TTT | Bookish Memories 

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly topic hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week she provide a topic and you are free to use that topic and/or variations of that topic to make your top ten list. A full list of the weekly themes can be found here.

1. I was around 7 or 8 when my family (grandparents included) and I went to the bookstore. (or the mall in general; I can only remember my grandpa and mom in this memory, and neither of them like each other, so I doubt it was just the 3 of us there). It was a Waldenbooks, so dating myself and it wasn’t very big but better then nothing. I went up to my mom wanting this book, and she told me to put it on my Christmas list. My grandpa turned to her and said you never deny a child a book and proceeded to buy the book for myself. Afterwards, he told me that anytime I wanted books to let him and grandma now and they’d send me a check for them (they didn’t live in the same town as we did). I don’t think he expected I would use it as much as I did, but they never complained and were always happy to hear about the books I wanted (and I was excited to tell them).
2. I mean can I even call myself a reader/writer if I don’t mention the Scholastic book fairs at school!
3. While I have my issues with the author of Harry Potter, it does still hold a special place in my heart. I was 7 when my grandparents bought me the boxed set of the first 4 books (the only ones out at the time). It was supposed to be a Christmas gift but they decided to give it to me a few weeks early because my sister had undergone scoliosis surgery and I apparently screamed bloody murder when I saw her after. No one had explained to 7/8 year old Darcy about what was going on. I remember unwrapping them and being so excited and continuing to be excited about them.
4. Another Harry Potter memory is when the 6th book came out (Half-Blood Prince). It was published in the summer of 2005, and I would be in Vegas visiting my grandparents at the time (they lived in Vegas from 1997-2015 and my sister and I would visit them each summer). My grandma asked if I would like to go the the midnight release party that the Paseo Verde Library was putting on, as they were getting shipments of the book to sell as well as bookstores. I was super excited to go and dressed up as Hermione (my grandma went as Trelawney). It was a whole event with Quidditch races, games, surprises, readings, discussions, just a ton of fun. As soon as the book was in my hand, I, along with many other kids, found a spot on the ground in the library to start reading until our parents, grandparents, guardians told us we had to leave (the library was open for a special occasion and librarians want to go home too). I fell asleep on the couch reading the book!
5. I’ve always been a pretty political active person and aware of issues that don’t always affect me. However, I remember reading Ten Thousand Lovers by Edeet Ravel and falling in love with the characters and story, as well as the culture and issues in the book. That was the moment that made me want to study and learn more about the Middle East and pushed me to minor (there wasn’t an option to major) in Arabic.
6. Even though my thesis is probably considered more of a writing memory than a reading one, for an English literature master’s program it definitely involved a ton of reading. I was looking at the idea and place of home and how does that change, evolve, and present itself when you’re home is ravaged by war/terror/violence in Irish literature. The book that really sparked my interest in Irish literature and pursuing a focus on it was The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry; it was one of the books I focused on for a chapter in my thesis.
7. One of my favorite professors in the English grad program was Dr. Moore and he just sparked my interest in American literature that hadn’t been their before. I loved reading and learning about the Black authors that are not usually focused on in typical American lit classes.
8. Receiving my first ARC book was definitely a big moment for me. For years, I’ve always wondered what I needed to do to be able to read advanced copies and I never knew having a blog and keeping up with it counted till recently.
9. I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver is one of my favorite books of all time and spoke to me as a nonbinary person. I just loved reading Ben’s story, and it really started my gender journey.
10. The fact that this week (Thursday specifically) is when my last assignment for my master’s in library science is due, then I’m done with the program and will be graduating! I won’t actually attend graduation (sitting for 3-4 hours is not my idea of fun for only 2 seconds) but I’m so excited to finally have the degree to be a librarian. I’ve been sending out job applications and hopefully will hear back from someone soon. But I really hope to remain in collection development (academic libraries all the way) because I just love seeing what’s new and what people are interested in studying and learning.