A life through books

I've done blogposts like these before, where I go through my life, through all my humble years of existence and pull out memories about games, movies, music (on my other blog: https://music.vuokko.be) and other things. Today: books!

I've been reviving my reading habit the past couple months. So let's start at the beginning: around age 6, when I learned to read. I got the hang of it fast, I loved it, I was good at it. I devoured comics and other children's novels (Looking at you: "De Griezelbus" by Paul Van Loon). There was this series "Tomorrow when the war began" about a bunch of kids on a camping trip while their country gets invaded and they slowly turn to guerilla warfare that I kept coming back to, but never found out how it ended as my local library didn't stock the full series. And a whole lot of other young adult stuff from "late last century". Oh crap that makes me feel old, which spoiler alert: I am, and mostly feel.

Then, the year was 1999, and I was gifted this series everyone was raving about: Harry Potter. I came a bit late to the party, only when the 3rd or 4th book was already out. Devoured those, just in time for the 6th book to be translated into Dutch. I remember me and a fellow classmate doing a contest to see who could finish it faster, he won, in 2 days, it took me 3 days to devour the 600 page beast. Then came the 7th and final book, and little old me didn't feel like waiting for the Dutch translation, so little old me picked up the English book and finished the series that way. A milestone: my first English book. It would open up the path for many more to come!

The next series was The Lord of The Rings. Everyone was raving about this great movie based on a great book. All I wanted was to go watch "Behind Enemy Lines" instead... but we went to see it anyway and boy oh boy, was I hooked. I watched that movie 17 times. Maybe more like 20 now, covid lockdown and all, had ourselves a little LOTR and The Hobbit binge on 2 days during lockdown, the partner and me. So anyway, back to 2001. Boromir dead, the fellowship split. I just HAD to know what happened to Frodo. So what did little old me do: picked up the books. One summer was all it took me to go through them. The first 200 pages were hell: it took 200 freaking pages before the hobbits set one foot out of Hobbiton... 200 pages of party, songs, lore, old grey wizard, before the adventure begins. But after those, and after 200 more of Tom Bombadil and Bree and whatnot, the Fellowship finally goes. And once it goes, it went bananas! We traveled with an RV that year, lots of driving/waiting. No phone, no internet, no electricity, so books was all I had and resorted to that year. And I finished the trilogy. I was 12 years old... That was probably the final great trilogy I ever read...

Then computers, games, woman (ok, just 1 or 2, not a whole harem) and other things became more important, and books disappeared into oblivion. Until 2008: Twilight! Yes, you read that right. The movie that booted Kirsten Steward and Robert Pattison to stardom, sparked my curiosity enough for me to pick up the entire series and devour it again like old. Not serious reading, but still counts as reading.

Then, years of nothing. Maybe a book left or right. I remember reading through Bram Stoker's Dracula around 2008 as well. Then I started working, moved in with my partner, life became hectic, books became the first pastime to go.

Until 2 years ago. In a more and more digitalized era, I, like a lot of other people, resorted back to physical books and journaling. I wanted to find a way to organize my thoughts, found this "Bullet Journal" method people were raving about, read the book by the method's creator Caroll Ryder. In that book he references Cal Newport's Digital Minimalism. So I picked that one up, read it through, did a month of digital detox, picked up drawing to reclaim the time I used to spend on my phone. Not all of the minimalism stuck, but the ideas are still within me. I read "Moral Ambition" by Rutger Bergman (in Dutch), as recommended by my job coach (if you're ever in need of one, can't recommend https://comefront.be/ enough! She helped me look at my job differently and find my focus again!). My coach also tipped me off about the Stoics: OG Marcus Aurelius and present day Ryan Holiday. I didn't read them then, but I am reading them now: Meditations and The Daily Stoic.

So yea, 2 years ago. Little revelation with those non fiction, self help type of books that I read. Then it went dormant again because renovations! kids! job switch! Until April of this year. I wanted to prove to myself that I can still finish "a big project" as my life has been slipping into "Mastery of the micro sessions". I watched the Dune movies. I follow Parker Settecase on YouTube and he keeps mentioning the novel by Frank Herbert. So I set myself up with a goal: finish Dune, around 500 pages, before the end of year. It started with 5 pages, dense material lot of ambiguity. But I pushed through. I kept pushing through, the spice must flow. 5 pages became 10. Then weeks of nothing. Then suddenly 50 pages. Then again nothing. Now it's the end of July, and I'm 400 pages in, taking a little break as Book 3 (Dune is divided into three big sections called "books") is upon me. I'm slated to finish Dune, by the end of summer. And by the end of year I'll probably have Dune Messiah finished as well.

So I'm taking a little break now. I'm 'reading' murdle, which granted, isn't really reading but more like puzzling. But it is physical, it is words on a page, and it is fun! And then yesterday I picked up "Odysseus" because well, IMAX right? Wanted to see what all the fuzz was about. I'm 50 pages deep, one evening... Gotta say, I kinda get it now. Goal within a goal: finish the book before watching the movie on streaming later this year. At this rate I'll finish it by the end of the week, or maybe next week.

This feels good. Reading again. And it's all because my mentality about books shifted. Just like the micro sessions, just like becoming my final form.

Past me: Dune is a trilogy, or even 6 books. To start Dune is to sign a contract with blood that you need to finish all 6 books!

Present me: Dune is one book of a series. It can be read on itself, it is the only goal for now.

Past me: Books are sacred! No dog-earing, marginalia or notes!

Present me with a pen: watch me!

Past me: read the first ever translation of Odysseus, preferable in the original Greek

Present me: movie tie in edition with a cool cover, modern translation and a little abriged is good enough!

I've changed as a person. I've changed as a reader. But that little kid that got lost in distant worlds for hours, is still within me. I can't channel him for hours at a time like I used to. But being able to still do it ten minutes, or sometimes longer, that's all that matters to me. Imagining that world inside my mind.

To read is to engage with one of the things that defines us as humans: we tell stories.

Through stories, we share knowledge, memories, fears and dreams. We pass something from one mind to another—and from one generation to the next.

And every time we open a book, the story begins again.