One of my favorite things about being a reader (even a maybe-slumping one) is looking back on the books I’ve read. Once you’ve read a book, it becomes part of you – part of your own personal story and experience. And sometimes, a book you’re reading becomes bound up in the external events of your life and will forever be remembered as “the book I was reading when…”
I’ve been tracking my books on Goodreads (see the sidebar for my most recent entries) since 2007, so while I don’t remember every book I’ve been reading at every momentous occasion in my life, I do have a record going back quite a few years now. Here are some of my momentous life events, and the books I was reading at the time…
April, 2007: Became homeowners for the first time. When hubby and I closed on our condo in Arlington, Virginia, I was midway through Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov. I can’t remember the exact date of our closing, but I know it was late April and Pale Fire was the book in my bag.
September 9, 2008: Landed in England on the vacation of my dreams. I’d been wanting to visit England for as long as I could remember (what Anglophile reader doesn’t dream of walking the same paths as her literary heroes and heroines?). When the wheels touched down on the tarmac at Heathrow for my vacation-of-a-lifetime, I was (re-)reading Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte.
February 19, 2012: Found out we were expecting a tiny Peanut! This was something I’d been wanting for a long time, and even without the help of Goodreads, I could tell you that I was reading Ina Caro’s Paris to the Past: Traveling Through French History by Train (okay, I needed Goodreads to remind me of the author and the subtitle). I actually finished it that same afternoon and started The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff, so hey! a twofer on the first day that Peanut was officially in our lives!
August 21, 2012: Peanut’s birthday. Another one I don’t need Goodreads for – I will never forget that I was reading One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on the day Peanut made her grand entrance into the world. I’d started it a few days prior, was reading it during my bed rest, and stuffed it in my purse to take to the sonogram appointment that turned into Peanut’s surprise arrival.
October 11, 2012: NICU Homecoming! We waited a long time (50 days, to be exact) after Peanut was born to get out of the NICU. I read quite a few books in the meantime, but the last few days of our NICU captivity (okay, I know, but that’s how it felt) were spent with Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall (which I loved, and not just because I was reading it in the mothers’ lounge when hubby got the news that Peanut was ready to go home).
August 21, 2013: Peanut turned ONE. In addition to marveling at the fact that I had a one-year-old and planning birthday celebrations, according to Goodreads, I was reading The Time Traveler’s Guide to Elizabethan England, by Ian Mortimer. Guess I was in an educational mood?
August 31, 2013: We moved to Buffalo, New York. The move itself was months in the planning, but it wasn’t until the end of August that we officially pulled up stakes in northern Virginia. Since I couldn’t take my Fairfax County library books with me (sniff – still miss my old stomping grounds at Sherwood Hall Regional Library) I had to read something off my own shelves. I wanted a read that wasn’t too difficult or demanding, and that would distract me from the crushing sadness I was feeling at the idea of leaving the DC area, so I chose Flavia – specifically, The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, the second novel in Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mystery series.
July 26, 2014: Whoa, impending Nugget! We got some very big news in late July of 2014 – another baby on the way! And after I had confirmed what I already strongly suspected, I sat down with God is an Astronaut, by Alyson Foster. Just like I did on the day we learned of Peanut’s existence, I actually finished the book and turned to another – this time, it was The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris, which I was already midway through but had put down in favor of books with more urgent library deadlines.
August 13, 2014: Closed on our new house (and celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary on the same day). I didn’t have much time for reading that day, as I remember it, but I always have a book in my bag, and it happened to be Among the Janeites: A Journey Through the World of Jane Austen Fandom, by Deborah Yaffe. And then…
August 29, 2014: Moving Day! Hopefully the last for awhile… Another day I don’t think I actually had time to sit and read my book – I was actually at the office working on an emergency project while hubby handled the move details. But I was midway through Sally Beauman’s The Visitors, which I really enjoyed once I did get a moment to breathe.
Wow, looking back, it seems like a lot of big things have happened to me over the last few years… and I’ve read some great books while they’ve been happening. The next major life event, I’m sure, will be Nugget’s big arrival… wonder what book I’ll be tossing in my hospital bag for that occasion?
Do you remember what you’ve been reading when major life events occur?
covered in flour 
Loved this post! I may have to borrow the idea from you 🙂
You’re welcome to it! I’d love to read your post!
Love this post! What a fun way to look back. I may have to steal the idea too…
Go for it! I’d like to know what you were reading on big occasions in your life too. I wish I remembered what book I was in the middle of on my wedding day and what I read on my honeymoon, but both of those events predated my joining Goodreads. I do know that Steve read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on our honeymoon, because I have a picture of him reading it by the pool – but I can’t remember what I read!
I’m thinking that when Nugget arrives, you might be reading “Farmer Boy” by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Hahahahaha. (I’m planting the seed early, you see. ;-))
No way, that book makes me too hungry! LOL. I remember being famished for weeks after Peanut was born… last thing I’ll need is to read all about the Wilder family’s incredible meals and their popcorn and cocoa parties… 🙂
I’ve often wondered about what apples ‘n onions will taste like, because of that book that quotes it as one of Almanzo’s favorite dishes. I like apples and onions, but not together. Maybe I’ll try it sometime, just out of curiosity.
I actually think that would be good. I make a Thanksgiving stuffing with apples and onions in it and I hear it’s a good combination. (I won’t eat the stuffing because I can’t stand it – it’s a texture thing, soggy bread, ugh – but people who like stuffing have said that mine is tasty.) Sauteed onions have nice natural sweetness and apples are great with a slightly more savory counterpoint. Cooked in butter until they are all melded together and satiny… yummmmm.