Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Bookish Memories — described by the meme host as share stories of your reading life as a child, events you’ve gone to, books that made an impression on you, noteworthy experiences with books, authors you’ve met, etc. Reminisce with me!
In no particular order, here are ten random bookish memories that have stayed with me:
1 Traveling to Phoenix, Arizona in 2014 to attend a book event with Diana Gabaldon for the release of Written in My Own Heart’s Blood, the 8th book in the Outlander series. I had consistently been unable to attend every one of her events in my own town, so I made the decision to travel for this one, and it was so worth it!
2. Reading with my kids! Highlights include cracking up while listening to my 3-year-old trying to recite along with Richard Scarry’s A-Z book of cars. Hilarious! Also, reading the entire Harry Potter series out loud with my son, and starting him off early (as an infant) by reading poems to him from A. A. Milne’s books.
3. My favorite childhood reading spot — I grew up in an observant Jewish household, which meant no TV or other forms of entertainment on Saturday afternoons. We had a big armchair in the living room, and I would spend hours on those afternoons curled up in it with a book.
4. Meeting Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy!!) at a small book event at a local bookstore. She was doing a reading from a book she’d written (Death’s Daughter), and my daughter and I arrived early to browse… and met Amber while she was also browsing. We chatted, and she was so nice! (And clearly a book lover…)
5. Attending summer camp as a young teen and having copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves passed around the bunk. Between that and certain Judy Blume books, it was an eye-opening summer for a lot of us!
6. Going to a silent reading party — and enjoying silent reading in a room full of 60+ other booklovers.
7. Going to a midnight release party for Breaking Dawn and winning a trivia contest! Yes, I won a Twilight trivia contest, and I’m not (too) embarrassed about it.
8. Reading and sharing with my book group, who are just a fantastic group of readers (and are truly fantastic people in all ways).
9. Reading everywhere I go, including on some beautiful beaches and in gorgeous national parks.
10. Sharing books, book ideas, and long, long visits to bookstores with my wonderful daughter, as a child and as an adult.
What bookish memories do you cherish?
If you wrote a TTT this week, please share your links!
Bookshelf Fantasies 
That silent reading party looks super fun!
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-bookish-memories/
Oh, it really was! I’m waiting for them to start up again — a local bookstore had been hosting them somewhat regularly pre-pandemic, but I don’t think they’re doing it now.
What great memories. So glad you were able to travel and meet Diana Gabaldon. I didn’t remember that Amber Benson became an author. I remember finding Our Bodies, Ourselves at a friend’s house and picking it up.
Thanks for sharing your memories.
https://thebookconnectionccm.blogspot.com/2021/11/top-ten-tuesday-top-ten-bookish-memories.html
I loved the Diana Gabaldon event! It was held in a high school auditorium, and it was packed. She spoke for about an hour, and it was so interesting. What a treat!
Great list! Those Saturday afternoons curled up in an armchair with a book sound like they were lovely.
Such a huge part of my childhood!
What fun bookish memories! I can’t believe you met Amber Benson at a bookstore. How cool is that?
It was awesome! We were so starstruck when we stumbled across her, but she was super nice about it.
How can I find a silent reading party?!? That is something that has been missing in my life. 🙂
My post is here— https://fiftytwo.blog/2021/11/30/ttt-bookish-confessions/
Happy TTT!
Lori
https://fiftytwo.blog
The silent reading party was so much fun! I’m just hoping they start up again — they had been happening fairly regularly for a while, but stopped during the pandemic.
I love these! Richard Scarry!! I still have ALL of his books that I bought for my kids when they were little. They are beat up and well read. Now I’m curious where I put them. Hmmm
The cars & truck book is the only one I hung onto, but it’s incredibly well loved, so I’ll never give it up. 🙂
Love your memory of Saturday afternoon reading; quite a few of mine were spent that way as well, as on Saturday (a half day for us at school) before school gave out we could issue something from the library, so that was what we read once home.
I’m so thankful I had all those hours to read as a child! It really made me appreciate how easy it is to get lost in a good book.
A silent reading party sounds like such fun!
Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
https://readbakecreate.com/unusual-books-i-read-in-high-school/
So much fun!! I hope the people who sponsored the parties I attended get them started up again, once people feel comfortable gathering.
We never had any Richard Scarry books growing up, other than maybe from the library, but that picture tells me at least on this title, I was missing out. You’ve heard of clown cars, now get ready for…CORN CARS. (and the bugdozer?? ahaha. Though I wonder if it ever confused any children who thought that was the real name for the yellow machines…)
A silent reading party sounds like my kind of party! The only kind of party, in fact. What a fun experience.
–RS
This particular Richard Scarry was so special! I used to read each car name with my toddler son and he’d repeat after me, and it was the funniest thing I ever heard. Such a silly memory, but so much fun.
Ahh, this is a fantastic list of memories – and of course you should celebrate winning that trivia contest – didn’t we all just love Twilight really?!
Lynn 😀
So much!! My daughter thought it was hilarious that I won. 🙂
A silent reading party sounds so fun!! Love this list!!
Thanks! Silent reading parties were really fun — I hope they’ll come back once social distancing is a thing of the past.