Top Ten Bookish Confessions

For the second week in a row, I’m participating in the Top Ten Tuesday meme hosted on the The Broke and the Bookish blog. I’m quite proud of myself! The theme this week is bookish confessions and when I first read it, I thought … nothing. I was completely clueless – I had nothing to confess. But since then … well, let’s just say that I have thought up some confessions. Deep dark secrets … Let’s take a look, shall we?

1. When I was younger, I read quite a lot of Barbara Cartland novels. Even at the time, I knew they were very formulaic and planned almost schematically – but I didn’t care. I loved them. It started because I watched some of the movies – and then I just went on to the books. I remember that you could buy them in kiosks rather cheaply … and so I did. Eventually, I grew a bit embarrassed about it and I’m not sure I own any of her novels anymore … Or if I do, they’re hidden away in a closet at my mom’s.
2. When I was younger, I read a couple of Maeve Binchy novels. Circle of Friends and a couple of others. And I really liked them. But somehow I got the idea that Binchy wasn’t a proper author – or at least, that she wrote chick lit or the like and that I was too intellectual or whatever to read that. So I gave up reading Binchy and hasn’t touched one of her books in years. Silly, isn’t it? I do still own Circle of Friends so I might at some point reread it and see what I really think.
3. Years ago, I bought the Ghormenghast trilogy by Marvin Peake in a thick, black paperback edition. A friend had recommended it and so I bought it. I just didn’t like it. At all. Read 100 pages or so and then just quit and never tried again. So at some point, I gave it away to my then boyfriend (as we were splitting up, as I recall). And I regret it. So much. Because now I want to read it again. I’ve been reading a bit about it, I’ve been reading about how they’ve discovered a forth volume, I have read about Peake’s drawings and how they inspired the books. And I want to read it… and own it. So I have to buy it. Again!
4. I try to remember to write my name and date in all books I buy. At least the year. For a while, I always wrote with a red pen – now it’s black more often than not. If the book is fiction, I don’t write anything else in it. If its non fiction, I underline and write comments, draw smilies etc.
5. I have never read The Diary of Anne Frank. I wanted to read it when I was younger but my mom wouldn’t let me borrow her copy because she felt I was too young. And therefore, I have never have read it. A couple of years ago, I was in Amsterdam and of course visited the Anne Frank House and it was moving in so many ways. I bought a copy of the book, the new edition, at her house and I will read it. Some day.
6. As a teenager, I found Erica Jong’s Fanny Hill novel at the library. I rented it – and read it in secret, not wanting anyone what to know that I was reading such a novel. I actually ended up renting it more than once – and reading it more than once. Never told anyone – before now…
7. As a kid, I had a favorite author. Astrid Lindgren. I read her novels over and over and over. Especially The Brothers Lionheart and Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter. I loved these two books. I think I read them more than 15 times each. I still love them – and my oldest daughter is in fact named Ronja.
8. When I was a child, one of my teachers was very worried about me. See, I was reading 5-10 novels at the same time and she just couldn’t believe how anyone could that. So she was worried something was wrong with me. I remember having a small pile of books lying next to my bed and reading in several of them each night, before falling asleep. I don’t do that anymore – these days I prefer only reading one novel at a time. I don’t know when I stopped – or if it was influenced by that teacher…
9. Library fines… Yeah I have paid my part. Maybe even paid for a small library. And it’s silly. All the money I’ve paid because I returned books too late – and I could have used that money to buy books I could keep. Part of it is laziness – I just didn’t get around to returning the books on time. Parts of it was actually having a paper to finish for which I needed certain books and therefore couldn’t return them…
10. I read in bed every night. I always lie on my back and hold the book with both hands. Now, you would think that if I fell asleep lying like this, I would drop the book on my face and wake myself up. Not so. I can sleep quite a while like this, keeping my book perfectly still…

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