I read on my own. I remember my frustration, trying to make these marks on the page coalesce into words, and then become images in my head. It was hard, but I remember when it just clicked into place and suddenly – I was reading! I never stopped.
3. I used to go to England every few years to visit family. I remember one trip when we visited some of the older bookstores in London. There was one that was just beautiful. I think they mostly specialized in antiquarian and collectible books. Their shelves were made of ornately carved, rich, dark wood. There was this smell of centuries of the printed word. I couldn’t afford anything fancy, but they did have a section of Wordsworth Classics and I remember picking up Treasure Island. That day of exploring bookstores was amazing.
4. I remember the two years I lived on a tiny Island. I didn’t have many friends, and I’ve always been good on my own anyway. I think it was probably the summer between grades 9 and 10 when I read both Jurassic Park and Jane Eyre. I couldn’t put either book down. I spend the night listening for dinosaurs outside my bedroom window when I read Jurassic Park. And I remember staying up until 4:30 in the morning to finish Jane Eyre.
5. I remember the first year I went to boarding school. I hadn’t made friends yet and was feeling a bit out of place. I chose to read A Prayer for Owen Meany for my AP English class. It was another experience that was hard, and a slog, but then suddenly it wasn’t. By the end I loved it and felt like I’d learned some important things. I went on to read another three books by John Irving in quick succession.
6. I was given several books by high school exes whose impact definitely outlived the relationships. Jitterbug Perfume (I then went on to read everything else by Tom Robbins), Travels by Michael Crichton (his non-fiction book split between his time in med school and some trips he went on) and The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. Each impacted me in a different way, but was important to me.
7. I remember reading my first feminist books in college as part of my Women and Health class. There were several books that made an impact on me, but the two that shifted both my relationship with my own body and my perception of what it means to be a woman in the world were Our Bodies, Ourselves by the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and C*nt by Inga Muscio.
8. I went to Chicago to visit an ex and while I was there, I got the chance to wander and explore. I hopped of the train in several random neighbourhoods. In one I found a store called Myopic Books. It was a few floors in an old building and seemed to have these labyrinthine shelves everywhere, rooms with couches so you could always find a quiet spot to check out the books you’d found. It was magical losing myself there for a few hours. (On the same trip he also took me to The Armadillo’s Pillow, which I loved.)
9. I remember visiting City Lights when I was on my first trip to San Francisco. I loved it there. It was beautiful and excellently curated and just so full of literary history. I could have lived there.
10. And finally, the first time I took my kid to a local bookstore, Kidsbooks. We walked in, and my kid was gone. Ever since, it has been this magical place with an amazing selection and staff that know exactly what to recommend. That and the library are two of the things I’ve missed most not shopping in person over the past year and a half!

So that’s some of my most vivid bookish memories! Do you guys have any similar ones? Which bookstore do you most remember visiting for the first time? Feel free to share a memory or two in the comments!

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.