Books and Memory

I have feeling readers fall into two groups on this one:

1. A title or book cover or passage brings back vivid memories of the environment in which you read it; or

2. You were so involved in the story, the rest of the world fell away -- a scathe of zombies could have risen and you wouldn't have noticed till they took a bite.

I'm in the former group. Maybe I'm overly prepared for the zombie apocalypse, or maybe my brain just doesn't focus well on a single thing. I don't understand the cognitive intricacies behind it, but I can usually remember exactly where I was for any book I've read.

For example:

Adventures of Tom Sawyer - My mouth tasted like saltines and 7-Up (on a good day) because I was home sick with flu. I sat under an afghan on the couch, in my nightgown, for a week.

Memoirs of a Geisha - Road trip with Dave's parents! We went to pick up things we had in storage in Denver and made a mini-vacation of it, because it was winter in Colorado. :)

Anne of Green Gables - Summer of '85. Read the whole series in a hammock. Dappled sunlight, hammock-induced marks on my elbows and legs.

Angela's Ashes - We were staying with a friend's parents in Germany, in a lovely basement apartment in their home. We made ourselves an Advent calendar with German Christmas market goodies. I stretched that book as long as I could -- didn't want it to end.

Clan of the Cave Bear - Read it on my lunch breaks at Bank of Boulder's credit card processing center. Lunch alternated between homemade vegetable soup and chili.

The Third Witch - Summer 2003, pre-camp at Island Lake, though I wasn't working at camp that year, just there with Dave. I read this book alongside Macbeth, on which it's based. I sat in the only warm corner of our room (under the reading light); thunderstorms pounded for several days; I drank mug after mug of hot tea and listened to Secret Garden's White Stones album. One of my favorite reading memories.

What about you? When you look at books you've read, do they bring back environmental memories? Or would you swear you were in the book while you read it, the experience was so intensely involved?

[image via University of Houston]
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •