Top Ten Tuesday – 30th November 2021

Hello hello and welcome or welcome back to my little bookish corner of the internet. Today is my second time joining in with Top Ten Tuesday – you can read last week’s post here – and this week the theme is Bookish Memories. You can find a complete list of the prompts here.

That Artsy Reader Girl suggests that this week is all about looking back over happy book related moments, from meeting authors to books that have made an impact. I really enjoyed talking about some of my favourite characters last week, and now it’s time to think about some of my favourite bookish moments. These prompts are just brilliant! So, in no particular order…

#1 – My First Book From A Publisher

Okay so this might be something that only other bloggers and the like will understand, but the day I first recieved a book from a publisher is saved away in my memory forever. It was like a little parcel of magic, wonderful and special, and honestly the magic never goes away. Each time a book lands on my doorstep, I feel a little bubble of pride for what I’ve achieved, and for the book world I am a part of now.

#2 – Les Miserables

I started typing out a long headline for this one, but quite simply, the book is a headline all of its own. Les Miserables had such a big impact on me when I read it back in my early teens, and it made me fall in love even more in love with classics than I was already. When I’d picked up this chonky boi of a book, I’d already read some Dickens and Austen as well as children’s classics like Charlotte’s Web, but this was a whole new world of reading. I’ll never forget how tiny the font was and how much I loved that book.

#3 – Finding Fantasy

Considering how many fantasy books I’ve ready this year, it seems bizarre to think that I hadn’t really read any for around fifteen years. I read Harry Potter, and had read some YA books about witches when I was a teen, but then moved almost entirely into historical fiction, until last year. When I redisovered this genre, it was almost like finding the wonder of reading all over again.

#4 – The Waterbabies

When I was still at the stage of being read to rather than reading independantly, I have fond memories of cuddled up with my dad reading The Waterbabies. Looking back on it now, it’s quite a dark book, and I don’t think I’d have read it to my son at the same age, but it certainly helped inspire my love of reading classics.

#5 – Clothbound Classics

Okay so this might make me sound somewhat materialistic, but I simply do not care. I love pretty things. I love books. Give me a pretty book, and you could probably persuade me to do just about anything. The range of clothbound classics make me weep with beauty, and before all my books were packed up to go into storage, I had a beautiful shelf of them. I miss them so much, and can’t wait to have them back on display as soon as I can.

#6 – Adorable Audiobooks

I’ve made no secret of the fact that a) I’m going blind, and b) I love audiobooks. For a long while, I didn’t read at all as my failing vision was stopping me, and I was, in my own way, failing to accept that. I decided to give Audible a go, and the ever book I listened to was Spectacles by Sue Perkins. It made me laugh so much and had me crying at a few points too. From there I was a convert. Now, five or so years later, it’s so much easier with how technology has progressed, and with audiobooks being something publishers have started to give as options sometimes too, more and more books are becoming accessible.

#7 – Book Blogger Status: Activated

When I started And On She Reads in 2019, I had no idea how much of my life it would take over. It’s changed the way I use social media, and changed the way I shop for books. It’s changed everything for me, and all for the better. I’ve met some amazing people from the book world, and I wouldn’t change any of it for a moment.

#8 – Charlotte’s Web

Dressing up for World Book Day is one of those childhood memories you have either because it was scarred into you, or because you treasure it. Some years might have been forgettable, but I have some lovely photos of my Nan helping me make my Charlotte’s Web costume when I was six or so. She had a stroke before I was born, so only had the use of one arm and could only say a few wirds, yet she was one of the kindest, funniest people I’ve ever known. I have photos of her patiently helping me to stuff old pairs of black tights with balls of newspaper for spider legs, and both our faces are full of laughter. I’m so grateful that my mum captured those images.

#9 – Raising A Reader

One of the things I first started gathering when I found out I was pregnant was second hand books. I was a poor, disabled teenager – money was tight. But I was determined that he would have a library, and a library he had. Just like mine, most his books are in storage at the moment, but before they were packed up, there was a lot of them, and he is my little book lover.

#10 – Bookish Community

What a note to finish on, but the bookish community. I’ve met some incredible people, from authors to new found friends, and had some incredible experiences to boot. Being able to talk in detail about what colour Rhysand’s eyes actually are, or what fantasy world we’d secretly love to live in, while also having the privilege of interviewing authors for my blog…. Honestly, this whole bookish world is a universe of happy memories.

So there we are. I absolutely loved writing this post, and I’ll be keeping an eye out to see the other posts that go out on this theme too, as I just think it’s such a lovely thing to talk about.

See you in December!