‘All grown-ups were once children... but only few of them remember it.’ — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
October is always a special month. For many reasons. Firstly, because it is my birthday month and every lap around the Sun should be celebrated (happy birthday to me!). And secondly, because Autumn, my favourite season, kicks off: the trees start to yellow and lose their leaves, the temperature drops, and the light gets warmer. There’s a special smell of earth in the air and a mood of calmness and retreat in preparation for the next blooming season. Spring starts in October.
This has also been a special October. Due to a collection of unconnected circumstances (I wrote about one of them in this previous post), I have come to reconnect with my childhood memories and reflect on the books that sparked some sort of magic in me.
Visiting Beatrix Potter’s exhibition at the V&A in London was not only fantastic artistic inspiration, but it was also a reencounter with my childhood. I lived again those moments when I was a little girl, tucked in bed before falling asleep, my dad reading to me El Cuento de Perico el Conejo Travieso (that’s the Spanish version of The Tale of Peter Rabbit). I recall this big book (as a child I remember everything being pretty big) with all Beatrix Potter’s beautifully illustrated stories. I wonder if it was back then when I unconsciously started loving everything related to art and drawing.
My memory travels now to a very special gift my mum gave me when I was about 11, a book that I read every year and purchase in every language I speak: El Principito (The Little Prince). This book (the one my mum gifted me) travels with me everywhere I go. It is an eternal source of wisdom.
— Adiós — dijo el zorro —. He aquà mi secreto. Es muy simple: no se ve bien sino con el corazón. Lo esencial es invisible a los ojos.
That moment Daisy Buchanan describes in her book Burn Before Reading (included in the October list) - the moment when we first picked up a book and felt something significant sparking up inside ourselves - that precise moment happened when I was 12 and spent a whole weekend reading another very special book gifted, this time, by my dad (I remember him getting home from work with the present in his hands: I heard this is a nice book!). Of course, it’s Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal, the first of the saga. That was the very first time I remember reading a story and truly living it (thank you J.K.Rowling!). Look at the beautifully illustrated cover in Salamandra’s Spanish edition.
I invite you all to do this little yet stimulating exercise: recall the special books of your childhood, those stories that sparked joy and magic. And please share them below in the comments :)
Happy reading! 📚✨
Ana
📚 What I’m reading in October 2022:
Wabi Sabi by Beth Kempton. A quirky pleasure of mine is discovering beautiful Japanese words that describe abstract, natural, or behavioural concepts without direct Western translation (such as Ma, Kaizen, or the title of this book).
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. I strongly recommend reading this book, it’s a treasure box of creativity prompts. Its subtitle is Learn it and use it for life.
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. We are time - this book will help you to slow down and see time management from a different angle.
On Writing Well by William Zinsser. This is a must - not only for writers. We all should learn to write well.
Burn Before Reading by Daisy Buchanan. Another beautiful publication by the Pound Project. Love what these guys do.
Success Habits by Napoleon Hill. A series of recommendations to get hold of your own mind.
The Healing Power of Plants by Fran Bailey. A beautiful birthday present that is helping me take better care of my beloved green babies.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. Reading it together aloud and performing it with my partner. It’s not Agatha Christie’s Poirot, but it’s quite good.
What are the special books of your childhood? What are you reading at the moment? It would be great to hear about it! Please, leave a comment and share your thoughts :)
That’s a lot of books you’re reading this month! I’m reading Trust me I’m lying. For my 11th birthday I got an exceptionally well illustrated edition of the Hobbit. It was wonderful getting lost in that book!
Thank you for this Ana. I am also an October-birthday person and love this time of year.
Books were essential to my childhood. Do you know the Little Grey Rabbit stories by Alison Uttley? In a similar vein to Wind in the Willows, and the Beatrix Potter tales. They were the favourites among me and my four siblings, we also had the tapes of June Whitfield, an English actor, reading them, she did an amazing job with the different voices. I suppose that would have been in the seventies. They kept us transfixed on long journeys, and all the family still quote favourite lines from those books regularly.
I am also a massive fan of The Little Prince. Some of the treasured moments I’ve enjoyed as a mother have been reading it to my daughter.
Happy birthday!