favorite books...

I recently read a post from a great blogger at From Tracie that has left me daydreaming. It was about her beautiful, book-loving soon-to-be-ten year old daughter and her most favorite page-turners.You can read the post here.

Since reading that post I have been thinking about my own early years and how I would lay across my bed for hours reading chapter after chapter. I think my first real literary infatuation was with the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary. I read those books over and over. A few years ago I ordered them on e-bay with hopes that I would someday have a daughter to give them to. (Smile). Then I graduated to The Baby-Sitters Club and Sweet Valley High series'. I remember trading those books with my friends and getting so excited to read a new one. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton became another one of my most treasured books. I was semi-obsessed with its boy-heavy cast in the then-popular movie so it was only natural that I read the book.

It wasn't long before I developed my passion for mystery and horror. I started with Lois Duncan. Two of my favorites were Down A Dark Hall and Summer Of Fear. In fact, I found Down A Dark Hall in a box a few years ago and re-read it. While I am nearly twenty-five years older than I was when I first read it I loved it still.

High School summer reading lists brought about some of the best works I've ever read- The Catcher In The Rye and Go Ask Alice to name a couple. Soon, though, I would fall deeply in love with the words of Stephen King... and I hardly ever strayed. The Shining and Different Seasons were my top two at the time followed by It and Carrie. 

Nowadays I don't read very many books. I've become more of a Real Simple magazine kinda gal. Last week, however, I bought and read Stephen King's Joyland and it was phenomenal. I loved it so, so, so, so much! I loved the characters, the setting and mostly King's ability to almost hide the ghost story in the background yet maintain my interest. He is the master!

I've enjoyed tripping down my adolescent book-adoring memory lane and I urge you to do the same. I can still see myself on that pretty pink twin bed, curtains blowing, summer breezes, lazy days. A mind filled with my own little Joyland of imagined characters and places all brought about by a stranger's words on a printed page. A reminder to keep reading and to keep our little ones reading... they deserve pleasant memories too.

What were some of your favorite books as a young adult?