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W: A Walk To Remember #AToZChallenge


I know I said that I am not a fan of love stories, but this one is my all time favorite love story. While the story is simple and the journey is heart wrenching, I love this book for more than these reasons. Knowing that I'm a bibliophile, this is the first book that my then boyfriend now husband gifted to me. While I was travelling for a month. This books holds so many memories for me. The smile on his face when he gave it to me. The pain in our eyes while we had to depart, albeit for a short time. The smile I had as I held the book in my hand all through the airport. For some reason, I refused to put this in my bag. I held on to it until I boarded. Within the next one hour I had finished reading the book and I had a wide smile on my face. And why not? The book was about eternal love after all.

~ Spoiler Alert ~

A Walk To Remember is by Nicholas Sparks, a writer who I feel is really overrated. This is a story about two teenagers who fall in love with each other despite the disparity of their personalities. Landon Carter is the class president and this makes him really famous. Jamie Sullivan is an introvert and is very religious and takes her bible very seriously. She is happy in her own world and is busy working for the church. When no other girl is available, Landon ends up asking Jamie to the school dance. Landon has a good time but doesn't accept it because Jamie is plain Jane and his friends mock her. Situations brings Landon and Jamie closer and slowly Landon begins to accept the fact that he's in love with her. But Jamie insists that he cannot be.

Jamie is battling cancer and only has a few days to live. When Landon learns that all she wants in the future is to get married in a church full of people and to have her father walk her down the aisle, he decides to marry her. Finally, Jamie accepts that she loves him too and they decide to get married. By then she becomes very weak and is in a wheelchair. But on the wedding day she insists on walking to make her dream perfect. It was the most difficult walk that anyone had to walk, but she did, mainly because she knew that it would be her last walk and she would be gone in a few days. How could it not be a walk to remember?

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40 years later, Landon wears Jamie's ring and is still truly, madly and deeply in love with her. He doesn't move on as he believes that what happened between Jamie and him was a miracle.

The movie inspired by this book is very good too. As soon as I reached my destination I watched the movie, with the book still firmly clutched in my hand. This book may not be great, but for me it would remain the best love story in the world.

It did start mine, after all.

Comments

  1. I read the book when I had a serious crush on a girl (with whom I spent some of the most beautiful moments in my life later). It just connected to me. There is a section in the book where Landon gets to know about Jamie's condition and he becomes helpless; not knowing what to do. That entire section and when he finally decides to marry her told me what love is. I may read a thousand times better book than A Walk to Remember, but it will always hold the dearest place in my heart. I remember crying with the book (not just sobbing, actually crying). Those tears, that emotional connection and the acknowledgment of what love is all about has made me the writer I am today. Sparks can write endless shitty novels in future, but I'll always be grateful to that man and will always pick up anything he writes :)

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  2. It was one of my favorite love stories too - from the time when I was an unashamed romantic and Nicholas Sparks was one of my favorite romance novelists. 🙈

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  3. aww... that last line though :)
    I liked his "The Wedding" too which has strands related to the characters from "The Notebook"

    White House of Anaheim: A Tale of Kindness and Karma

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    1. The Wedding was a lovely sequel to The Notebook :)

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  4. Awww I never knew about the sentimental value attached to it awww! This one actually features in my "movie was better" list, but that's mainly cos I was going through a whole Shane West phase, and Sparks could've used less drama in his writing.

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  5. This sounds like a beautiful and heartwrenching love story. To think of how you did not keep the book down all through your journey proves the fact that it must have been quite a gripping narrative. I'm going to add this to my reading list. :)

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  6. I agree. It is such a sweet love story!

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  7. Definitely one of my favorite love stories :)
    P.S: Yes, I am back! Thank you for the love and support on my blogs <3
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  8. I have read one Nicholas Sparks' book and I was so not a fan! I do not do mush and I find his books far too unbelievable. It's nice though that it struck a chord with you. :)

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