Books Keeping you Up at Night : A memory

Long time, no chat. So pull yourself up a chair.

I often get these wonderful little slideshows about books on one browser’s homepage. Either for genres I don’t normally read or things that sound interesting. This one is all about Books that are supposed to keep you up all night. While I’ve read 10 of the 15 (66 percent, for those of you who math), it brings up an even more interesting story about my reading journey.

I was always a little nervous around Christmas time. Even after the magic had been spoiled.
I was just always nervous and could not sleep.

We had a tradition to open up one gift on Christmas eve and stuck to that most years. Usually it was a video game when I was 8-11.
But year 11 was different. I got a box that looked sort of like a K-Mart cardboard box and it was wrapped and it was from my Great Aunt and Uncle.

I opened it up, being that it was pretty heavy. And was shocked to find Needful Things–a Stephen King hardcover.

It didn’t have the Sam’s Club sticker, but I know it had been on there at one point. Now, I should mention at this point that it was almost 700 pages.

I know my eyes must have been wild. And when I called her to thank her, she said she knew I liked to read, and that I was a bit nervous on Christmas eve.
But she also said that this way I could read and it was long enough to keep me reading all night OR that it would scare me enough to forget about being nervous.

From then on, her gift was always something I looked forward to. Now, I knew it was most likely going to be a Stephen King hardcover, but the idea that someone considered me…that was awesome. And my Great Aunt was not a real reader. She read magazines and Reader’s Digest compilations (which I didn’t like because they were abridged–when I found that out it felt like a cruel joke). But she took the time and it really helped.

Sometimes I’d read the whole book.
Sometimes I’d pass out by 3 AM.
But it was always one of the best gifts I would get.

I’ve tried to continue the tradition as an adult, but with a twist. The book now is usually a surprise.
And that’s either due to someone sending it to me OR due to a very confused person at a local bookstore that I give a few books to and ask them to make it up for me.

But that’s a story for another day.