Book Memories 01 | Dan Absalonson

Book Memories guest blog post # 1 by Dan Absalonson
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THE FIRST TIME I READ PAST THE REQUIRED PAGES

I've always loved reading. In my teen years I could usually be found with a book and if there was a spare moment I'd whip it out and get to reading. Sitting in math class during our homework time I'd finish the assignment and pull a paperback from my backpack. I remember one time I was reading the massive door stopper The Eye of the World, the first in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series, and when a classmate saw me pull it from my bag he was like,

"Woah! What the heck are you reading Dan? I didn't know they even make books that big. Why would anyone want to read something that long?"

It made me smile.

The story I want to share about though is about an experience I had reading an assigned book for school. The first amazing part about it is that I liked it in the first place. Not even someone who loves reading enjoys most of the books they force you to read for school. This time though, it was different. It was my freshman year of high school and our teacher assigned us to read The Princess Bride by William Goldman. Most of you have probably seen the movie, it's a classic, but if not there will be spoilers. I figured it's okay because as I wrote this the movie is 27 years old and the novel is 41 years old. I highly recommend both as they are awesome.

So we were assigned to read a certain amount of pages every night and we'd talk about what we read in class the next day. I think there may have been a quiz about the assigned reading, but what I do remember was what happened one night while I was reading the assigned pages. The main character, the awesome pirate captain sword fighting mans man who was coming for the girl and they were going to be together forever because they had true love, died. I stopped reading and said "What?!" out loud. I could not believe it. I read it again. This can't be right! There is just no way he can be dead! I kept reading until I got to the end of the assigned reading, but I couldn't stop. I had to find out if just somehow Westley, the Dread Pirate Roberts, Buttercup's beloved farm boy could still be alive later in the book. So I read on, my pupils pounding the printed pages. I stayed up late and I grew tired but I had to keep reading. I couldn't handle the truth. It had to be that the hero was still alive so he could save the girl from marrying a jerk. Their true love just had to win out in the end!

Finally my eyes flicked across words about Miracle Max making a resurrection pill which Fezzik and Inigo give to him and it worked. The tension fell from my shoulders. I could finally close the book for the night and get some sleep. It was an awesome experience to read beyond the assignment and stay up late because I had to know what happened next. Finding a book like that is rare, but in a book I was assigned to read for class? Shoot, I did not expect that. So of all the books I had to read for school The Princess Bride stands high above the rest. The most enjoyable, the funnest to read, and the best adventure. There were a few other books for school that I liked, admired, even enjoyed - but I loved reading The Princess Bride.