Prompted by a post in the DWJ comm...
Aug. 2nd, 2005 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conuly
Here.
1. Outside: I think that's what it was called, anyway. It was a futuristic novel, pollution and disease had driven humanity into huge domed cities, but the machinery was breaking down, or broken, and nobody had the knowledge to fix it. Eventually, we find out that this was, in its own way, part of the plan, and our main character manages to escape to the outside. She's not the first nor only one to do so, either.
In retrospect, this wasn't such a good example of this sort of fiction, as it was very much written for a younger age group, but it was the first one of its type that I ever read. It was my first sci-fi novel (admittedly, in the same sort of sci-fi that makes Handmaid's Tale a sci-fi book), and my first dystopia, and the first book that really made me think. I miss it. It's long since been out of print.
2. Skating Shoes: Or anything else by Noel Streatfield, who is largely out of print in the US (as is H. M. Hoover, another under-known author, but I'll get to that). I've read complaints that this author is formulaic, and those complaints are probably right - but she managed to write quite well within her patterns. Good, solid, comfortable books. I suspect that they influenced my spelling to no end, which is why I still spell behaviour with an extraneous u. You Brits, brainwashing us decent, hardworking Americans!
3. The Baby-Sitters Club and the Sweet Valley Twins series: Oh, the shame. I have to admit my longstanding fondness for these bits of fluff. See, those were formulaic series. But they were cheap, easy to find, and you always knew what was happening, so they were good to read when you didn't have the time to think. And they were my first chapter books. Because nobody else in my class could really read in the first grade, I assumed that I couldn't read... well. I knew I could read, of course, I just didn't realize for a month or so that I could read books written for people much older than I was.
4. The House with a Clock in its Walls: And, again, anything written by John Bellairs.
I remember when we got this. My mom and my sister are raving about this book, trying to get me to read it, and I'm just going - no. (Incidentally, the last thing you want is for your parents to "show an interest in what [their] child is reading", because once they do, you'll have to sneak your books out of their bags after they've been stolen. But that's a separate rant.) Didn't they also try to force me to eat mushrooms and eggs? Didn't they also read murder mysteries? Didn't the back of this book (I didn't know the word blurb yet) sound scary? No, no, NO.
A wise choice on my part, since when I finally read it it gave me nightmares. That, I'm sure, has nothing to do with my decision to read it in the middle of the night, alone in the attic.
SUCH a good book, though. Just... a little scary.
5. Witch Week: This was actually my first Chrestomanci book, stolen from the library. We may still have that edition in the attic...
Something about that book called to me, and I'm sure it was the different-ness of the students. I always enjoy it for a nice curl-up and read.
6. So You Want to be a Wizard: ALWAYS my favorite book of that series, probably for the same reason as above. Plus, I saw myself in Nita. I remember the first copy of that book we had. We had trucked our usual shipload of books to Belgium with us (that *might* have mostly been me, come to think of it), and I was sitting in our room, reading this book and eating stolen strawberries. I think it was Jenn's idea to steal the strawberries, just like it was always Jenn's idea to steal the chocolate from the cupboard. That was some good chocolate, too... Anyway, one of our grandparents comes in, and since we hadn't stolen their strawberries, but somebody else's, it behooved me to hide the strawberry, quickly. Or maybe I just had the bright idea to use it as a bookmark. It ate its way through some six pages right in the middle of the book. I was most annoyed.
7. A Little Princess: I was obsessed with this book growing up. Now, I prefer The Secret Garden, but back then.... I read this book over and over again. And, note on my reading habits as a child, when I say over and over, that's exactly what I mean. I'd read it, turn it over, start again. I could quote large portions of it. Scary.
8. The Little House books: See above, just less dramatic. I remember when I got the complete set. We went to the bookstore that Christmas, and just picked out lots and lots of books for each other and ourselves. It probably wasn't as much as it seemed then, but it certainly made the cashier startled. And then some of us (me) kept sneaking into the den to read the books before Christmas. My parents used to not like buying books for us, because I'd start a book on the way home, and by the end of the trip I'd have finished it and be asking for another.
9. The BFG: It's hard picking a favorite Dahl book, but I think this would have to be it. I loved Sophie, and the trumpet, and the other giants, evil though they were. Dahl rocks.
I'm cutting this off now, so I can post another list at a later date. Comments?
1. Outside: I think that's what it was called, anyway. It was a futuristic novel, pollution and disease had driven humanity into huge domed cities, but the machinery was breaking down, or broken, and nobody had the knowledge to fix it. Eventually, we find out that this was, in its own way, part of the plan, and our main character manages to escape to the outside. She's not the first nor only one to do so, either.
In retrospect, this wasn't such a good example of this sort of fiction, as it was very much written for a younger age group, but it was the first one of its type that I ever read. It was my first sci-fi novel (admittedly, in the same sort of sci-fi that makes Handmaid's Tale a sci-fi book), and my first dystopia, and the first book that really made me think. I miss it. It's long since been out of print.
2. Skating Shoes: Or anything else by Noel Streatfield, who is largely out of print in the US (as is H. M. Hoover, another under-known author, but I'll get to that). I've read complaints that this author is formulaic, and those complaints are probably right - but she managed to write quite well within her patterns. Good, solid, comfortable books. I suspect that they influenced my spelling to no end, which is why I still spell behaviour with an extraneous u. You Brits, brainwashing us decent, hardworking Americans!
3. The Baby-Sitters Club and the Sweet Valley Twins series: Oh, the shame. I have to admit my longstanding fondness for these bits of fluff. See, those were formulaic series. But they were cheap, easy to find, and you always knew what was happening, so they were good to read when you didn't have the time to think. And they were my first chapter books. Because nobody else in my class could really read in the first grade, I assumed that I couldn't read... well. I knew I could read, of course, I just didn't realize for a month or so that I could read books written for people much older than I was.
4. The House with a Clock in its Walls: And, again, anything written by John Bellairs.
I remember when we got this. My mom and my sister are raving about this book, trying to get me to read it, and I'm just going - no. (Incidentally, the last thing you want is for your parents to "show an interest in what [their] child is reading", because once they do, you'll have to sneak your books out of their bags after they've been stolen. But that's a separate rant.) Didn't they also try to force me to eat mushrooms and eggs? Didn't they also read murder mysteries? Didn't the back of this book (I didn't know the word blurb yet) sound scary? No, no, NO.
A wise choice on my part, since when I finally read it it gave me nightmares. That, I'm sure, has nothing to do with my decision to read it in the middle of the night, alone in the attic.
SUCH a good book, though. Just... a little scary.
5. Witch Week: This was actually my first Chrestomanci book, stolen from the library. We may still have that edition in the attic...
Something about that book called to me, and I'm sure it was the different-ness of the students. I always enjoy it for a nice curl-up and read.
6. So You Want to be a Wizard: ALWAYS my favorite book of that series, probably for the same reason as above. Plus, I saw myself in Nita. I remember the first copy of that book we had. We had trucked our usual shipload of books to Belgium with us (that *might* have mostly been me, come to think of it), and I was sitting in our room, reading this book and eating stolen strawberries. I think it was Jenn's idea to steal the strawberries, just like it was always Jenn's idea to steal the chocolate from the cupboard. That was some good chocolate, too... Anyway, one of our grandparents comes in, and since we hadn't stolen their strawberries, but somebody else's, it behooved me to hide the strawberry, quickly. Or maybe I just had the bright idea to use it as a bookmark. It ate its way through some six pages right in the middle of the book. I was most annoyed.
7. A Little Princess: I was obsessed with this book growing up. Now, I prefer The Secret Garden, but back then.... I read this book over and over again. And, note on my reading habits as a child, when I say over and over, that's exactly what I mean. I'd read it, turn it over, start again. I could quote large portions of it. Scary.
8. The Little House books: See above, just less dramatic. I remember when I got the complete set. We went to the bookstore that Christmas, and just picked out lots and lots of books for each other and ourselves. It probably wasn't as much as it seemed then, but it certainly made the cashier startled. And then some of us (me) kept sneaking into the den to read the books before Christmas. My parents used to not like buying books for us, because I'd start a book on the way home, and by the end of the trip I'd have finished it and be asking for another.
9. The BFG: It's hard picking a favorite Dahl book, but I think this would have to be it. I loved Sophie, and the trumpet, and the other giants, evil though they were. Dahl rocks.
I'm cutting this off now, so I can post another list at a later date. Comments?
