Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly book post created by The Broke and the Bookish in June 2010. It moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. I don’t participate very often because I’m not very creative, but sometimes one of the topics will catch my eye!

The topic for July 24th is: Books with Sensory Reading Memories! (These are the books that are linked to very specific memories for you: where you were, what time of year it was, who you were with, what you were eating, etc. Ideas include books you read while on vacation, books that made you hungry for certain foods, books you’ve buddy read with loved ones, etc.)

---

Why, Charlie Brown, Why?: A Story About What Happens When a Friend is Very Ill by Charles M. Schulz

This book made its way into my life around the beginning of 1992. It was originally a half-hour long TV special that was made into a book. I’ve seen the TV special too many times to count. But the timing of the book couldn’t have been more perfect. In the book, Linus and Charlie Brown’s friend Janice is diagnosed with leukemia. Around the same time as the book was published, a girl in my dance class named Christie was diagnosed with leukemia and my grandmother was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. In fall of that year, I met my best childhood friend, Ashley, who also had leukemia. I remember learning the word “chemotherapy” from this book. (It was the biggest word I knew at the age of 6.) My parents thought the book might help me understand what was going on, and it really did.

Surprise! Surprise! (Sweet Valley Kids #1) by Francine Pascal

Oh, how I adored the Sweet Valley Kids series! Although I don’t remember the plot of this particular story, I have a distinct recollection of reading it when I was in first grade, so about six or seven years old in 1992. How do I remember that? Well, I started with this book because it was the first book of the series. I was so proud of myself that I was able to read chapter books already! In this book, the main characters, twin sisters Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, are in second grade and about to celebrate their 7th birthday. I have this specific memory of sitting on the floor of my room next to my bed. I was up on my knees, using the bed as a kind of table to lean my elbows on to read. And as I sat there, I distinctly remember thinking, “Wow, they’re in second grade! They’re so much bigger than me because I’m only in first grade!”

Nancy Drew: The Case of The Twin Teddy Bears by Carolyn Keene

My memory of this book was probably in 1994 or 1995. For some reason, the cover in particular stands out in my mind, as well as the fact that this book is #116 in the series. I have no idea why I remembered those things. I remember taking it with me to a restaurant when we went out to dinner. There always seemed to be an interminable wait for a table for four in those days, so I never went to a restaurant without a book!

 

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

My first memory of this book is that it had a purple cover. Since purple was my favorite cover, I knew that must mean it was a good book! There was also a cat in it! Even better, as far as I was concerned. This book was read aloud by our teacher to one of my elementary school classes during reading time. When this time of day finally arrived, we all ran for the carpeted corner of the room at a mad dash, trampling one another as children do, to get to the fluffy pillows first. I honestly don’t remember much about the book itself, but more that it was a book that seemed to captivate a whole class of 10 year-olds, for a little while anyway.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

I was introduced to the wonderful world of Harry Potter in the summer of 1999, just as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was coming out. My dad bought the first three books for me because he’d heard they were good. I could tell at a glance that they might be intended for younger readers (I was 13 that summer.) But I remember sitting on my bed on a summer evening, I think in July, holding the gorgeous hardcover books in my hand, and slowly flipping through them. I loved the little illustrations at the start of each chapter that gave you some sort of hint of what was to come. I started reading and became a Harry Potter fan for life. (As an aside, all the sorting quizzes I’ve ever taken over the years say I’m Ravenclaw, but Pottermore put me in Gryffindor. Thoughts? I’ve been told that sounds just like Hermione?)

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

During the summer of 2002, when I was 16, we had to read a book over the summer for our AP English Language class. I started a few and couldn’t get into them. Then I picked this book up and I devoured it. To this day, I’m still not sure what it is about the story of Francie Nolan that I love so much. Her love of reading and writing? Nothing else about my own life could be even peripherally compared to hers. But I’ve re-read the book a few times and positively love my dog-eared copy. And perhaps because of my sensory memories of my first reading of it, I find I can only read it during the summer.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

I think if you were to say the words “Walden” or “transcendentalism” to anyone who took AP English Language with Mr. Nightingale, you’d be faced with a look of horror. We all pretty much universally hated reading about the guy who went to the woods because he wished to live deliberately. But I can’t forget the slightly musty smell of this book, and the yellowish-brown color of the pages. In fact, I still have my copy. Mr. Nightingale retired at the end of the 2002-2003 school year and knew no other English teacher in their right mind would make their class read Walden. So to keep the school from throwing out dozens of copies of the book, he let us, his last class, keep them. And you know what? Everyone did.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

The fifth book in the Harry Potter series was published when I was 17, just as I left to go on my first set of college tours with my parents in June 2003. I remember this very well because I was sick for almost the entire trip. Eleven years later, I would realize that had been my first major flare of endometriosis. But as far as the trip goes, I wrote this in my diary about June 23, 2003, “I could hardly move at all, so I just sat and watched TV and read the fifth Harry Potter book…which finally came out on June 21st. Dad bought it for me without me even asking him to!” So while my memories of the book involve reading it in a hotel room in Rhode Island while trying not to keel over from pain, I’d say those are some definite sensory memories!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling

Summer 2007. Age 21. The seventh and last Harry Potter book. Once I got my hands on a copy, I read it pretty quickly, alternately laughing and crying and biting my nails. It was shortly after midnight when I got to the Battle of Hogwarts. I knew this was the point of no return; if I kept going, I’d have to finish before I could sleep. But I had an orthodontist appointment in the morning…so I stayed up all night to finish. I seem to recall going to bed around 4:30 am after having a few sniffles to manage. I have yet to reread the series, but I need to.

 

One Million Lovely Letters by Jodi Ann Bickley

I read this book in February 2016 when I was at a very low point in my life. I hadn’t read a book in a fairly long time. I was off work for two weeks as a last-ditch effort to get my intractable migraines under control. (It didn’t work.) I read this book while I was off because it had to do with chronic illness. It was exactly what I needed, as at the time, I felt no one understood what I was going through or even believed me. I sat by the fireplace in my TV chair that I’ve had since I was a freshman in college and read. This book is now on my to-read-again list.

 

💛ribbonrx