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

The Black Stallion

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.

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

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 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.

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.

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

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 . . .

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

The Narnia Chronicles and Hothouse

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.

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.

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

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