Fat Books

This is truth. 

You don't notice it until years after you first bought the book. You pick it up, and look at it. You take in the battered corners, the way the edges are peeling back on the paper of the spine. The spine is covered up and down in a thousand creases. How the paper back cover that used to lie so flat is now creased and doesn't rest flat on the page any more. The pages aren't sharp paper cut material any more, they're sort of....fluffy. And you realize just how long you've had that book and how many times you've read it. You open the front cover and a strange sort of nostalgia comes over you. It's like the excitement of opening it for the first time all over again, only you know what happens. You're walking on an old road you've traveled a hundred times, returning to meet old friends, but you still feel that sense of adventure and suspense like that first time you opened the cover. 

I read so many books over the course of my childhood, I couldn't even begin to list them. But whenever I think about the books I read when I was a kid, the dominating ones that come to mind are the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings. 

I loved them. I read the Hobbit first. I've read it the most. 

I read it the for the first time in sixth grade. 

I read it because my friend said it was really good. And she was right. 

I read the bit on the first page telling about Hobbits. I adored the story. I've reread it several times over the years. 

That book say me through that awkward stage of life we call middle school, was used many times as a boring evening's entertainment, gave birth to a brief obsession of riddles, and was still listed among my favorites by my junior year of highschool when I used it in an essay. (still among my favorites. always will be.) That paper was my favorite assignment all year and I couldn't wait to write it. 

Now I open it up again and smile the way you do when you find your stuffed animal from when you were a kid. You know the one. It looks like its been soaked, run over, tread on, maybe used as a napkin. I see the familiar first page heading "And what is a Hobbit?" I flip through all the pages and find that some places lay open better than others. 

I remember that first reading and all the subsequent ones. I remember nearing the end and clutching the pages in fright in a chair in my living room. I remember reading it another time at the pool waiting for my sister. I remember reading it my room when I was bored waiting for my parent's small group to finish so my sister and I could come out. I remember all the times I reread certain parts, and searching for quotes for my paper. 

Bits of my life really are preserved for me within those pages. 

Each time I read it, I understand a bit more. I bring new experience and new knowledge to it every time I read. 

So every time I open it I'm greeted by some old friends, and younger versions of myself, getting a bit older each time. 

Sorry about this completely random, slightly not-flowing post, I'm feeling a little nostalgic over here, and kind of missing childhood. Also the Hobbit just came out, so it's on my mind. 

Love ya!

Robin