You know that book that as a kid you took out of the library over and over ?

[Medievalist]

Yeah, that book. It was a kid's book, maybe YA.

You'd take it out, and read it, over and over, and only return it when you had to. And even then, you only returned it so you could renew it and take it home again.

Until they said you had to let someone else take it out, and you'd wait two weeks, and then, take it out again.

That book.

What book was it for you?

For me, it was a collection of Robin Hood tales, presented as a novel. I think it was the one illustrated by Jamie Wyeth, but I'm not sure.

It was the summer I turned eight, the summer I finally figured out how the whole reading thing worked . . .

What was yours?

[pepperlandgirl]

The Black Stallion

[caromora]

I had so many of those! The book I checked out the most (until my dad just bought me a copy), was Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop.

Honorable mentions go to just about everything by L.M. Montgomery, Nothing's Fair in Fifth Grade and Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You by Barthe DeClements , and a book I can't remember the name of. I think it was written in the 70s, possibly very early 80s. It had been out a while when I read it, in any case. It was about a girl who was thirteen and obsessed with listening to Mr. Tambourine Man. She had a best friend who got in a car accident, and she wanted to wear madras skirts and have hair that parted in the middle like the popular girls. And it seems like there was something about the beach and a boardwalk in it. Does anyone have any idea what book I'm talking about? I read it a lot when I was ten or eleven and would love to remember what it was called.

[MaryMumsy]

That was 50 years ago. I don't remember any library book which fascinated me like that. I was always getting something new. But I did own an awesome collection of Hardy Boys that were read over and over.

MM

[dgrintalis]

The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson. I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I read it the first time.

I don't know if I ever had a copy, but I bought my daughter a copy. She didn't like it.

And when I was younger, it was the Jenny and the Cat Club series.

[loiterer]

The first book I remember reading over and over by myself was a picture book called something like "The Brick Street Boys" - though I think I liked the illustrations as much as the text.

The first non-picture book I was obsessed with was "I Am the Cheese" by Robert Cormier. That, and "The Owl Service" by Alan Garner. Both of them were actually too advanced for me at first so they seemed to unfold more every time I read them.

[kikilynn]

I totally don't remember the name of it, and I've been trying forever. I want to buy it for my kids. On the cover is a little girl and a lion with braids and bows in his hair. If I remember right it's about a girl that gets stuck in the jungle and befriends all the animals there.

[Fulk]

I can't recall the particular name, but it was an illustrated book of Greek mythology.

[gothicangel]

I don't remember reading the same over and over; but I do remember devouring Jill Murphy; Jenny Nimmo; Alan Garner; Anne Fine; Peter Dickinson . . .

[Cassiopeia]

The Chronicles of Narnia and A collection of Robert Frost poems.

[jst5150]

A book about slot car racing written in the late 1960s when the hobby was still very popular. It showed tracks and car setups, how to build the tracks and how to race competitively.

[MacAllister]

I was a first grader, and discovered Bambi's Children in the school library -- which was a completely magical place, and Mrs. Springer, the librarian, would play checkers with me over lunch. She always had coffee breath.

I couldn't READ that book enough times. I don't know why, either -- and my mom offered to find me a copy in a used book store (it was out of print at the time) but I didn't want any other copy, only THAT one. It was, in retrospect, a tad obsessive.

[Albedo]

Twas one of those "World's Greatest Disasters" compendiums. I was a funny kid.

[Cassiopeia]

Oh Mac just reminded me, Heidi, Heidi Grows up and Heidi's Children.

[Wayne K]

I read The Outsiders more than thirty times in my life. I read it this past summer.

[MetalDog]

For me it was Monkey (the Arthur Waley translation) - largely due to the cheesy Japanese TV series and my penchant for stealing the broom handle so I could pretend to be Monkey King. I was very surprised when I had to get special permission to get it out of the adult section and I didn't understand all of it, but I still loved Monkey.

For a story written in the 1590s by someone from another culture, making a british kid laugh every read is quite the achievement =) Eventually I was given my own copy and I still have it and read it every few years. Falling apart a bit by now.

[Priene]

The Luck of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green. It was the first book I truly adored. I must have taken it out of my school library eight or nine times. Then I made the mistake of leaving on the shelves too long and the County Library Van took it away. Broke my heart, that did.

[Enna]

All the Nancy Drew's from the 60's.

[Romantic Heretic]

The Narnia Chronicles and Hothouse

[spike]

It was all the Honey Bunch series. They were very old when I was a kid (and I'm fairly old), but I loved being taken back to the 1920's-30's.

I'm collecting them now.

[Perks]

Follow My Leader by James B. Garfield
King of the Wind by Mageruite Henry
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (and A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet)

and I was obsessed with biographies of Helen Keller

This cover 3rd,4th, and 5th grade. Then I sobered up and read Lord of the Rings eleven times, but oddly, never fell into the role-playing spin-offs. Nope, just wanted to read the book over and over and over.

[Spring]

The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton. I adored this book. It's a mystery that two kids have to solve and all the clues were from the writings of Thoreau and Alcott and other Transcendentalists. It takes place in Concord, MA, right near where I grew up, so I also loved that connection.
What a cool book. I'll have to go check it out again. :)

Also:
Hardy Boys Mysteries - read them repeatedly just cause they were there in my house.
A Wrinkle in Time

[callalily61]

The top two of way too many to count:

Tatsinda by Elizabeth Enright (grades 3-5)
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron (grade 6-now) I love love love this book. Found a used library copy through ABEbooks a few years ago that's exactly the one I used to read. *hugs self in glee*

I also reread all the Anne of Green Gables books and The Wrinkle in Time trilogy many times, but the above two were THE books.

[Maryn]

I discovered Johnny Tremaine by Esther Forbes in about fourth grade. Stressful time, since my family moved, I changed schools, just got somewhat comfortable, and had to change schools again.

I begged my parents for a hardbound copy of the book on every gift-giving occasion, but it never happened. When I left eighth grade, to start at yet another new school, I stole it. I still have it--but when I was a young adult, I sent the school library a check for $50 and a letter explaining why.

I read it to my kids. They laughed at me, because I still tear up when Rab dies.

Maryn, veteran thief

[Ken]

Mad Magazine and Cracked.
(Wasn't very literary-focused back then.)

[seun]

The Great Ghost Rescue, The Voyage of QV66, and The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler.

I could read them all again now and feel anywhere between nine and twelve. Great books.

[BenPanced]

The school library had a collection of Greek mythology with some really cool stylized illustrations that I couldn't help checking out. Then, when I was about 11 or 12 years old, my older sister and I discovered The Animated Thumbtack Railroad Dollhouse and All-Around Surprise Book (Evening Edition) by Louis Phillips. It was one of the funniest things I'd ever read up to that point, very Monty Python-esque in its humor. I'd found a used copy on Amazon a few years back and it still holds up.

[Komnena]

Golden Stallion books by Rutherford Montgomery.
Heinlein
Clarke
Asimov
Flash Dog of old Egypt

[caromora]

Oh Mac just reminded me, Heidi, Heidi Grows up and Heidi's Children.

I forgot about Heidi! I read that so many times. Also, Ghosts I Have Been by Richard Peck and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg.

[shokadh]

Robin Hood (I'd fall asleep dreaming in old English speech), all the Grimm's Fairie Tales (obsessed on those for years)

[Puma]

Earliest - The Augustus books by LeGrande (1-2nd grade)

Next - The Bobbsey Twins - I think I read them all (3-4th grades)

About the same time - the Albert Payson Terhune dog stories (3-5th grades)

Captain from Castille by Samuel Shellabarger - read first when I was about 10 and have had a life long love affair with the book since.

I was in a country school that didn't have a library. Once a month the bookmobile would come and we could take out books. I quickly became the kid who took out as many books as she could carry.

There was another book I'd love to be able to find again, but no one seems to know what it is. It was a semi-Easter story with rabbits and carefully made scene eggs (a portion of one side of the empty shell cut out and then a scene put into the empty egg). In the book the story moved inside the egg. It isn't Rabbit Hill. The illustrations were excellent as far as I remember (we're talking sixty years ago). I've googled trying to find it but always come up with Rabbit Hill. If anyone has any ideas on what it might have been - please pm me. Puma

[Perks]

There was a book in, I think, the sixth or seventh grade that fascinated me. I read it quite a few times and remember the librarian disallowing me to take it out again.

Deathman, Do Not Follow Me by Jay Bennett.

Anyone remember that one?

[stormie]

I remember this old book, a story told with words and a lot of black and white photos, called The Lonely Doll. From the time I was six and old enough for a library card of my own, I kept borrowing this book.

[Aleksandra]

Hmmmm, Black Beauty, The Good Earth (Pearl S.Buck), Lassie, Go Home, The Little Mermaid-HC Andersen, Diary of Anne Frank, Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Gone With the Wind.

A pretty schizophrenic list..., I was a strange child. I remember reading and reporting on 300 books in the 3rd grade. I think I was ten when I read Anne Franke.

[dancingandflying]

I totally don't remember the name of it, and I've been trying forever. I want to buy it for my kids. On the cover is a little girl and a lion with braids and bows in his hair. If I remember right it's about a girl that gets stuck in the jungle and befriends all the animals there.

It's "My Father's Dragon", I believe. This was one that I checked out over and over, too. :D

Oh - and all the Ramona Quimby books. I loved those.

d&f.

[Velma deSelby Bowen]

Stoneflight, by Georgess McHargue. I need a copy for myself now.

[maestrowork]

Besides the Chinese martial art novels you don't know about...

The Adventures of Tom Saywer.

And Then There Were None.

and then there's an anthology of fantastic stories... I don't remember the name of the book, but I remember A Christmas Carol and a short story by Ray Bradbury were in it... I've read that book probably like 50 times.

[Lyra Jean]

The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson. I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I read it the first time.

I don't know if I ever had a copy, but I bought my daughter a copy. She didn't like it.

And when I was younger, it was the Jenny and the Cat Club series.

The Girl Who Owned a City is an awesome book.

[Lyra Jean]

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

[eveningstar]

Mail-Order Wings by Beatrice Gormley.

[ABekah]

I'm weird, I guess. I was always reading: something new. Even as a kid. Thankfully, there were a lot of series books for kids or I would have gotten bored. I enjoyed Nancy Drew. Little House on the Prairie. The Bobbsey Twins. I don't enjoy re-reading most books. There are only a few exceptions, most of which are classics that I skimmed in high school but have recently picked up to read--more thoroughly this time.

[ChaosTitan]

"Watership Down," by Richard Adams. Once I discovered it, I had it for most of a full year, reading and rereading it. I took it from the public library, as well as the school library when one declared I needed to give it back.

I was such a voracious reader that I rarely read anything twice. My mom took me to two different public libraries (one of which had no limit on how many you could check out) to satisfy my constant need for books. The books I tended to go back to (the Little House series, in particular) usually ended up under the Christmas tree or as birthday presents.

[narnia]

The Chronicles of Narnia top the list from grade school, first and still hold the record for number of reads.

Black Beauty was another favorite.

In Jr HS I read the Nancy Drew series over and over and over and over and the I discovered Agatha Christie in HS.

Although in between re-reads I read tons of other authors too numerous to mention.

[Kitty Pryde]

Eddie Spaghetti by Edward Frascino

The Spaceship Under The Apple Tree by Louis Slobodkin

My Robot Buddy by Alfred Slote

the Norby The Robot series by Isaac Asimov (why have these not been reprinted? they are awesome!)

The Calibrated Alligator by Robert Silverberg--This one had a short story that really haunted me, 15 years after reading it at the school library as a little kid, but I didn't know the author or title. I only remembered that there was a pink alligator on the cover (mostly the back cover, as it turns out). I put a detailed description of the story up on a couple of internet forums, and after a couple of wrong guesses of Heinlein and Bradbury stories, someone told me what it was, and I was reunited with an edition from some other library. It even has that cool library clear plastic stuff on the outside. Love!

[dolores haze]

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken.

The lovely, lovely, lovely librarian ordered a bunch of JA's other books especially for me.

[Phaeal]

I was one of those sad city girls who always wanted a horse for Christmas, so I wore out the library's copies of all the Black Stallion books, Misty of Chincoteague, biographies of the great racehorses (my favorite was one about Seabiscuit), and so forth.

Like others, I also borrowed and reborrowed a certain big Greek mythology book, along with a similar big book on the solar system. Nowadays I'm a compulsive reborrower of this book called Venomous Animals of the World. And Rumer Goden's In This House of Brede. Jeez, I should just buy my own copies.

[Soccer Mom]

Earliest book obsessions? Hmmm, Andrew Henry's Meadow (http://www.amazon.com/Andrew-Henrys-Meadow-D-Burn/dp/0698300114) about kids who run away and build fantastic houses. How much did I love that book? Guess what I named my eldest son. Something about that book just tapped into my imagination.

I still own the copy (in the same green as the book on the link) and I read it to my kids.

[sheadakota]

Cannon Ball Simp- I was in first grade I think- It was a weekly reader book- I own a a copy if it now- I still love it!

[Medievalist]

I can't recall the particular name, but it was an illustrated book of Greek mythology.

I bet it was the Larousse Greek myth book; yellow-gold cover?

[TerzaRima]

Or maybe the D'Aulaires one?

[P.H.Delarran]

the first book I ever read over and over was A Child's Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson. then Grimm's Fairy Tales. at around mid grades I'd re-read a book of Hitchcock stories many times, and other short story collections (something really weird called Possibilities, can't remember any author info).
the only novels I remember reading more than once are The Outsiders, Go Ask Alice, most of Laura Ingalls Wilder, a couple of Agatha Christie works and maybe a few Nancy Drew-(but if I read ND twice, it was by accident).

[stormie]

Oh, I forgot about Alfred Hitchock's Ghostly Gallery. Thanks for reminding me, P.H. I first read that in fourth grade and reread it many times. I belonged to a very small library and the librarian used to frown at my book choices. (What the heck was wrong with reading an A.H. book that was targeted for young readers?)

I guess between my love of The Lonely Doll from ages six to eight, then Alfred Hitchcock, she probably wondered about either me or my home life. Both of which were fine. :)

[DeleyanLee]

I'm weird, I guess. I was always reading: something new. Even as a kid.

I'm the same way--it's very hard for me to reread a book and get the same level of enjoyment. In the last 30 years, I've reread only three books (The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Gods Themselves by Asimov and Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale), and none of those are from my childhood.

My parents were very into buying us books (the only one I remember with any fondness is Gus was a Friendly Ghost but I've no idea why), so I went to the library for my biography and non-fiction reading fixes, which quickly consumed my reading time 'cause I was the eldest and the folks bought "little kid" books I wasn't interested in from the tender age of 8.

My memory is that the library had just so very many books to read, anything I wanted that badly, I could get (one way or the other). Pretty much my attitude even today.

[Little Bird]

In approximate chronological order of my obsession with them:

The Mouse and the Motorcyle and its sequels
A Little Princess (or Sara Crewe)
The Indian in the Cupboard
My Side of the Mountain
The Call of the Wild
Julie of the Wolves
Island of the Blue Dolphins.

If you've never read Island of the Blue Dolphins, I highly recommend it, especially for teens who might not otherwise like to read quality books. I was talking to a seventeen-year-old "jock" recently, who confessed he'd never finished any book—except for Island of the Blue Dolphins, which he'd read four times. It could be classified as a girl's coming-of-age story, but it's so good, so filled with danger and her incredible will to survive, even boys can't put it down.

[fairy86]

Gone With the Wind. My mother thought I was crazy and the first time I read it, I was 10. I still love that book.

[CatSlave]

1,001 Nights.

I swiped the kid's illustrated version from my grade school library and still have it.
I turned criminal at a young age. :D

But now that I've grown up, I have a copy of A Thousand Nights and A Night unabridged version, leather-bound, some 5-600 pages long, for which I paid pile of money.
I'm still totally fascinated by the tales.

[Yasaibatake]

in the third grade, my parents convinced me to buy The Hobbit from the school book fair. I loved it so much, they bought me the Lord of the Rings trilogy before the semester ended. Then I added A Wrinkle in Time and the entire Redwall series. I nearly fainted when I got to meet Brian Jacques a few years later...and then again last November when he did a pep talk for NaNoWriMo :)

[Jersey Chick]

Patricia Coombs' Dorrie the Witch series. Dorrie's mom was the head witch and Dorrie wants to be just like her, but isn't really all that good a witch yet. Oh, and she has a black cat named Gink. I still love those books.

I'll second Island of the Blue Dolphins - I read that book until it fell apart, then bought a new copy. I lost that one, and have since bought two more copies (one for me, one for my daughter). It's probably my all-time favorite book from childhood.

[caromora]

I can't believe I forgot The Secret Garden and A Little Princess. I also loved the Little House books.

[Devil Ledbetter]

The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White.

[Ken]

I'll second Island of the Blue Dolphins - I read that book until it fell apart, then bought a new copy. I lost that one, and have since bought two more copies (one for me, one for my daughter). It's probably my all-time favorite book from childhood.

... one of my fav's. Read it twice. Sequels are good, too, but not to compare to the first :-)

[TerzaRima]

Treasure in the Snow, about a bunch of Norwegian kids who helped smuggle the country's gold supply past the Nazis and onto waiting ships by hiding it on their sleds. Apparently based on a true story.

Karen and With Love from Karen, about a plucky Irish Catholic family in the 1950s raising a daughter with cerebral palsy. In retrospect, these weren't really children's books, but I think the nun who staffed our parochial school library probably thought they imparted the right messages. From an adult perspective, they're a bit much. For sixth grade girls who were impervious to glurge, they were it.

[williemeikle]

Yeah, that book. It was a kid's book, maybe YA.

You'd take it out, and read it, over and over, and only return it when you had to. And even then, you only returned it so you could renew it and take it home again.

Until they said you had to let someone else take it out, and you'd wait two weeks, and then, take it out again.

That book.



Never had one. I preferred to read something different every time.

That said, things changed as I got older and I now re-read a lot of books on the shelves at home.

But the library was there for new experiences, not reliving old ones.

[jgold]

Half-Magic by Edward Eager. I just loved the idea of a coin which would only grant half of a wish, and the adventures of the four children who owned it.

I was SOOOOO happy when the book came back into print, and I still think it's fantastic. :)

[callalily61]

Half-Magic by Edward Eager. I just loved the idea of a coin which would only grant half of a wish, and the adventures of the four children who owned it.

I was SOOOOO happy when the book came back into print, and I still think it's fantastic. :)

I remember that one! Loved it.

[pookel]

I can't recall the particular name, but it was an illustrated book of Greek mythology.
I bet it was the D'Aulaires' book. I apparently read that one over and over again when I was little (I was a pretty early reader) before my grandma bought me my own copy, which I still have. It's been read to pieces.

There were a lot of books I read over and over again, but I'll mention the one that's not widely known: The Bound Girl by Nan Watson Denker, about a young French girl who comes to America as an indentured servant with a Puritan family. It's probably full of historical inaccuracy, but I still love it, and it was the first book I tracked down and bought online when the internet was still new (after looking for it for years in bookstores).

[Pagey's_Girl]

There was one called, I believe, The Haunted Cabin. It was part of a series - I remember it was two sisters and two brothers, two of which were named Violet and Benny. And I don't remember who wrote it...

[fairy86]

There was one called, I believe, The Haunted Cabin. It was part of a series - I remember it was two sisters and two brothers, two of which were named Violet and Benny. And I don't remember who wrote it...

The Boxcar Children was the name of the series. The books were written by Gertrude Chandler Warner. :) I collected those along with Babysitter's Club and Goosebumps.

[Meredith]

I'm loving this thread. =)

Let's see...

The Hobbit is the first book I can remember ever reading on my own; following that I immediately read LOTR and I've been reading them all once a year or so ever since.

Beyond that -- I reread a lot, so apologies for the length of this list, but these got read a lot when I was growing up (and still get read today)...

Bridge to Terabithia (First book read to me at school, in serial form - probably the book that made me a reader.)
Call of the Wild
White Fang
Chronicles of Narnia
A Wrinkle in Time (etc.)
Meet the Austins (etc.)
The Red Planet (etc re: the "local makes good" set, not so much the later stuff)
Martian Chronicles
Misty of Chincoteague (etc)
Firestarter (not really YA, but Charlie was a kid, and I adored and still adore this book -- it was my first King novel, and I'm still a huge fan)

I'll stop now. =)

[Paper & Pencil]

Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Corville (I think that was his name). I used to check that book out over and over...until someone else did.

[Cassidy]

Way too many to count... but here are a few of them: The Owl Service; Over Sea, Under Stone; the Narnia books; The Hobbit; LOTR; all the L.M. Montgomery books; The Secret Garden; The Little Princess; Harriet the Spy... and a ton of old British boarding school series with names like Fifth Form at Mallory Towers or The Twins at St. Clares. Oh, and Black Beauty, The Black Stallion and anything else with horses in it too. And Virgina Axline's Dibs: In Search of Self. Not fiction but I loved it and read it over and over, and was sure I wanted to be a play therapist (if I couldn't be a famous equestrian.) And lots that others have mentioned-- A Wrinkle In Time and Half-Magic... and the Karen books too; I'd forgotten all about those ones but I got my own copies and read them until they fell apart. And anything by Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie or Dick Francis!

Fun thread Medievalist...

[Kaylee]

On the Banks of Plum Creek

Life is what happens, while you're busy making other plans. -- John Lennon

[Tanya Egan Gibson]

I've loved reading this thread!

If any of you would like to share your story about how these books (or books in general) changed you in some way, I'd love if you considered submitting it at my web site, where I'm posting stories about being "saved" by reading: www.howtobuyaloveofreading.com.

[Puma]

Wonderful thread, Medievalist. I'd forgotten about the Black Stallion series. I devoured those too. But I never went back and re-read any of them.

Another book we had at home (had an extensive library) that I loved to read was Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates.

It's really great to bring back all these old memories. Puma

[KTC]

For me, there were a couple of books like that.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by the great honorable Roald Dahl
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.

I really related to be 'different' like David and Sophie. I didn't feel so different when I was 'with' them. This book was probably the one I hogged the most.

[Matera the Mad]

The first major re-read I can recall was a book of classical myths retold by various authors. My sixth grade teacher gave it to me.. Then Black Beauty and Little Women, both found in the attic, followed by Oliver twist and The Three Musketeers.

[Saint Fool]

Jenny and the Cat Club was probably my first read over and over and over. I may have to check and see if it's on Amazon.

[Quossum]

An Edge of the Forest
The Green Poodles
Time Explorers, Inc.
Lizard Music
Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars

There are many, many other books that I enjoyed and owned as a child, but these are the ones I'd check out again and again from the public library.

I often checked out books and left little slips of paper bearing typewritten messages in them, saying things like, "If you liked this, you'll like ____!" or "Hello from one reader to another!" A few years ago I happened to be in my hometown library and went over to the shelf to look at one of the books I mentioned above, just for old times sake...and found one of my messages from 20 years ago. :eek:

--Q

[shawkins]

I was kind of lukewarm on reading until I stumbled across Have Space Suit, Will Travel, one of the Heinlein juveniles. It was about a plucky young nerd who saves the earth from alien doom.

I was about 8 when I read it. The book was written in the 1950s but set, as near as I can tell, around the time I was born. For years after I read it I believed that the U.S. had a kewl moon base that you could go live on if you got good enough grades.

[Judg]

We had so many books at home, I could obsess over them, although we did frequent the library too.

But the Anne of Green Gables series was a big favourite, eclipsed only by the Chronicles of Narnia. And there was Heidi and Black Beauty and the Moomintrolls and The Black Stallion and Nancy Drew and Treasure Island and Little Women and ...

*deep sigh of contentment*

And scads of science and history books and volumes and volumes of short stories for kids and wildlife guides and, oh my goodness, I had a happy childhood. And no wonder I turned into such a nerd.

[Fulk]

I bet it was the Larousse Greek myth book; yellow-gold cover?

Or maybe the D'Aulaires one?


Unfortunately, far as I can tell, neither of these is the one I'm thinking of. It was a large white hardcover book, I know that much. And the art wasn't 'cartoony'--it was actually rather detailed, which made stories about the likes of Prometheus and the Minotaur pretty eerie.

[ElsaM]

I didn't have a book like that because there was always something new to try. I did (and still do) reread, but I had so many favourites to rotate through. Mum would borrow new books for me from the high school, I took out whatever title caught my eye from the public library and my primary school library, and there was always the bookshelves at home - I never read all the children and young adult books we already owned. Which were constantly added to every birthday, Christmas and each time we passed a used book store or library sale.

Also, if I really loved a book and we didn't already own it, Mum would have bought it for me. I come from a family of book lovers.

ETA - and yet despite all this, I was constantly telling Mum I didn't have anything to read. Kids are strange.

[Horserider]

Wild Magic by Tamora Pierce. I can't wait to go to the library to get it again. I've been known to finish it once and, without taking a minute's break, open it back up and start it again. Any of the books of that series really.

[Nivarion]

I never checked a single book out over and over. There were too many in the series to do that.

I took out every box car children in my elementary school's library. twice.

But we had a librarian that discouraged checking out books over and over. If she noticed that a student really liked a book she would hunt down a copy and tell the parents about it.

[Red_Dahlia]

The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton. I adored this book. It's a mystery that two kids have to solve and all the clues were from the writings of Thoreau and Alcott and other Transcendentalists. It takes place in Concord, MA, right near where I grew up, so I also loved that connection.
What a cool book. I'll have to go check it out again. :)


I loved that book! It's strange, I'd completely forgotten about it until I read your post. I'll have to find a copy now....

For me, it was The Moorchild. I borrowed it from the school library every chance I got.

[Spring]

Red Dahlia, I went to the library and found it. It was written in 1962. I'm reading it now and enjoying it all over again.

[unicornjam]

The Chocolate War, The Outsiders, and Lord of the Flies.

[CaroGirl]

Mine was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I took it out and returned it several times and then it disappeared. I remember checking the library every week for months but it was just gone. I didn't read it again until I read it aloud to my children last year. They love it today as much as I did back then.

[Charlie Horse]

All of the Henry Huggins books by Beverly Cleary. I read those then read them again. I wanted to be Henry Huggins. I was Henry Huggins.

As I got older, I switched from Henry to Holden as I read Catcher in the Rye more times than I can count.

[KikiteNeko]

The book I read over and over again was The Secret of NIMH. But when I was a kid my parents had me check out new books each week. If I wanted to check something out twice they'd tell me no and maybe I would get that book for Christmas if I still wanted it then.

[Pomegranate]

I LIVED in the library as a kid. A lot of my favorite books have already been listed but I can't believe no one has listed anything by Zilpha Keatly Snyder. I loved all her books, especially the Egypt Game.

[Autodidact]

Elizabeth Enright's Melendy series. I still own this book--my mother gave me the trilogy as a child. I just finished reading it to my youngest child, who was grief-stricken when we finished it. And I want to say that I know for a fact that the accent is on the first syllable, because that's how I've always heard it in my head.

Edward Eager: Half Magic
My friend Melinda and I read all the Little House books.

[Autodidact]

We had so many books at home, I could obsess over them, although we did frequent the library too.

But the Anne of Green Gables series was a big favourite, eclipsed only by the Chronicles of Narnia. And there was Heidi and Black Beauty and the Moomintrolls and The Black Stallion and Nancy Drew and Treasure Island and Little Women and ...

*deep sigh of contentment*

And scads of science and history books and volumes and volumes of short stories for kids and wildlife guides and, oh my goodness, I had a happy childhood. And no wonder I turned into such a nerd.

Ooh, Moomintrolls. They're so weird. What ARE they exactly?

[Autodidact]

In Junior High I discovered P.G. Wodehouse and have enjoyed him to this day.
Also some weird series about an Italian priest in a small town. Does anyone have any idea what I might be remembering?

[Autodidact]

I LIVED in the library as a kid. A lot of my favorite books have already been listed but I can't believe no one has listed anything by Zilpha Keatly Snyder. I loved all her books, especially the Egypt Game.

I still do. Did you ever do this? My friend Judy and I started at the end of the Z's and just tried everything that looked good. I think we got back to around P or so.

[Shail]

Our entire YA fantasy section, which consisted of

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

The Blue Sword

Watership Down

and, Wrinkle in Time.

[Kitty Pryde]

Ooh, Moomintrolls. They're so weird. What ARE they exactly?

Oh! I love the moomintrolls, but i didn't discover them til I was 12. Still love em tho. Total comfort reads. What are they? They are Moomintrolls! The author/illustrator's official story (http://www.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/CULT/sr-moom.html) is:



It was sometime in the 1930’s when the first idea of a Moomin character was born. While studying in Stockholm, Tove lived with her uncle Einar Hammersten. She had the bad habit of sneaking into the pantry at nights, and her uncle tried his best to restrain her visits. He used to say that a 'moo-oo-oomintroll' lived behind the stove and would blow a cold breath down her neck if it caught her in the pantry.

The figure itself was created one summer day a few years later. Tove and her little brother Lars had a dispute about Immanuel Kant. Tove lost the argument, and in her frustration she drew the ugliest creature she could think of on the wall of their summer cottage’s privy.

[Judg]

Ooh, Moomintrolls. They're so weird. What ARE they exactly?

Oh! I love the moomintrolls, but i didn't discover them til I was 12. Still love em tho. Total comfort reads. What are they? They are Moomintrolls! The author/illustrator's official story (http://www.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/CULT/sr-moom.html) is:

Glad somebody knew, because I sure didn't. Can't remember caring either. I still sometimes greet my kids with "Mood gorning" and they never get it. They grew up in Quebec where there are, alas, no Moomintrolls.

[Pomegranate]

I still do. Did you ever do this? My friend Judy and I started at the end of the Z's and just tried everything that looked good. I think we got back to around P or so.


I still do this. Sometime I browse from the Z end of the shelves, sometimes from the A end, and sometimes I start randomly in the middle somewhere. :-)

[Judg]

Cheers for people who start at the end of the alphabet. (I plan on publishing under my maiden name which starts with U.)

[Spring]

I've written down many of these authors so that I can check out their books in my library for the precocious 9 yr old reader in my family. Thank you so much for the many fabulous suggestions.

[pookel]

Spring, there was an excellent post on Making Light a few years back about recommended reading for precocious children. Sadly, I didn't save the link, but maybe someone else can find it. If not, let me know if you want me to send you the list - it's kind of long or i'd post it. (I just made a list of all the books mentioned to save for myself.)

[Virector]

When I was younger, I used to keep borrowing the same Tintin, Batman and Asterix comic books over and over and over again, as well as several other comic books. I could NEVER get enough of them, and I would keep borrowing the same volumes even after I'd read them several hundred times (no, that's not an exaggeration...) I guess that's where my love for comic books originated from, and that's why I decided I am 'destined' to write comic books myself :D. I also kept borrowing a few Penguin classics like The Invisible Man, Dracula and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I can't even give an approximation of how many times I read those 3 books. Loved those tales then, and I still love them now.

[Judg]

Belgian comics will do that to you. Better than Belgian chocolate.

[batgirl]

Also some weird series about an Italian priest in a small town. Does anyone have any idea what I might be remembering?
The Don Camillo stories, by Giovanni Guareschi.
-Barbara

[Medievalist]

The Girl Who Owned a City is an awesome book.

OK: I've never even heard of that one. Going to look for it.

Thanks!

[emc07]

I read The Babysitters Club series. I loved it and couldn't get enough. I also loved, "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark." I enjoyed, "Lord of the Flies," too.

Seriously, some of you were precocious little readers with those big books. I think someone said, "Gone with the Wind." Wow.

[fringle]

The Chronicles of Narnia
A Wrinkle in Time
Little Women

[Mythical Tiger]

The Warrior series, by Erin Hunter. I used to check them out over and over again. Now, my parents buy me the books. I think there's one more that's going to be published in June, I believe. Either that or July.



~Sam

[Kats]

Easy Connections and Easy Freedom by Liz Berry; I loved them as a young teen.

[flutecrafter]

For me it was 'Robinson Crusoe' :)
The Librarian finally just gave it to me. :)

[Quossum]

For me it was 'Robinson Crusoe' :)
The Librarian finally just gave it to me. :)

That happened to me with the movie A Room with a View. I checked it out from the (one) video store of the small town where I lived SO many times--and I'm pretty sure I was the only person in town who checked it out, ever--that the clerk finally said, "This time you can HAVE it!" I'd probably bought it several times over by then with my rental fees. Oh, that yummy Julian Sands!

--Q

[Sirius]

Merlin's Magic by Helen Clare; a treasure hunt with the god Mercury and evil robots; Walter Ralegh, unicorns, the Jumblies and quotations of everyone from Milton to Kipling. I adored it and have never been able to find a copy since.

[Christine N.]

How apropos this thread is for me.

I just posted about this very thing on one of the blogs I write for. I loved THE WITCHES by Roald Dahl and THE WESTING GAME by Ellen Rankin. I just bought a re-issued FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER because it was also a favorite.

AND...I've just decided to go to Graduate school and get my Masters in Library Science. (Which really has more to do with me being a substitute librarian at an elementary school and discovering I LOVE IT.)

[brainstorm77]

I was totally enthralled by Little House on The Prairie. I remember buying a new copy at the school book fair and I read it over and over. :)

[AnonymousWriter]

Harry Potter. And yes, I did re-read all of them over and over.

And most of the Roald Dahl books.

[Mr. Pocket Keeper]

I love this thread.

When I was a little kid, I fell in love with the book Miss Suzy written by Miriam Young. My mother would read it to me whenever I was “under the weather”. I’m sure she would have anyway, but I soon started making things up just to get mom to read it. Mommyyyyyyyyyyy, I have the hiccups, can you please read me Miss Suzy? :D

I still do, and always will, have my copy. It might have a bit more wear and tear than it did thirty two or thirty three years ago (reading it five hundred times will do that lol), but it’s still the same Miss Suzy. ;)


As I got a little older, I would devour The Hardy Boys and Encyclopedia Brown books.

I have read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory more than a few times.

Every year around the holidays, I’d read A Christmas Carol…actually, I still do.

[daehedr]

It all began with Noddy and then led to the Famous Five and the Secret Seven (Enid Blyton). Rumer Godden with Holly and Ivey and Gypsy Girl. Mollie Hunter and Thomas and the Warlock and something about the Walking Stones or Magic Stones. Pauline Clarke the Genii Book, Narnia and more Narnia The Secret Garden and a few others I've forgotten about now. I was born in N. Ireland and raised in England so it wasn't until 1970 that I learned of Nancy Drew and the Little House Books. I do remember the children's sections of bookstores in the late 60's early 70's here in Canada being absolutely abysmally stocked with so little choice it was frighting compared to the English book stores.

[Sarita]

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (and A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet)

<snip>

This cover 3rd,4th, and 5th grade. Then I sobered up and read Lord of the Rings eleven times, but oddly, never fell into the role-playing spin-offs. Nope, just wanted to read the book over and over and over.
Yes! Anything by Madeleine L'Engle, until my dad bought me all three of the ones Jamie mentioned. I also was in love with Zilpha Keatley Snyder and read her stuff over and over. I loved Eyes in the Fishbowl, the Changeling, and her Stanley Family series. She made me think that ANYTHING was possible. I think I need to re-read both of these ladies.

When I read Lord of the Rings, I immediately re-read it and haven't stopped in more than 20 years. Still a favorite.

[Krisela]

I loved to read anything by Agatha Christie. I must have read every book in her Poirot series at least three times. :D

[brainstorm77]

My sister use to read the Ramona books. Does anyone remember these? :)

[batgirl]

Unfortunately, far as I can tell, neither of these is the one I'm thinking of. It was a large white hardcover book, I know that much. And the art wasn't 'cartoony'--it was actually rather detailed, which made stories about the likes of Prometheus and the Minotaur pretty eerie.
Could it be The Golden Treasury of Myths and Legends? adapted by Anne Terry White, illustrated by Alice & Martin Provenson, published Golden Press 1959, 164 pages. It's a large white hardcover. The illustrations (http://pictures.abebooks.com/RUDY1/1051652689.jpg) are distinctive. However, it has Norse and other myths as well as the Greek & Roman, so it might not be yours.
http://pictures.abebooks.com/RUDY1/1051652689.jpg

[pookel]

I've read that book!

In fact, I think I've read just about every children's book of myths with cool illustrations that's ever been published. I was, uh, voracious.

[Radhika]

The books that I continually took out of my shelf (I owned the books) was the My Father's Dragon series.
I never really understood them, I just knew that they were such beautiful books with imagination in another world. Someday, I wanted to be just like the boy - witty, smart, prepared, in another world across the rocks.

I think I'd cry if I read it now.

[Bookewyrme]

The only book I ever checked out repeatedly and obsessively was The Complete Valley of the Kings by Nicholas Reeves and Richard H. Wilkinson. Eventually when I became an adult I got tired of having to go back to check it out and just bought my own copy.

I did have a bunch of books I read (and still do) over and over that I owned. Little Women, Anne of Green Gables (the whole series), Little House on the Prairie (the series) and the Amelia Peabody series.

[amergina]

Jenny and the Cat Club by Esther Averill.

(I need a blushing smiley)

But hey, tiny black cat with a red scarf on ice skates! What more could a girl want in elementary school!

[Medievalist]

There are so many super books in this thread--and I'm delighted that there are so many that I've never read.

Also? I remember when Watership Down first came out.

I am Officially Old now.

[Xelebes]

I didn't think I could take out a book out again. And I think I preferred it that way because re-reading books made it harder for me to remember what the book was about.

[mccardey]

Late sixties - "Puck of Pooks Hill" by Rudyard Kipling and "The Midnight Horse" by Monica Edwards. Last year I tracked down old, old copies of those and a bunch of other faves in the hopes that one day I might get a grandchild or two.... (one day... *sigh* All that sex they're having, and nothing to show for it. Grrr...)

ETA: There was also a black, dustjacketless hardcover that had stories of Ancient Greek and Roman legends that I adored. But I can't remember the name... Anyone? (Would have been reading it in about 1965-66, so not a recent title....)

Also, not a book, but my dad used to read and quote Shakespeare and Keats and Shelley to me in the cradle. Went on reading it to or with me for years. All my favourite memories :)

ETAA: Good grief! I just went back and read through this thread and so many people are asking about books of Greek and Roman legends! I wonder if we're all of an age, or if its a cross-generational thing?

[Medievalist]

memories :)

ETAA: Good grief! I just went back and read through this thread and so many people are asking about books of Greek and Roman legends! I wonder if we're all of an age, or if its a cross-generational thing?

It's because myths are damn fine stories.

[mccardey]

It's because myths are damn fine stories.

Of course - but are they still taught in primary school the way they used to be? I'd be interested to know. The school curriculum seems to be crowding things out so often, now. (Goodbye, Latin... *sob*.)

[thothguard51]

In the early 60's, the book I most often checked out until my mom finally bought me a copy was Day Break 2250 by Ms Andre Norton.

[folkchick]

My mother ran the library in the small town I grew up in, so I had access to every book imaginable. But I'll name a few that meet the criteria: Ghosts I Have Been, the Anne of Green Gables series, a big picture book of the Beatles (complete with a naked John and Yoko), The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, every Beverly Cleary book known to man—there was one called Fifteen that I read over and over, all the Judy Blume books, The Dollhouse Murders by Betty Wren Wright . . . There was a book about a town whose citizens all started to turn into frog people. Does anyone remember that? The Pigman by Zindel . . . And I loved this one book about a girl in the early 1900's who fell in love with an indian boy who dies in the end from lockjaw. OH!!!! I thought of another one! Little Women.

[Medievalist]

In the early 60's, the book I most often checked out until my mom finally bought me a copy was Day Break 2250 by Ms Andre Norton.

My much beloved, adored, and utterly amazing older brother read that to me, cover to cover, in 1965. I was a little over 3, and in the hospital for eye surgery; he was nine. I suspect it's a large part of my later fondness for SF.

This 1952 edition, in fact is the one:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z291/digital_medievalist/daybreak_2250_1.jpg

[Bookewyrme]

ETA: There was also a black, dustjacketless hardcover that had stories of Ancient Greek and Roman legends that I adored. But I can't remember the name... Anyone? (Would have been reading it in about 1965-66, so not a recent title....)


That sounds like maybe Edith Hamilton's Mythology. It was written in 1942, and is one of the more popular/widely-read books of Greek and Roman mythology around.

Amazon linky here (http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Edith-Hamilton/dp/0316341517), for cover comparison.

[rugcat]

My much beloved, adored, and utterly amazing older brother read that to me, cover to cover, in 1965. I was a little over 3, and in the hospital for eye surgery; he was nine. I suspect it's a large part of my later fondness for SF.

This 1952 edition, in fact is the one:
I had that exact copy as a child and read it nine or ten times. At least.

The bond with the cat. The Beast Things. No wonder I write the stuff I do.

[Bookewyrme]

y Ms Andre Norton.

Didn't catch this at first, but you just blew my mind. I've only read a few of Norton's stories, but I never realized she was a woman! (I adored her short stories published in the Catfantastic books).

[Medievalist]

Didn't catch this at first, but you just blew my mind. I've only read a few of Norton's stories, but I never realized she was a woman! (I adored her short stories published in the Catfantastic books).

Check out her Witch World books; they many seem old hat to a modern sensibility, but they were banned at a lot of libraries for their gender bending.

[mccardey]

That sounds like maybe Edith Hamilton's Mythology. It was written in 1942, and is one of the more popular/widely-read books of Greek and Roman mythology around.

Amazon linky here (http://www.amazon.com/Mythology-Edith-Hamilton/dp/0316341517), for cover comparison.

Thank you - but no :( , that's not it. I liked the Amazon link though - I think tonight I'll go through all their books and see what I can find. I think now that it might have been called or subtitled "Legends of Greece and Rome"

Or, you know - not.

I'll know it when I see it though. That's going to keep me away from Masterchef tonight.... ;)

[LJD]

I Want to go Home (Gordon Korman)
can't believe I didn't own a copy myself...

[swvaughn]

Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the Seashore

I obsessed over that book and read it a billion times - and then one day we were at a garage sale (Mom loves garage sales) and they had ALMOST THE WHOLE SERIES for, like, a dollar! I was so happy. The library only had that one.

Sadly, I no longer have the books. And if I could ever find copies, they'd probably cost a year's salary... they were very old, hardcover books. Maybe I should poke around to see if they ever got put into paperback, and I could possibly pick up some used copies somewhere.

I loved Honey Bunch. :D

[Awesome thread, Medi!]

[AlishaS]

When I was in Elementry School it was The Balloon Tree by Pheobe Gilman, I seen it in Chapters the other day with a 20th Anniversery addition sticker on it...
Also my second, when I got a little older was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
And then in highschool it was The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe.

[Bookewyrme]

Check out her Witch World books; they many seem old hat to a modern sensibility, but they were banned at a lot of libraries for their gender bending.

Old SF/F is sometimes my favorite. I've had the Witch World books suggested before, just never gotten around to finding them. I'll have to see if my local library has any.

[TheMindKiller]

When I was a kid, I bought my books. Books and Legos were all I ever wanted for Christmas and birthdays. I had a huge collection of books when I was a kid. But my favorite books are books that are still my favorites today.

The first three Dune books by Frank Herbert and the collection of short stories called I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.

I still own the original paperbacks I had as a kid. I had the entire Dune series but even though I had read the first three in the series several times before I was even 10, I never got through God Emporer of Dune until my twenties.

I've also read all of the Asimov Robot and Foundation novels multiple times, but I, Robot is the book I can always go back to.

Just thinking about them reminds me of being a kid again :)

Loved those sorts of books. Can you believe my parents never introduced me to the Asimov magazine? Jerks. lol

[soopykun]

A book on greek and roman mythology. I'm ashamed to say that I "accidentally" forgot to return it. And, um, I still have it. Upstairs, high on a shelf in the bedroom. How to explain the library card pocket to the kiddos? Right, not even going to try.

[mccardey]

A book on greek and roman mythology. I'm ashamed to say that I "accidentally" forgot to return it. And, um, I still have it. Upstairs, high on a shelf in the bedroom. How to explain the library card pocket to the kiddos? Right, not even going to try.

Smallish? Black? Hardcover?

That might be the very one I'm looking for.... ;)

[Medievalist]

Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the Seashore

Those were from the "Stratmeyer Syndicate," which means if you're not compulsive about owning the first edition, you can find them at the prices of current paperbacks, or less.

[evilrooster]

Beauty, by Robin McKinley. If I walked into that building right now, I could put my finger on the shelf where it lived. Because for one summer, my entire world revolved around that axis. Having found it, who can forget the center of the universe?

The copy I now own has the same cover, but it's not the same. I hope, though, that my daughter enjoys it as much as I did, when she's old enough.

[Poppaeia]

The Ghost of Opalina by Peggy Bacon, and The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Pope. But especially Opalina.

If you have 710.00 you can get a used copy of Opalina from Amazon! :(

[Medievalist]

Beauty, by Robin McKinley. If I walked into that building right now, I could put my finger on the shelf where it lived. Because for one summer, my entire world revolved around that axis. Having found it, who can forget the center of the universe?

The copy I now own has the same cover, but it's not the same. I hope, though, that my daughter enjoys it as much as I did, when she's old enough.

Have you read McKinley's other retelling of the same tale: Rose Daughter?

[Medievalist]

The Ghost of Opalina by Peggy Bacon, and The Perilous Gard, by Elizabeth Pope. But especially Opalina.

If you have 710.00 you can get a used copy of Opalina from Amazon! :(

I read Pope's Perilous Gard in 1974 at Westmoreland Elementary, thanks to Mrs. Prange.

And it's directly responsible for the role Tam Lin played in my Ph.D. dissertation.

[plunderpuss]

I checked out Treasure Island five times in the third grade. (The one I remember even before that was when I was in kindergarten, and it was a field guide to Pacific Northwest marine wildlife.)

This thread is fascinating.

Edit: I read some more and remembered I'd devour anything by Paul Zindel. And also, I thought it was just library books, but if we include books I owned, then I re-read The Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings countless times.

[evilrooster]

Have you read McKinley's other retelling of the same tale: Rose Daughter?

I think I have every McKinley book. Might be missing one or two. I love Rose Daughter, but it wasn't a magical and transformative book for me the way Beauty was.

(The other McKinley book with its hooks deep in me, Deerskin, is not one I recommend around. It's really, really not for everyone.)

[JoNightshade]

My compulsive checkout actually wasn't a book - it was a book on tape. I must have checked out that cassette of The Martian Chronicles fifty times. Drove my parents nuts because I insisted on getting it every time we went on a road trip. I am probably personally responsible for wearing it out. And I still hear that voice when I read it today.

[poetinahat]

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

[Medievalist]

I think I have every McKinley book. Might be missing one or two. I love Rose Daughter, but it wasn't a magical and transformative book for me the way Beauty was.

(The other McKinley book with its hooks deep in me, Deerskin, is not one I recommend around. It's really, really not for everyone.)

I've had to tell people -- parents, librarians, etc. -- more than once that Deerskin and Sunshine are not typical YA books, and not to be seen as directly similar to other McKinley books.

[Medievalist]

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

Super, odd, and even disturbing book.

I used it as a text in a critical theory class :D

[MacAllister]

Beauty, by Robin McKinley. If I walked into that building right now, I could put my finger on the shelf where it lived. Because for one summer, my entire world revolved around that axis. Having found it, who can forget the center of the universe?

The copy I now own has the same cover, but it's not the same. I hope, though, that my daughter enjoys it as much as I did, when she's old enough.

Yes, THAT!!! I have books I've bought the same edition, same cover, same everything, at least theoretically -- but it's still not *quite* the same book, and I can feel that it isn't.

It's a phenomenon I've only been able to explain to a scant handful of people, that book-as-talisman thing that's extraordinarily particular and specific and difficult to articulate.

[JoNightshade]

It's a phenomenon I've only been able to explain to a scant handful of people, that book-as-talisman thing that's extraordinarily particular and specific and difficult to articulate.

My copy of Lonesome Dove is just such a talisman... I actually buy other copies to loan out just so I can keep the battered old paperback I originally read. I lost it once, for a while, and it was distressing!

[rugcat]

It's a phenomenon I've only been able to explain to a scant handful of people, that book-as-talisman thing that's extraordinarily particular and specific and difficult to articulate.Another reason the rise of Ebooks is a shame.

[mccardey]

Yes, THAT!!! I have books I've bought the same edition, same cover, same everything, at least theoretically -- but it's still not *quite* the same book, and I can feel that it isn't.

It's a phenomenon I've only been able to explain to a scant handful of people, that book-as-talisman thing that's extraordinarily particular and specific and difficult to articulate.

When I became estranged from my family, the most unsettling part (not the most upsetting, but the most unsettling) was the knowledge that all those books I'd loved would never be mine again - even to share. They were so much part of what had gone towards making me. I missed those books for decades! But then I decided a few years ago to try to replace them with good second hand copies, so that when I read them out to the (*sigh* tragically still putative) grandchildren, they'll have that feeling of having been loved and handled over time, instead of just being New. (And of course, it's a good excuse for re-reading :)

[Medievalist]

Another reason the rise of Ebooks is a shame.

You know, what I really think will happen, in part because I'm seeing it happen already, is that we'll have better made, more lasting print books.

Things like scholarly monographs will go directly to ebooks.

I've already noticed that reduced run hardcovers--that is hardcovers of 25k or less--are being again made with sewn bindings.

That almost went away in the mid 1990s.

And "trade" paperbacks are being again printed on acid free, rather than reduced acid paper.

That alone will more than double the potential lifetime of any book.

[MacAllister]

When I became estranged from my family, the most unsettling part (not the most upsetting, but the most unsettling) was the knowledge that all those books I'd loved would never be mine again - even to share. They were so much part of what had gone towards making me. But I decided a few years ago to try to replace them with good second hand copies, so that when I read them out to the (*sigh* tragically still putative) grandchildren, they'll have that feeling of having been loved and handled over time, instead of just being New. (And of course, it's a good excuse for re-reading :)

We had quite a bad house fire when I was eleven, and everything burned flat.

I still sometimes dream at night about some of the books I had as a kid that were lost in that fire. Then a couple of years ago, a bunch of the much-loved books I've been lugging around the country with me since college were lost in another fire.

I'm trying not to be paranoid about it.

[soopykun]

Smallish? Black? Hardcover?

That might be the very one I'm looking for.... ;)

heh, no, sorry mccardey. mine's a thick (about 2 inches) hardcover.

[EclipsesMuse]

Mine would be the Darkangel Trilogy by Meridith Ann Pierce. Evil angels, witches, strong heroines. How could I not fall in love with it?

[evilrooster]

I've had to tell people -- parents, librarians, etc. -- more than once that Deerskin and Sunshine are not typical YA books, and not to be seen as directly similar to other McKinley books.

Worth extending that warning to her "Elementals" short story books published with Peter Dickinson. The stories are excellent, but some of them are difficult territory.

[evilrooster]

You know, what I really think will happen, in part because I'm seeing it happen already, is that we'll have better made, more lasting print books.

[...]

I've already noticed that reduced run hardcovers--that is hardcovers of 25k or less--are being again made with sewn bindings.


As a bookbinder who likes to tear down and rebind books, this is good news to me.

[firedrake]

Ack, so many books, so many memories.

For me it was pretty much anything by K.M.Peyton, especially the 'Flambards' Trilogy, which I still have and still read now and then.

also

Mary Elwyn Patchett's Brumby books. I totally wanted to be that girl living in the outback.

[evilrooster]

Yes, THAT!!! I have books I've bought the same edition, same cover, same everything, at least theoretically -- but it's still not *quite* the same book, and I can feel that it isn't.

It's a phenomenon I've only been able to explain to a scant handful of people, that book-as-talisman thing that's extraordinarily particular and specific and difficult to articulate.

We are used to seeing books as fungible.

Mind you, with the kind of material wealth we all have now, we're used to seeing pretty much everything as essentially fungible, barring family photos and the like.

Aside from the odd quirky "lucky object" or jewelry with sentimental value, most of the private possessions of adults are valued for what they do or how they look. It's only children who invest possessions with the emotional energy of all of those associations. And what do they know? They're the kind of people for whom a fingerful of peanut butter out of the jar and a new box of crayons is the summum omnium bonum.

And that's just crazy. ;)

[stormie]

Speaking of losing favorite books....

A young woman told me her favorite book as a child (of which I can't remember the title), had little notes she wrote in the margins as she'd read it. She cherished that book. Several years later, the book was missing after her parents messy divorce. Her mother had tossed it in the trash. Along came a young man who listened to her story. He looked for this book she had loved and found it. Even though the little notations weren't in it, of course, it touched her and she fell in love. They're now married several years.

[IdiotsRUs]

Not one I got from teh library but one that I read over and over...
Stories of King Arthur. It's a kids version, that my Mum got from a jumble sale, with teh flashy HB flyleaf missing but it had colour plates , and some of the stories I've seen only rarely in other Arthur tellings. I still have it.

I probably read all the James Herriot books a hundred times each - I wanted to be a vet :D

[swvaughn]

Those were from the "Stratmeyer Syndicate," which means if you're not compulsive about owning the first edition, you can find them at the prices of current paperbacks, or less.

Hooray! :D

[JSSchley]

This thread is fun.

Mine was Middle School Blues (http://www.amazon.com/Middle-School-Blues-Lou-Kassem/dp/0380703637), an MG by Lou Kassem. I read the library's poor copy to pieces.

Is there still a market for these kinds of books? Stories about how weird life is when you're twelve can be so formative, IMO. I loved loved loved MG contemporary but I feel like everything has gone paranormal now. Course, now I prefer adult contemporary to everything else, so...I guess our tastes are set early. :P

[Libbie]

Watership Down. I checked that out so many times. When the public library made me stop taking it, I checked it out from the school library instead.

I was SOOOOO EXCITED when I got a hardback copy of my own for my 10th birthday. Paperback just wasn't the same for me.

I still love WD and got a Black Rabbit of Inle tattoo in 2003. :)

[Libbie]

Another reason the rise of Ebooks is a shame.

I have to agree with that. They're wonderful in so many respects, but god, I miss being able to go to the Edmonds library, pick up that old copy of Watership Down, and look back at years of my signature on the old checkout card. (Even the rise of barcode checkouts is a shame in some ways, although it's fast!) There is something so special about holding that one specific copy, and to this day I can still feel the exact weight of that book in my hands.

[mscelina]

Oh, I had several books like this--all of which I now own. Behold Your Queen by Gladys Malvern, all of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Maud Lovelace, LM Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott. Once I was older, it was Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and anything by Madeline l'Engle and CS Lewis and then pretty much all of the Arthurian lit--Mary Stewart, Marion Zimmer Bradley, TH White, and finally Malory when I got to high school. But by then, I was embarked upon a full-scale attack on the classics from Homer to Hemingway, which I broke up with a few guilty pleasures like David Eddings, Nancy Springer and Piers Antony.

As I passed through each phaze, I bought the books I loved, and then had to progress to something new to nab from the library. Now I have a library in my house, and I still re-read those old favorites faithfully at least once a year. Just went through my collection of the Betsy-Tacy high schoool/adult stories again, and Anne of Green Gables is winking at my from my girls' lit shelf.

[Lillie]

There's been so many over the years. I still have books like that now.

But I remember the first. It was called 'The Bowmen of Crecy' by Ronald Welch.

I was 6 and it was 1969 or 70.

I worshipped that book.

[Anninyn]

It was actually four books- The Song of the Lioness quartet, by Tamora Pierce.

I took them out every time. I had to order the other three in- this was a tiny library in a country town. Then, when the library were selling off books, I bought them. I spent all my pocket money on them. I read them till their covers fell off.

[washingtonienne]

I know, so many it's hard to choose. For me Merlin Dreams by Peter Dickinson, The Golden Key and Other Stories by George MacDonald, Alice in Wonderland, The Darkangel Trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce, a random anthology called The Unicorn Treasury (which, come to think of it, I'm now going to look for on alibris...) Sigh. I can still smell the library book binding. Great thread!

[5398cane]

Robert Asprin - Myth series

[skylark]

It was Hugh Walters' series about astronauts, and I was about 9-10. I am a scientist because of those books. Though I never did make it to astronaut.

I looked them up a while back because I thought my son might like them. They are out of print and almost all silly prices. I managed to find two of them affordable, but none of the ones I remember most vividly :(

[Tracey Taylor]

I can't remember the title but the book I loved as a kid was about this brother and sister kid detective who solved mysteries all around Canada. My favourite one took place at West Edmonton Mall. One summer I think I rented it every week.

Another series that I loved told stories through the point of view of animals starting with their birth. I remember there was a wolf book (which was sad when the female wolf he liked got caught in a hunter's trap and died), a porcupine book and some type of raptor (I want to say Osprey since I remember them eating fish at one point but I'm not completely sure).

[aliceshortcake]

The first library books I remember reading were the 'Flower Fairies' series by Cicely Mary Barker and the 'Paddington Bear' books by Michael Bond. Fortunately my parents were happy to take me to the local library in Bradford and carry tons of books back home.

A few years later I remember borrowing 'The King of the Copper Mountains' by Paul Biegel OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. Other favourites: 'The Little White Horse' by Elizabeth Goudge (I was encouraged to read it by seeing it read aloud on the BBC's 'Jackanory' programme); a series of beautifully illustrated retellings of folk tales by Ruth Manning-Sanders; 'The Hundred and One Dalmatians' and its lesser-known sequel 'The Twilight Barking' by Dodie Smith; and the Doctor Doolittle books by Hugh Lofting. A few years later I graduated to the works of Rosemary Sutcliffe and Alan Garner, especially 'Elidor'. 'Little Katia' by E.M Almedingen made a deep impression on me, mainly because of a funeral scene.

Much-loved books I inherited from my mum included 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Though the Looking Glass', together with'Little Women', 'What Katy Did' and their respective sequels, but the only book from my childhood I still own is the copy of 'A Christmas Carol' I found at my grandparents' house in the late 60s. It's one of my most treasured possessions because merely by sniffing the pages I can transport myself back in time to their living room...

[Vito]

Homer Price by Robert McCloskey. I read it probably a few dozen times throughout my elementary school years. I loved the characters, the light-hearted humor, and the illustrations. And Uncle Ulysses' donut machine was amazing!

[MJNL]

The Farthest Away Mountain! This thread just made me remember it. I used to check it out on tape and have my cassette player read me to sleep at night. I've been looking for it for years casually, but I could never remember its title. Just knew it had something to do with a mountain. I'm so glad I finally figured out what it’s called! Off to Amazon to buy it now... :)

[JayWalloping]

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I discovered it at a library, got my own copy, wore it out, and had to go back to the library copy.

[mccardey]

It's one of my most treasured possessions because merely by sniffing the pages I can transport myself back in time to their living room...

There you are, you see... That's why we mourn the books we lose....

*sigh*

[Victoria]

When I was really little, my favorite book was Harry and the Terrible Whatzit. When I was bit older, I loved A Wrinkle in Time, The Figure in the Shadows, and The Secret of Nimh. A little older still, the John Jakes series beginning with The Bastard. Then I got into romance novels, but they didn't have those in school. Bummer, I had to steal them from my older sisters. Lindsey was one of my fave authors, but then I devoloped a taste for horror. My own writing is a combo of old school romance (the male is the badass...yeah, I know...) with heavy doses of violence, suspense, and taboo flaunting. It's pretty dark, actually. And it all began with Harry's foray into the basement.

[Sunnyside]

Mine was Christopher Finch's Of Muppets and Men, a coffee-table book full of behind-the-scenes stories and photos of what went into putting together The Muppet Show for five years. I checked that thing out so many times it started to fall apart.

[LeslieB]

I read and re-read so many books as a kid that I absolutely adored, but the one that stuck in my mind was "The Diamond in the Window" by Jane Langton. It was a book about children trying to find a secret treasure (a Louisa May Alcott manuscript!) by solving the riddles they found in a magical attic bedroom. A few years ago I managed to stumble across a copy and snatched it up. It is still sitting on my shelf, unread, because I'm terrified that it won't seem as wonderful now that I'm an adult. But this thread has convinced me to dust it off and see if I can rediscover the magic.