The books I remember most when I was younger:
Wait 'Til Helen Comes
Hatchet
Bridge to Terabithia
Any Christopher Pike book
Wait 'Til Helen Comes
Hatchet
Bridge to Terabithia
Any Christopher Pike book
One other thing - my parents bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias when I was very young, and I spent many hours perusing them.
Not sure how many times I read the book Holes.
Read where the Red Fern Grows in 5th or 6th grade and wanted a Coonhound since. Then realized how annoying they were when I went to my gfs place for the first time.
Read every Harry Potter book except for the last one.
The books I remember most when I was younger:
Wait 'Til Helen Comes
Hatchet
Bridge to Terabithia
Any Christopher Pike book
Anyone who's read these books would know immediately from my username, so:
The Blue Sword/The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
But beyond that, just a huge nerd. So here goes:
every Robert A. Heinlein novel
every Anne McCaffrey Dragonriders of Pern book and also her Crystal Singer series
all of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series
Frederik Pohl's Heechee series
Isaac Asimov's Foundation series
Edit: also, did anyone else read those "Choose your own ending" books? The ones where you are given a decision to make, and based on your choice, it tells you the page to go to next. lol, so cheesy, but I loved those.
Same. Learned a lot of random facts out of those things.
Now I am a beast at Jeopardy and crossword puzzles. Not so much on the pop culture stuff though LOL.
Thanks to @NWICY for this idea!
What are some of your favorite childhood books? Why?
Since this is a forum mostly of dudes, I'm not going to have as much crossover. But I read voraciously as a child. Just a few:
- Anne of Green Gables series
- Several Louisa May Alcott pieces (Eight Cousins, Rose In Bloom, Little Women)
- The Babysitters Club series
- Pollyanna
- Nancy Drew Case Files
- Sweet Valley Twins/High
- Bunnicula series
There were so, so many more. I started reading more adult classical lit and such around fifth and sixth grade, but those were some good starters.
I read a ton of Choose your Own Adventure books.
I had my own and my older brother had a ton of D&D themed ones.
Oddly I can't remember NOT dying in any of them.
I read a ton of Choose your Own Adventure books.
I had my own and my older brother had a ton of D&D themed ones.
Oddly I can't remember NOT dying in any of them.
Go Dog Go from earliest days.
It's a dog party!
I hated reading as a kid. Sitting still was not my cup of tea. I read some of the Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown books and didn't hate them, but I was definitely not a traditional reader. Like @SCyclone, I would grab an encyclopedia, look up random things and read about them. Short-term reading that I wasn't forced to do.
The first books I really enjoyed reading were The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogy that my older brother suggested. I also liked Watership Down, In Cold Blood and Johnny Got His Gun.
In high school, I had a great English teacher that helped steer me to books I enjoyed (Catcher in the Rye, Where the Red Fern Grows, Lord of the Flies). I was also in Speech class and my instructor challenged me with several different genres. She gave me an appreciation for Poe by having me perform A Cask of Amontillado for one contest.
In college, I dated a girl who loved Shakespeare. While he's not my favorite, but I gained an appreciation for him that I didn't attempt to have before.
I had a lot of good influences throughout my life. I went from detesting reading as a child to thoroughly enjoying it as an adult.
Did you know they make Supper Hero books for the Level 1 readers? My daughter was reading me Captain Marvel last night.