When I was in elementary school, I began to read what would become an endearing series of books. These were The Series of Unfortunate Events, written by Lemony Snicket. These were my favorite books as a kid. I liked them so much that I started to collect the entire series. Eventually I had all of the 13 hardcover books. Until a year ago, they were sitting on a book self collecting dust.
About a year ago I introduced my, then 8 year old, sister Sydney to The Bad Beginning, the first book in the series. From then on she was hooked. With the help of my mom, my sister was able to recently finish the entire series. My fondest memories of literature are of my sister and I talking about the books and all of the nostalgia I felt during those moments.
I liked how you made “nostalgia”, the emphasis of your post at the end there. It is interesting to me how powerful of a feeling nostalgia is. I have friends who have been so powerfully affected by the nostalgic feelings they get when reading Harry Potter that they’ve read the series 5 or 6 times. These pieces of literature impact us more profoundly than we could ever realize when we first pick them up, especially as children. It’s great that you saw the intrinsic value on passing on something which likely impacted you in a similar way to someone who may not have stumbled upon it without you.
This is great! It’s the same way with my brother and me. I didn’t start to read passionately until I picked up the Boxcar Children books, and just a few months ago I found myself in our attic carrying the huge box of them down for him to share. Every now and then when I see him, he’ll let me know which ones he’s read and then ask me about them. I always feel bad because I can’t remember them as well as he thinks I do!
I think the best point from all of this is how much more enjoyable reading becomes when we’re able to share it with someone. It helps us grow as we take in new information, and affirm our own thoughts when we try to express them to others. Everybody wins!
I think that it is great that you were able to share your love of the stories with your sister. I have a similar type memory where my mother broke out all of her old books and tried to show me the love of the books she had as a kid. She broke them out of an old box in the basement and tried to show them to me. However, I did not want any part of them. I do not know if it was the horrible old book smell or just the fact I didn’t like reading at the time. Sorry I couldn’t share the same excitement as you two did.
That’s really cool that you got to share that experience with your sister. My older brother and I shared a lot of books and games growing up so I definitely get the feeling on the other side of things. Seeing how excited my brother was to share some of the books he gave me and talk about them made those memories a lot more meaningful to me.