Top Ten Tuesday #10

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish.  This week's topic is your top ten bookish memories.  I feel like my life has always (or at least from 5th grade) had books at its center, so it was really hard to choose which of my memories are the best.

My Top Ten Bookish Memories

1. Reading aloud with my family  -  When I was around 8-years-old, my mom read the first book of the Unicorn Chronicles by Bruce Coville to my brother and me.  It was so much fun, and she'd always stop right when the story was getting good, so that there'd be a cliffhanger every night.  When the next book came out years later, I read it aloud to my brother and younger sister.  And now, I'm reading the Lord of the Rings aloud to my youngest sister.  It's so much fun to watch people's reactions when you read them a story, and it's also a great bonding experience (which is awesome since my youngest sister and I are 15 years apart).
2. My 5th grade teacher reading aloud to the class  -  Mrs. Stender would use whatever free time we had, whether it was the last ten minutes of school or a rainy recess, to read books out loud to our class.  At that time, I liked books, but I didn't really love them, until she recommended more books like the ones she read to us.  She was the first person to inspire me to read more, and I will always appreciate that.
3. Reading Little Women  -  One of the books my teacher recommended was Little Women, and I loved it.  It was the book that started my reading obsession.  I've read it a hundred times since then, and I could pick it up again today and love every minute of reading it.
4. Book club with my best friend  -  In high school, my best friend Mary and I were part of a book club called T.I.G.E.R.- teenage independent girls enjoying reading.  It was run by the girls who were in the club, so each month a different person picked which book we'd read next and what activity we'd do based on the book.  It was so much fun, and we read tons of good books and played awesome games.  One of my favorite times was the first meeting, which Mary ran.  We read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and made our own homemade porcupine ties.
5. Reading I Capture the Castle  -  This book is one of the major reasons I want to be a writer.  As soon as I read that opening line - "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" - I fell in love with the story, the narrator, the writing.  I wanted more than anything to write a book like this one, a book that stays with you long after you've read it.
6. Deciding to be a writing major  -  When I was trying to figure out what I wanted to major in, where I wanted to go in life, one constant remained the same - I wanted to write.  I love so many different things, and I probably would have been just as happy majoring in education or political science or history or psychology.  But no matter what I chose, I knew that I also had to write.  So it seemed that the best course of action was to major in what I loved so much.  And despite the fact that a creative writing major doesn't guarantee a bestseller or even a decent job, I do not regret my decision at all.
7. Self-publishing a poetry chapbook  -  In college, I took a poetry class, and part of the class was writing and then publishing a small book of poetry, using the college's editorial/print center.  That first book was not my best.  Some of the poems were really good, but most were blah.  Then for my independent study, I decided to do advanced poetry, specifically concrete poetry or image poetry.  The chapbook I made for that is probably my best work, and it was incredibly satisfying to see it actually printed and in book form.
8. Starting this blog  -  I started this blog at the suggestion of one of the homeschooling moms I'd known since my mom started homeschooling me in 7th grade.  She also attends the same church as me, and one Sunday after worship, we were talking about my future.  It had been two years since I'd graduated college; I was working for the newspaper but not in a writing capacity; and I hadn't written anything in a long time.  She told me that I should start a blog about anything I wanted; I just needed to do it to keep writing.  And so I did, and I love blogging, even if I'm not always great at keeping up with it.
9. Attending the Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows release party  -  My friends had ordered their copies of HP7 and were picking them up at the Barnes & Noble midnight release party in Palisades Center.  I hadn't ordered the book, but they invited me to come, and we had a great night.  We had dinner at one of the mall restaurants, got our faces painted, and just had fun hanging out together.
10. Reading The Fault in Our Stars  -  This book has reaffirmed my desire to be a writer.  I've been out of college for almost six years now, and I cannot remember the last time I actually wrote anything.  It was really discouraging to think about, and then I read this book (and an awesome email from a coworker), and now I can feel that passion again.  Books like TFiOS are not only beautiful, but also inspirational, and I know that even if it's not tomorrow or next month or even this year, I am going to write that story/book.

And technically, I know this really doesn't count since it hasn't actually happened yet, but I'm so excited for it and I know it's going to be an awesome memory...

• Attending BEA 2013  -  When I first heard about BEA, I was in college and couldn't attend.  Then when I graduated, I didn't think there was any way I could go since I was working for a food store at the time.  Now I'm both an employee of a media/publishing company and a book blogger.  I have made a promise to myself that I am going this year.  I'm purchasing my ticket this week (after payday), and I cannot wait to meet other book lovers and bloggers and authors and publishers.