The Best Present Ever
Dec. 23rd, 2003 10:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakA Pointless Story
When I was growing up my favorite book in all the world was The Lord of the Rings. The very first time I heard the tale of what happened to Bilbo's funny magic ring was when I was six. My mother read the whole tale to me over several months, a chapter each evening. My fondest memories are of my mother reading some of the greatest stories ever written to my sister and me. She read us Alice in Wonderland, with explanations of things like treacle, The Wind in the Willows with wonderful voice for Toad, Badger, Mole, and Ratty, and earlier she brought Winnie the Pooh to life.
But best of all were the fantastic tales by J.R.R. Tolkein. I loved the animated version of The Hobbit. I even have fond memories of animated travesty called The Lord of the Rings. But when she read it to me, ah. That was joy.
I read it on my own when I was nine or ten. I found a paperback edition of The Two Towers and jumped right in to the great river. I was overjoyed when I found the house copy of The Fellowship of the Ring and I even read the appendices when I got to The Return of the King. I read them all again a little over a year later. And I fell in love with the story.
One fine October day I was out with my grandmother at a used bookstore on Colfax Avenue (I loved that named too, it always reminds me of Shadowfax) when I spied a big red edition of all three books in one volume. Yes, the one bound in leatherette with the slipcover. I wanted this book the moment I saw it, but I didn't have enough money with me since the price was something close to $50. A small fortune for a child of twelve. But I gathered my resources and returned in two weeks with enough money to buy my prize... only to find it had been sold.
Christmas Eve two months later. We were opening our presents because we always open them on Christmas Eve, family tradition since my father is so often out of town on Christmas day. There is a picture of me with this lit up expression on my face because my grandmother had bought the book, the very same book, she was the one who purchased it before I could, and now it was mine the very best Christmas gift I have ever received. I don't love the tale of Frodo as much as I once did, but it is still one of my prize possessions.
When I was growing up my favorite book in all the world was The Lord of the Rings. The very first time I heard the tale of what happened to Bilbo's funny magic ring was when I was six. My mother read the whole tale to me over several months, a chapter each evening. My fondest memories are of my mother reading some of the greatest stories ever written to my sister and me. She read us Alice in Wonderland, with explanations of things like treacle, The Wind in the Willows with wonderful voice for Toad, Badger, Mole, and Ratty, and earlier she brought Winnie the Pooh to life.
But best of all were the fantastic tales by J.R.R. Tolkein. I loved the animated version of The Hobbit. I even have fond memories of animated travesty called The Lord of the Rings. But when she read it to me, ah. That was joy.
I read it on my own when I was nine or ten. I found a paperback edition of The Two Towers and jumped right in to the great river. I was overjoyed when I found the house copy of The Fellowship of the Ring and I even read the appendices when I got to The Return of the King. I read them all again a little over a year later. And I fell in love with the story.
One fine October day I was out with my grandmother at a used bookstore on Colfax Avenue (I loved that named too, it always reminds me of Shadowfax) when I spied a big red edition of all three books in one volume. Yes, the one bound in leatherette with the slipcover. I wanted this book the moment I saw it, but I didn't have enough money with me since the price was something close to $50. A small fortune for a child of twelve. But I gathered my resources and returned in two weeks with enough money to buy my prize... only to find it had been sold.
Christmas Eve two months later. We were opening our presents because we always open them on Christmas Eve, family tradition since my father is so often out of town on Christmas day. There is a picture of me with this lit up expression on my face because my grandmother had bought the book, the very same book, she was the one who purchased it before I could, and now it was mine the very best Christmas gift I have ever received. I don't love the tale of Frodo as much as I once did, but it is still one of my prize possessions.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-23 10:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-24 09:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-24 01:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-24 09:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-24 02:13 am (UTC)(My dad read me the Hobbit and the whole of LOTR - doing voices for Treebeard and Gollum, reading the poems, the whole bit - so I know a little of what it must have been like for you to have your mother read it.)
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-24 09:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-24 12:50 pm (UTC)My mother read to me. My fondness for Mark Twain, and for reading, comes from her reading Tom Sawyer aloud to me, up to the middle of the whitewashing the fence scene, then going away on some errand. I got impatient, and started reading it myself. I was hooked, at the age of 7 or 8.
Your grandmother sounds like a marvelous woman.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-12-24 08:17 pm (UTC)I mostly read Twain to myself. I've grown to like him more now than I did as a child.