Memory Of Reading Lord Of The Rings when I was 10
I’ve committed myself to writing & publishing something new everyday. I really enjoy writing. More than that though, I find it helps me get thoughts out of my head, and it makes me more much productive when I write & publish something, on the same day (even better when I do that all in the same block of time).
I’ll usually write about my experience in running a startup, my team, our community of users, being a dad, having shitty jobs, larger tech trends I’m interested in etc.
But I don’t always have something to write everyday on those topics (and most times they take a few days or weeks to properly form in my head enough for me to write and publish a complete post). And I want to post everyday. So sometimes I’m just going to write something totally unrelated (random, and probably useless to anyone but myself), like today:
I just had a flashback to when I was 10 years old, taking a flight with my family, back from a holiday in Western Australia…
The memory came about because our new intern at Party with a Local, Izzy, just added me as a friend on Facebook. She said that the first public info she saw on my profile was: ‘Read Lord of the Rings’. To which I responded ‘That’s true’. Then I had this vivid flashback / memory. I remembered it so clearly.
Background — Lord of the Rings was the first really ‘big book’ I had read. I’m not sure how I found it, quite possibly through my (still) very good friend Joel, who was a year younger than me, but was a big bookworm (still?) and really into fantasy books. (Joel used to come with us on small family trips and drives sometimes, and I was always amazed how he could be glued to a book in the backseat and not get car sick.)
Anyway, I was obsessed with Lord of the Rings, and was quickly lost in the fantasy of Middle Earth. I’m pretty sure I read it everyday after I started.
Looking back it’s quite an impressive achievement for a 10 year old — I wonder how many 10 year olds today would have the attention span to read that trilogy of books!? (I’m sounding old now! 👴)
More than the details of book, today I was reminded of what happened on that flight — when I finally finished the trilogy. I’d grown very attached to the book(s) over the months I was reading them. And now, finally coming to the end, of this amazing adventure, it was over. I was suddenly struck with sadness. I started to cry. I tried to stop myself, and hide it, but I couldn’t. There was just something about it ending after all this time, and all these moments of wonder — it was like losing a good friend. Also the way it ends, just with Sam coming back to normal life in The Shire, after so much had happened, and without his best friend Frodo.
Time passes. The Shire heals, but Frodo does not. Eventually Frodo departs for the Undying Lands to find healing, along with Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and the Elves. Sam, Merry and Pippin watch them depart and return home in silence. Sam is greeted by his wife Rose and his daughter Elanor. In the last line of the book Sam says to Rose; “Well, I’m back”.
Tears streamed. My Mum noticed me crying and sniffling on the other side of the aisle on the plane, and came over to comfort me. She asked what was wrong. I told her ‘I don’t think I’ll ever read another book as good as that.’ 😭
I think Mum, a writer, was sad at seeing me sad, but also proud that her little boy could be so moved by a book. I reminded her of the memory today. …She was / is. 😊

