The Belgariad

For a while ago I was in Kiruna. Quite a while ago. I believe it was in November. Maybe earlier even. My father asked me to fill a box with books that I have left behind so he could send them down to me and I've been itching for some of those since somewhere around summer. Maybe even spring. My memory isn't really timebased so I am a bit fuzzy about such things.
Specifically meaning, I've been itching to reread the Belgariad ("Pawn of Prophecy", "Queen of Sorcery", "Magician's Gambit", "Castle of Wizardry" and "Enchanter's End Game") by David Eddings. So I packed the box, making sure that all of my Eddings-books are in it and brought the first book back down to Gävle with me. The edition I have is in Swedish, and it's one of my oldest fantasybooks which one can tell just by looking at it. It's not exactly worn or something like that. Not really. Just... well-read. It's a book that have been loved.

I wouldn't say these are my favourite books, not even my top ten. But they hold a very special place in my heart that other books can never touch. First time I read them I must have been 9 or 10. I found them in my mothers closet one day, where she had stored a bag of books that she had borrowed from the library. I don't know what I was doing there, I had a lot of weird things going on as a child. I probably had read all of my own as well as those in my mother's, quite impressive, collection, and was on the search of something new. Or I was up to no good. Who knows? Either way I picked them up and started to read. It was my first book that explicitly belongs to the genre fantasy and it hooked me good. I bought my very own edition of the books at the national annual booksale 1995 and since then I can say without exaggerating (probably underestimating) that I've read the Belgariad at least 30 times, despite not having read them at all during the last, oh... say 5 years?
Some say it's a waste of time, reading the same book over and over. I say it's not. Every time is a new experience because even if the book doesn't change, you do. You notice different things everytime. Even with a book I know as well as these.

As I open up that first book I get this tingling feeling of anticipation. It's like revisiting an old lover. I know him, his story, his people, and he knows it's me by the gentle way I touch him. I know the first chapter almost by heart. Simply sitting here writing about it I can hear the words in my head, or rather see the story they tell. It plays in my imagination as if I were actually reading it.
As I read through them all, softly lingering at each page as I turn them, I'm filled with this warm, cosy feeling. The feeling of... coming home. There's a familiar air about them that I can't help but to think 'this how home should feel'. I feel safe.
And I remember every mistake in the printing of my edition, every little place where the translation has gone wrong... and I love all of the little flaws in these books, every crooked corner, every stain (yes, stain), every mistake ever made in them. I wouldn't trade it for the world. In some chapters the pages bear traces of tears and despite having read them so many, many times I still weep at those parts.

Reliving the adventure I also reaquainted myself with the characters, people that say the same things over and over again, does the same things over and over again, yet still feels a lot like friends to me. Here was the part where I noticed something new this time and another string attached itself to the bonds that already binds us together.
That's the part I really love about these books, the interaction between the characters. A lot of authors have tried, most of them failed, but Eddings, whatever else people may say, has actually managed to make their bickering, teasing and small talk feel genuine and lifelike. The dialogues have a flow in them that says more about the relationship between the ones talking than anything he could ever describe with words. I truly love that.

I am probably one of the not so many who actually love the story as well. Yes, the main part is predictable. You know from chapter one in the first book who Garion really is and you see a quest coming from miles away. That doesn't mean it's bad. Every story, no matter how obvious it may be, has it's... story and it's own way to be told. I like how most parts of the books they're travelling somewhere. It has inspired me to many things done and yet to be done. I like how their quest is so visible and how the prophecy is fulfilled. But one thing I love especially are the hrulgae. ^^
Because no matter how 'easy' these books are compared to more elaborated work, you have to give him cred for the hrulgae, especially when Hettar falls in love with them. Mrr. I love that part.

But as most of you already figured out, I love these books in general, for so veryvery many reasons. And I love the Malloreon as well. I like how you get a chance not only to get to know the old characters better, but also how the new ones are introduced. As of now, I'm reading the second book of the Malloreon, so I don't want to spoil things by remembering too much. ^^
Even though I almost know them as well as the Belgariad. But that's another story for another time. :)

To be continued. ^^