Lord of the Rings for me. I finished the first book the day the movie came out, so I went and watched the movie that night, too. The other two books I finished a month after.

All the time. For me it's more missing that "first read" experience. Harry Potter is what started my love for reading. I remember binging those books like crazy. If I wasn't doing school work, I was reading. I'd lock myself in my room and just go. I miss that feeling. I have a hard time rereading books for that reason lol

YES!

The Deverry Series by Katharine Kerr and Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan are this for me. They are both also associated with summer, because that's when I read them the most. I get the same thing with games too, Sims, Skyrim... And hilariously, one of my own books i wrote. Probably because i spent so long writing it!

Don’t know if it counts because it’s audio but our history teacher read All quiet on the western front to us as a more relaxed history lesson (which was Friday afternoon). Now listening to the audio book and it takes me right back to being 14 again (I’m 30 now). I’ve now promised myself to never actually read the book, only listen to it.

Same for me! HP was and still is the only book series I read and immerse myself into it so fully. Rowling's world and characters felt so inviting and intimate. And HP always reminds me of Christmas holidays when I was a teenager. I used to read them by the Christmas tree's lights under my blanket while it was snowing outside. Really miss those times.

Exactly this. Especially associating them with certain seasons! But for me it's also years like "ah yes, for those 6 months before university, I was reading Tolkien".

I'm a big Tolkien fan and I know many people who have it as a personal tradition to reread LotR every year. It must be cool to associate your first reading with the excitement of the first movie.

This is a really nice memory! I like this type of little experiences that reconnect us with our inner child.

Ugh I feel this so hard when I think about reading Lewis Carrolls “Alice’s adventures in wonderland” . Reminds me of my grandmother

I started reading HP with PoA when I was already studying for a literature degree so it wasn’t what sparked my passion for reading but I remember dedicating a day to reading the final book sitting in the sun outside a local pub so clearly. Normally it’s not until I reread a book that I remember where I was when I first read it

I’m definitely nostalgic for how I identified with Calvin & Hobbes as a kid.

For sure, Harry Potter, Skullduggery series etc etc. My reading trajectory kind of has nothing to do with what I read at that time, being now mostly concerned with history - but I do credit them for my love of reading.

I find Rowling's writing to be very immersive and flowing. I'm also a literature graduate and I went through a two-year burn out after my studies. I noticed I couldn't focus enough to lose myself into a story until I picked up HP and it was like returning to a second home. It's amazing.

I started reading Harry Potter in 4th grade (1999). Since then, I had been rereading the series every 12-18 months. However, in the past 5 years or so, I’ve tried rereading them and I just can’t seem to get into them anymore. I don’t know what my problem is. Maybe I’ve read them too many times? It makes me sad, though.

I'm sorry to hear this :( I empathise with this. It's very possible you have become overly familiarised with the books and the novelty has worn off. Happened to me with Tolkien. It's ok to take a break and return after a while. The loss of novelty is completely normal but definitely something that makes me sad when it happens with something I used to love.

I actually felt something like this today! I recently bought two of my childhood favorites at a second hand bookstore. Last month I reread the first and I was a bit disappointed. It just wasn't the same magical adventure anymore, even though most of my other favorite books from that time still hold up. Today I started rereading the second one and so far, it's been great, to my immense relief. But it also made me a bit melancholy, because I miss the way reading felt when I was a child. I've never stopped reading, I've discovered some absolutely amazing books in the past few years and continue to do so, but it's different. I don't even mean it's worse, I still enjoy reading as much as I did back then, but there's just something magical about reading when you're a child and that magic is definitely gone now.

What did you think of The Casual Vacancy?

I don’t love it the same way as the potter books, but I read it when it first came out and a couple of times since and it’s like a darker Joanna Trollope to me

Haven't read that one yet! I'm planning of rereading HP and then looking at her other work.

I completely get what you mean. It's how a child's brain works I guess! Absorbing everything, imagination running wild, easily evoking vivid imagery. Back then we were like a blank canvas and more carefree. Also, it was a time when we didn't have the reading and life experiences. Most motifs, genres etc were fresh and captivating. At least we can be happy that we did experience this!

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Yeah... It happened to me for a while when I was studying for a literature degree. Plus, I was so analytical and, after reading some "good" literature, my standards became too high. Now I've been working on reading for fun again. I almost wish I had the lower standards I used to have beforehand lol.

Enjoying reading is what made me a reader. So yes? Ish? But there’s only so much time in the day now. Back when I had an office job I only needed to be there. Whatever work needed to be done I could get out the door quickly, so I read to pass the time. I’ve moved on from that but I still listen to audiobooks often... as I can get things done while still enjoying the story. Things change.

I read a lot of fictional books centred around Egypt in my younger years. Started with Pauline Gedge and moved on the Wilbur Smith. I do miss those feelings of being completely fascinated and that time in my life. I should find some digital copies of some of them and have a reread.

Yes. I wish I was a child again reading Dr. Seuss.

All the time! I love reading my childhood favorites and remember how I felt when I read them. I found a book as an adult that I asked my mom for when I was in elementary school--it was in the school library--but it was out of print, so she couldn't get it. When I re-read it I recalled how much I loved it, and the smell of the school, and even what the library looked like, and also that the book is what prompted my interest in dog obedience trials.

Sounds like you enjoy life.

I read the Young Adult series The Lunar Chronicles during the best time of my childhood (living in an island town in Florida). Every time I revisit those books it reminds me of sitting beneath the palm trees enraptured while my friends play in the ocean :)

Yep, lying on my bed as a teenager, nothing to do but dive into a book and then daydream. Hallowed times.

Yes. very much. I read Grimm's fairy tales when I was little, then I read broken sky by Chris Wooding in elementary school, but never finished, because the library in my school didn't have all books, but I loved those books so much. I read them at some point in my life, because I wanted to know how they ended. And then LOTR, those were also some nice times when I was reading it.

Then I stopped reading for a while because my life took a turn and it indeed was the worst time in my life. For me and I was the worst as well. So I think I am extra nostalgic for those times. But now I am reading again, my girlfriend really got me in to Harry Potter and I'm really enjoying it. I would also love to read Roadside Picnic and Metro for the first time. Excellent books.

Harry Potter is a good one. It was so easy to be enthralled back then. It was just so much more vivid felt like you were inside the book, now its more like you see it on a screen, at least for me.

I also kinda miss the times when I consumed voracious amounts of fanfiction. I tried looking up one I remembered fondly, and uh, lets just say its not as good as I remembered. Or at all.

Stuff just hit harder as a hormonal teenager I guess, especially when ignorance is bliss regarding quality

I've only ever gotten this feeling from a few childhood series, but it's been intense when it has happened. Harry Potter, The Saga of Darren Shan, and Chronicles of Ancient Darkness are all tied so strongly to certain points in my childhood that I have no choice but to hold them close to my heart. Even *thinking* about them takes me back and brings me so many happy memories. :D

American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I was in second year of my graduate program, stressed as hell due to final exams and papers all falling within 4 days of one another in the lead up to winter semester break. To make things even worse, I had left my dog with my parents in a different province and not only had I spent the whole semester missing him, but my mental health had greatly suffered in the previous months without him.

About three weeks from the end of finals, I was in the campus bookstore, trying to keep focus and look past finals and exams to getting on the plane and going home to see my dog (I mean, my family) for Christmas break. Came across American Gods and bought it on a whim. It was the first book I'd bought since starting my grad program (and being a poor student) since I didn't have time to read novels, so it was a big deal. I kept it on my desk as my emotional touchstone, and every time I started to lag or have a meltdown, I promised myself that once this awful term was done, I was going to read that book on the plane home for Christmas.

And that's what I did. I got on the plane, flipped open the book I'd been staring at for three weeks. And what a book! I only got about halfway through it before the plane landed. It was a great Christmas, I got to spend so much time with my dog and recover from school, and finished the book throughout the holidays. Now I every time I see the book on my book shelf, I relive the experience of all the stress literally melting off and the joyous anticipation of seeing my dog again at Christmas.

I binged them in my fifties. Started the series Thanksgiving week. Finished the series New Year’s week. 5-6 weeks maybe?

I don't think I've ever read any HP fanfiction. Maybe I would have liked it then but now in my late 20s I'm not so sure 😅

>especially when ignorance is bliss regarding quality

I kind of miss that. I remember some corny tv shows and movies in the 90s and we'd be so excited. Now everyone dissects everything.

If you ever feel the need to escape to something cosy, look up Howl's Moving Castle too.

Thank you for your recommendation, I will.

Same! How I feel about Harry Potter.

That's incredible. It's so beautiful to see the influence books have on our lives. It can be so therapeutic and cathartic.

Oh I haven't read any HP fanfiction eithet lol (unless you count the Cursed Child). I was just referring to fanfics in general.

Ah ok. And lol haven't read the Cursed Child but from what I've learned about it, I don't think I want to...

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Yes! I have read and reread the Foundation Trilogy every 5 to 10 years since I was about 14. 50 years later and I am about to again. I still remember the first time I read it, in my "cool" basement bedroom with the furry leopard pattern bedspread and sci-fi posters.

Heidi. I read the whole thing in one night when I was a kid, and cried imagining the glaciers and meadows, it sounded so beautiful. I remember feeling truly awake and haven felt that way much since

I just pulled that one out recently, used to stay up all night reading as a kid and that was a good one, as well as The Waterbabies

People clearly have things to say and not all of us are old members to have seen this type of posts.

I don't give a fuck about karma, just wanted to express my experience. And I don't lurk around here all the time noting to see what's been posted all over. Get over yourself.

That's lovely. I hadn't heard of that trilogy before but it sounds cool.

yea my first Stephen king book was IT when i was 16. my childhood friend gave my his copy that he bought after he read it his dad saw it in his room and made him get rid of it but he didn’t want to throw it away so he gave it to me i offered to pay him for it and he said no that he is asking for any money just enjoy the book needless to say i was a instant fan of the king of horror

Oh, absolutely. I remember everything.. How was I feeling, what was I thinking while reading certain passages. I tend to additionally praise books by “being good to me” based on the external events of a particular period in which they were current. (Obviously if I also enjoy the book itself.) It’s a peculiar, intense, but loving relationship. Intimate. The best kind.

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Absolutely feel nostalgia for when new Harry Potter books would be released. Waiting in line with friends for the release, then spending the entire night devouring the books.

Every year or so, I reread Deltora Quest because it feels safe. So yeah

It is Isaac asimov's most famous work

when I re-read it I was like baffled about the ammount of things in it that were excluded from the movie or changed entirely.

Certainly. I miss those times when I used to read those Choose Your Own Adventure books as a kid.

I want to read skullduggery again and let my imagination go wild like it used to.

Were you in an English-speaking country? Sadly we didn't have that in mine. It must have been great to share the enthusiasm

Yeah! Especially from the 4th, 5th and 6th.

YES! A lot. One strong feeling is around Twilight - reading it for the first time. I was in my 20’s when it was released and I wanted in on the hype. I had recently accepted a job making excellent money. I was standing in line to vote in the presidential election and remember reading and not having any idea how much time had passed. It was just a good place and time in my life and the election outcome was so astounding (in a good way) and I just think of reading Twilight and am transported back to that specific memory. Sorry for all of the deets but couldn’t stop once I started typing. 😂

Haha no worries xD yeah it's this type of thing I was thinking about! How vividly a book can transport us to a past situation.

It’s such a beautiful thing.

the which way books when i was in junior high school helped me finish school. i had no friends and most teachers hated me. i'd read whenever i had downtime in school. i look back and am glad i toughed it out instead of "silent quitting" school.

the encyclopedia brown books sparked an introduction towards reading at an early age while attending elementary school.

Truly 🥲

I feel you. It's beautiful how books can keep us mental company. I felt like this with HP for sometime

Happens all the time- sometimes simply remembering the books or the story is enough to make me tear up with nostalgia.

And the thing about remembering time periods through the books you were reading then is very accurate too. That is pretty much how I've been orienting myself all of my life, hahaha. “Oh? That vacation? It happened on [X month, X year]. I was reading [X book].”

Nostalgia is like heroin, you'll never experience it the same way as the first time

i used to be obsessed with enid blyton during my kindergarten to primary school years and absolutely swallowed every book with her name on it. to this day i only have to pick up a book by her to be transported back to that period of time where everything was simple and uncomplicated 🥹

I often feel nostalgia for The Clique series. I’ve tried rereading them… they’re not great through an adults eyes. But I read those ALLLLL through middle school.

For me it’s Redwall

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So many books from my childhood.. if I ever become a parent I’m going to keep a list of all the novels my child reads so if they ever want to go back to them and relive those moments they can.

Still remember being at the midnight premiere of the last Harry Potter book 🥹

I was waiting for someone to say Twilight!! I think I was in middle school at the time so that book brings up some feeeelingss. Especially on rainy days around the holidays for some reason.

How could you not! At this time of year I am nostalgic for the heavy reads I used to take on during Christmas holidays on long evenings in front of the fire.

Yeah, the Harry Potter, the Everworld, the Magic Tree House, the Golden Compass series and Animorphs all give me nostalgia when I think back about being a kid and reading them. I don’t think I enjoy reading they way I used to, and that saddens me.

No, I tend to enjoy reading more the older I get.

Totally. It's almost like dividing my life itself into chapters based on what I was reading at that moment. For most of my books I can remember at least a tiny snippet of what life was like during that time, and it's cool to have an anchor to those memories. Like The Amityville Horror was the summer before starting community college when I had moved in with my dad. The Black History of the White House takes me back to my last weekend off before going to San Francisco and the nice walk we took that warm cloudy day, as well as the afternoon a week later reading all day in the hotel room while my girlfriend got tattooed. Mad Cowboy is a sunny afternoon in 2021 after a long bike ride. Ghostland is the pure bliss of my first apartment living alone, staying up late into the night reading about the history of cemeteries and sitting out on the porch on the weekend feeling so incredibly peaceful.

Oh man I was just thinking about this. I don’t think I would ever re-read them, but to be a kid again reading the Redwall series! There were so many and the lore seemed endless/deep at the time, would always rent new ones from the library and loved the little maps in them and trying to piece together how they all fit together with their chronology.

I really miss the first time that I read Lord of the Rings. I was in my late teens and remember how I sneaked from work to read it. When I got to The Return of The King I pretty much didn’t do anything until I finished it. Good times.

Yes Robinson Crusoe for me. I was 11.

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Oh man. I was in high school when I got into Harry Potter, and at that time all the books were out up until Order of the Phoenix. We didnt have a bookstore where I lived, and ebooks weren’t accessible to me yet, so the only way you could get the books was if you were friends with the rich kids that had the them delivered from the city. I’d be so careful when it was my turn to borrow the book and make sure I didn’t crease the spine. Then we’d huddle in a group during recess to discuss theories. Thanks for the trip down memory lane :)

Charlotte's Web while underneath a table that was behind our living room couch. It was daytime so the sun was coming in through the picture window, but I was hidden enough for peace and quiet. So cozy.

Nothing will ever be as awesome as reading a Choose Your Own Adventure book for the first time.

I was wondering what your thoughts on the Harry Potter game coming out next year. I am positively thrilled at the idea of exploring Hogwarts. I had not the best childhood and am now estranged from both my parents. Harry Potter was my escapism. My way of having a better life. I've watched the movies a few times but I haven't read the books since then. I was busy trying to tackle some big projects like the wheel of time, it has 4.4 million words in 15 volumes. I do think I will read the series again before the game comes out in February.

yes, but only with Harry Potter

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and his dark materials, tbh

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oh my god yes, every time I reread a book, I am seized at the same time by a feeling of nostalgia and as if I am reading it for the first time, because there is a rethinking

Little woman by louisa may alcott is the book which is real nostalgia. I literally enjoyed it a lot.

I havent read it yet but def will give it a try as fantasy is my new cup of tea.

It is the same with any medium to be honest. The original experience hit you so hard you instantly get nostalgia for it. Like in gaming some people say "oh its just nostalgia" but they forget you have to have had an awesome /impacting experience first to have that kind of nostalgia for it in the first place.

Love this

As a 37 y/o man from New England, it has to be the Goosebumps series. Owned every book that I would read and then re-read in our basement for full scary effect. Then maybe tune into some Are you afraid of the dark with all my neighborhood friends for good measure. Ending the night with a serious game of manhunt with flashlights. Brought me right back! Epic.

Harry Potter

For me it is the feeling of never being able to read the books in the same way again, too. In in our old 1930s house with the windows open in the autumn with the cold air blowing in, cosy under the blankets, sound of late night underground trains rattling past at the far end of the garden behind the old trees, leafing through old yellowed hardback editions of Swallows and Amazons books from the 30s -50s rummaged from church jumble sales for mere pennies....

Late 30s now and living in a different country, it feels so long ago.

Damn, making me feel old 😂

Omg, you worded it so well. For me it's like, remembering a part of my childhood in the context of reading a certain book. For example, I have this distinct memory of reading the first or second warrior cats book for the first time while nuzzled up in a blanket inside of a pillow fort. It's not really a specific moment it reminds me of, just vaguely of a summer from long ago when i could sit cozily, read a book, meet online friends, be engaged, be happy, cry. Sometimes it makes me really wanna go back to that time.

... everything is so dull now.

Yeah that's exactly the same for me! But instead of summer, it was Christmas holidays. It was a period we could be lost in imaginary worlds without the cares of adult life distracting us.

The imagery is really pretty. And yeah, it's not the same reading books now as it used to be. The brain deals with info very differently. Making real-life connections and having intrusive thoughts...

I'm really excited about the game. Saw some videos of it, looks like they've created a gorgeous world. And I'm sorry about your parents but I definitely get the escapism part. I didn't have many friends when I was 12 and those few I had didn't match with me. So in my child's mind, HP characters felt like company and Hogwarts a place I'd rather be. I tried reading Wheel of Time too but I didn't get into it.

It's beautiful how Harry Potter brought so many kids together. Thanks for sharing your memory!

It's amazing how vividly we connect books with what was going through in our lives then! Happens to me all the time.

Christmas is the perfect time for such nostalgic trips:)

Yes! Exactly like that haha. I sometimes count the time passing that way.

I've been crazy sad nostalgic for the little bookstore I used to practically live in back in the 80s.

This is why I stopped reading books I loved as a kid. My adult brain was too "Oh no way, man! I'm NOT on board with children doing blah blah!"

Fair enough. I mean I still technically am a child, but i feel so disconnected from my younger self that I view "childhood" as something that I've gone through in the past and which is already over. I feel like that's probably not the healthiest thing, but it's weird calling this moment right now and me from like 4 years ago part of the same stage of my life. It's so confusing being dissociated from yourself to the point that it feels like a completely different person.

I suppose it's because of how much we change during the formative years of adolescence and young adulthood. When I think of myself years ago, it does feel like I was a different person. That's one of the beautiful things about readings books from older periods of our lives. They're like a reconciling bridge between two versions of ourselves.

Yeah, i guess that makes sense. And it can certainly be really cathartic to indulge in little things i used to enjoy as a kid, like McDonald's happy meals. But I feel like the closer a memory gets to present so i remember it vividly, but there's also still a big disconnect just gives me this uncanny valley feeling that makes me wanna throw up. Like, I can't quite remember anything specific about McDonald's happy meals, so i just take whatever i presently feel trying it and try to associate with childhood, but because with clearer memories there's already a connection and you know in unconsciously detailed accuracy how it's supposed to feel and then it doesn't.. idk, it's just really unnerving. I guess it's like.when a book starts and ends with the same line, but with a completely different context.

Maybe it's about not remembering the thing but the feeling you had back then. I'm not sure if I've been through this.

It's amazing how it evokes almost a magical time where I was able to immerse deeply into reading. I remember some hits that were playing on the radio back then or a physical sensation of ultimate coziness :)))

Too bad I couldn't have been your friend. And I felt more like I wanted to be Harry. As for wheel of time, how far did you get into it. Given it's length the first book is actually really slow. The main character we see in the first book does not exist by the time we get to the end. Like in Harry potter, years pass. If you can get to the end of the first book it might seem more exciting. There are almost 2800 unique named characters. Every one of them is important in some way. In the first there is a random teenage girl, nobody important at the time, she is just another characters daughter. Because she listened to the stories the main character told, she got a taste for adventure and ran away from home. She pops back up like 6 books later and becomes very important to the central plot. I love the series because every detail is important, and there are so many epiphany moments when details fall into place and you realize what's about to happen.

Thank you, that's kind of you to say. I read the first two and half books of WoT. I think I wasn't in the right mood to read them. I'm definitely a "mood reader". Maybe I'll get back to them sometime. I did like the camaraderie the group had at the beginning though. I remember the group that started from that village with the Aes Sedai and her warden.

Yes, I was in an English speaking country. Bookstores would have big release parties for new books. It was so much fun to go with friends.

Looking back at the entire series as a whole. It's about an awkward teenage boy going up to be a man. By the end he's grown up, actually we get to see that whole group from the village grow up. Their personalitys change as they get older. If you look hard enough you can see the version of themselves from the first book deep down. One of the characters gets put into a situation where they are in charge of thousands of people's lives. And when they realize it they are like well I don't want to be here, I'm not a leader. And when they try to leave someone says well who else is going to lead us. And he sits there and thinks a bit and then curses as he realizes he has to lead them because there is nobody else. If you have trouble getting into the mood maybe you just need someone to read it to you and give the story some spark.

Omg I wish I could have attended one 😭 a friend of mine said he had been to one were JK was signing her books.

I'm currently going through a "cosy" fantasy phase. Being in the mood for books like Harry Potter and Howl's Moving Castle. But I'll keep WoT in mind for when I feel like reading something epic again. Did you watch the Amazon adaptation?

I sent you a chat so I don't get too hyper focus into books and send you a bunch of comments 😆

Not exactly nostalgic but more… Okay, let me explain. Shortly after my mom died, I started reading really middle ground YA books/chick lit. Not the stuff a fella would read at all.

I read that stuff because I wanted something light. Something that would take the pain away. Something that made things happy. And it worked.

I miss that feeling of just disappearing into a really light, low stakes book.