Saturday, May 19, 2007

Time, books, and bookmarks






As I looked at my Amazon account this morning, I saw that I placed my first order there in 1997, ten years ago! Is that possible? These were the days when they included free bookmarks with your order. I still have four from that time, and I cherish them.

My first order contained Bob Greene's, Be True To Your School. I still own it, and haven't read it... yet. :<) Then I bought a couple of the Niall Williams/Christine Breen books about moving to Ireland. They are still on the shelves, and while I've read the first two (and don't own them), I don't believe I ever got around to these two. It's time I do so. I see a few of the Mitford books, and some books about raising teenagers. That's where I was in my life just then. I see some Hardy Boys books I bought for my then, twelve year old son. There are a couple Oprah books, really the only ones I read. I remember thinking it was just the coolest thing that all these people were reading books together, though I never watched (and still don't) the show. Then I found that the themes weren't really my favorite reading, and I stopped. But those books, that book club introduced me to a bunch of women I am still friends with today, through a smallerthanamazon online bookstore called books.com.

The next year I bought mysteries featuring older sleuths for my husband's parents, one of whom has since died. I see more books about raising teens. I never read one of them. I was way too busy doing it to read about how to do it. :<) In 1999, I see I bought my first Susan Branch calendar. As the years go on, I recognize books and music I gave to my children and others. I can chart their growth by the titles. Charlie's Angels soundtrack, snowboarding books, biography of Bob Marley. There's the juicer I used just a few times, and gave up. These were the days before Netflix, and so I actually bought the videos of Kavanagh, Q.C. Oh, the money spent! There's the Christmas I bought my husband all the Inspector Morse books. Dragonball Z shows up over and over. I see the complete first season of 24 given to my daughter and her soon-to-be husband, now, soon-to-be ex-husband. There is the complete Steinbeck Centennial collection. Have I read even one? No. :<(

When I began this post, I thought it would be fun just to show those great old bookmarks. Then as I checked back over the account, I saw my life in the past ten years through books and music and movies and cookbooks and calendars. Much more emotional and moving than I expected on this Saturday morning.

7 comments:

  1. I like the bookmarks; I wish Amazon still included them with their orders. On somewhat the same note, I'm delighted when I buy a used book from either a thrift store or garage sale and find the previous owner's bookmark, card, note, "to do" list or grocery shopping list tucked inside the pages.

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  2. I wish they included the bookmarks still too. You got me curious, Nan, and so I went and looked up my history with Amazon. With the amount of times I've forgotten my password and changed my e-mail address, I was surprised to see that my order history goes back to 1999. Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them was the first book listed that I ordered. Thanks for sharing.

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  3. That is so funny that you have pictures of those bookmarks. I still have a whole stack of them that I use very sparingly. I went back and looked at my orders back to 1997 as well. That was when I ordered massive amount of books (hence all the bookmarks) and I could remember a few that you or Les or others had mentioned on Books.com or later that I just had to have. Lots of the ones I ordered I never read. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Do you realize it has been 10 years that we have been friends and book-talkers? Ha! Lots of life changes but we're still talkin' about books!

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  4. What an enjoyable post! It's so interesting how we can tie certain books to the happenings in our lives when we either read them or meant to read them!

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  5. What a wonderful history of your reading life these past 10 years!! I should try the same, although so many of my purchased books were through Borders when I worked there.

    Didn't you give me one of those Steinbeck books? I want to read East of Eden and re-read Travels with Charley. Perhaps sometime together with you?

    I have one bookmark from Amazon. Might have to do a blog entry about all of mine that sit in a drawer.

    Yep, as Kay says, a lot has happened in ten years! High school and college graduations, 6 (?) weddings, a few deaths, the birth of grandchildren, and a couple of moves. Amazing!

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  6. I loved this post - so much that I also had to review my Amazon ordering history. It dates to 1999 and what fun to look back at what I was reading, thinking about, what books were bought and still haven't been read.......I particularly liked seeing what books I had bought and given as gifts. I remember those bookmarks, too! Thanks for this trip down (book) memory lane!

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  7. I just want to thank you all for your comments. I so enjoyed each one. Thanks so much for stopping in.

    Yes, Les, (a poem) I think I did give you Travels with Charley, and we were going to read it together a few years back.

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