It’s Thursday again — and we all know what that means! Today’s Booking Through Thursday question is:

‘What, if any, memorable or special book have you ever gotten as a present? Birthday or otherwise. What made it so notable? The person who gave it? The book itself? The “gift aura?”’

My parents have always been huge proponents of reading — and, arguably, that’s probably the reason I went on to major in English Literature in college, work as an editor and aspire to be a novelist myself. My mom and dad have been giving my sister and I books from the time we were born, and many of our favorite memories include sitting around with my parents reading The Berenstein Bears collection (the Halloween versions and “junk food” were usually our favorites!) or Little Critters. My mom always writes beautiful inscriptions inside, too.

Not mine, but I have a ton of snowglobes from Florida!

The first book that really comes to mind out of all the books I’ve received over the years, though, is a book on snowglobes my dad got me for Christmas when I was probably around eight. I was obsessed with waterglobes as a child — I picked them up on all of our family vacations, requested them from friends and family and squealed when my grandparents would buy me the super large snowglobes for Christmas or my birthday. My dad found a book, aptly titled Snowglobes, and I still have it on the bottom bookshelf in my room. It’s a picture collection of snowglobes from all over the world — and is highly illustrated, of course! I was reading then but still loves seeing all the pretty pictures. My dad, sister and I used to sit and pour through all the pictures, pointing out our favorites. I remember a two-page spread near the back was full of one woman’s entire collection and I was mesmorized by the sheer number of snowglobes all in one place.

I still love waterglobes — and still get excited when I see them out. I’ve had to pack up my own large collection for space reasons but can’t see myself ever getting rid of them! And I usually bring back one or two from all my trips. As I type this, I have a tiny, pretty one from San Gimignano, Italy just next to my work phone! There’s something sort of magical about them.

It was so special because it was from my dad, I know, and I think that’s a lot of the reason why I still have so many books from when my sister and I were younger. We have many from our grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends . . . and it’s exciting to get books, I think!

And thanks, Dad, for fostering my snowglobe love at such a young age!