Tradition

Being the second anniversary of MonoMonday I really wanted to post, but I’ve struggled with the theme “Tradition”.  Since Blaze’s death most traditions that ever existed in my house have become pretty pointless.

But there is one that I’ve hung on to fervently.  When he died I became the owner of all of his books.  We are both avid fantasy readers so I have a number of double ups – but not as many as you would expect.  
Traditionally we bought each other a (well, one or more) book for every birthday and Christmas.  Then we read each other’s, so there was no need for more than one copy between us of any given book – except our absolute favourites like Patrick Rothfuss and the classics.  

I now have two 2 metre bookcases specifically dedicated to fantasy novels - and as you can see, they're getting over crowded.  I know that I'll have to cull at some point in the future - but there's no hurry.

I have continued this tradition.  Buying myself a book from Blaze for my birthday and Christmas.  And buying him one for his birthday and Christmas, which I then read on his behalf.  I’m running out of new books from authors he ‘knew’ and liked, so am having to introduce him to new authors.  Recently adding J D Oswald and Scott Lynch to our repertoire.

Sometimes it is hard to wait for one of our birthdays or Christmas when a new book comes out from an author we really like, and I can assure you that if the 3rd Kingkiller book from Rothfuss is ever published I won’t be waiting for any special occasion!  When The Wise Man’s Fear was published in 2011 I immediately bought two copies, one for each of us, because there is no way either of us was going to wait for the other to finish!

Anyway, this is a tradition I definitely intend to continue.