Lately, I tried to write a profile of myself for the sidebar over there. It was very difficult. I realized that I don't spend much time looking at myself as a person, rather than someone's mom/wife. So, I've decided to devote one post per week to me. Maybe someday I'll figure out just who I am after all. I will warn you that it may be more than you ever wanted to know about me. (especially you, Mom)
hmm... I've started writing about 5 different times but can't settle on a topic. It seems that all the major events in my life were kinda depressing. Or else very complicated requiring a long and boring backstory. Or else um... my Mom doesn't know about it. shhh don't tell on me (What am I 12? Do we ever get over hiding our indiscretions from our parents?). Or else I really don't remember the details. Or else boring.
So for now, I can ease into this slowly and go with my favorite books from childhood. I was a bookworm. I loved to read. I used to hide books from my mom so that when I got sent to my room to clean or something, I could climb up into the top of my closet to hide and read. (Yes, I used to hide in my closet sometimes.)
We had that whole Pizza Hut Book It thing at our school, but we didn't go to Pizza Hut very often, so I didn't usually keep track of what I read. We even went to Six Flags one time as a class trip. You could only go if you read like 5 books a month or something - I don't remember. I read 5 books a week if not more. I got bored with keeping track for it, so I almost didn't get to go. My mom had to talk to my teacher and intercede for me.
In sixth grade, my teacher took a lot of books away from me throughout the year. On the last day of school he gave them back. I was so excited. I had books that I had forgotten I had lost. I think I needed an extra backpack that day to get them all home.
I've blocked out a lot of my childhood, but some books were my best friends. I think I ran out of books in the school library at one point. How could I forget them? So without further ado...
The Bridge to Terebithia. This book made me cry. So sad. Oh my god I loved this book. It was so well written. It was such a simple story, but I knew those kids. They were my friends. I could feel the little boy's pain. It felt like MY best friend died. I haven't read it in years. I have re-read a lot of my favorite childhood books, but didn't want to ruin the memory of this one. It's just different when you're older.
The Outsiders. OMG! This book was so beautiful. And again with the crying. Really though, I liked all of S. E. Hinton's stuff. Her characters were so real. I couldn't get enough. I wished she had written more. Still do in fact. And I'm absolutely sure I still have a copy of this one on my shelf.
The Westing Game. We read this one a chapter at a time in my fourth grade (I think) class. I read ahead. I had to sneak an extra book off the shelf and take it home, because the teacher collected the books at the end of class.
The Bobsey Twins. My mom had a bunch of these. When she and Dad divorced, she forgot to take them with her. She was kind of mad that he wouldn't ever let her have them, so I seem to remember something about Mom wanting me to bring them home from Dad's so they could be in our house again. Whatever. They were entertaining.
Encyclopedia Brown. I read all these I could find. The bad thing was that the answers were so easy to find. I'm a lazy person. I thought about the solutions to the mysteries, but was to impatient and lazy to figure them out myself most of the time. I cheated and peeked.
The Dark Is Rising series. This was 5 or 6 books about the fight between good and evil. Loved them all. I gave them to my mom to let my nieces read recently. I hope they like them. I don't want to know if they don't.
The Black Cauldron series. Another good vs evil series. I think I started reading this one on the recommendation of one of my teachers in summer school. (No, I didn't fail my classes. I liked school so much that I went to summer classes too)
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. This was one of the few books that my Grandma was able to get for me. See, she had a bookstore. When I was old enough to realize what that meant, I thought "Goldmine" But, it was a Christian bookstore and she couldn't order anything that wasn't Christian materials. This qualified though, so I still ahve a very nice hardback boxed set of this series. (Um... good vs evil? I think there might have been a trend in my books that I hadn't really noticed before.)
How to Eat Fried Worms. Enough said.
Superfudge, Ramona Quimby, basically anything by Judy Blume. Feel good books. I liked them.
The Sweet Valley Twins. Yes, they were fluff books. Yes, I loved them. They were what I believed normal should be. They were sitcoms in print. I had almost the whole collection for the time I was reading them. I can't even imagine how many there eventually ended up being, but I would try to buy them as soon as I knew they came out at the time. I'm still kinda bummed that I didn't quite have the whole collection. I sold it at a garage sale in high school. When you need gas money, nostaglia is over-ruled.
I liked to read series books obviously. I couldn't get enough of the characters for just one book. Like I said, many many books kept me company growing up. These are the ones I can remember off the top of my head - the ones I read over and over again - the ones that might still be on my shelf even through 15 thousand moves. I can't wait until I can read them with my daughter and see how they affect her.
So how about you? What books still hold a place in your heart? What book can you not wait to read to your kid?
Oh, and also... Ask me some questions or give me an idea for next week. This is hard.
**update: Oh my God! How could I have forgotten to add A Wrinkle In Time? I was thinking of it while writing this post, but it seems I never actually wrote it down. Loved the series. They added a couple later in my life that I read when older, just to finish the series. Many Waters just didn't do it for me though. (shrug)