Monday, July 16, 2007

A Bookseller's Dream....

I have a queue of seven books right now (eight, if you count the one I'm reading). I rarely let them pile up beyond four at time, but I can't stay away from Barnes & Noble lately. And if I walk in the store... I. Must. Buy. Something. It's a sickness, really.

I'm so hooked on reading, and I always have been. There's a website called What Book Got You Hooked... if you login and write a quick note about the book that hooked you, you can help your state (US only, I think) win 50,000 books or something. Click and find out.

Better yet, leave me a comment and tell ME which book(s) got you hooked on reading. I know I don't have just one, and I probably won't remember all of them, but here are some of mine:


Shel Silverstein's Where The Sidewalk Ends
Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever
Robert McCloskey's Blueberries for Sal
The Paddington Bear series
The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring (do you really need the links?)
The Little House series... yes, including Farmer Boy


I'll stop now; otherwise, this list will be longer than any of my posts to date. Those on the list only represent my pre- and early elementary/primary school favorites. We haven't even touched the Judy Blume years. Or Narnia. Or John Saul. hahaha

Tell me yours!

12 comments:

metalia said...

Oh, definitely the Berenstein Bear Books, and later, the All of a Kind Family series. :)

Anonymous said...

I think I was genetically hooked on reading, but the book I remember having the most impact on me when I was young was "Mandy" by Julie Edwards (aka, the actress Julie Andrews). Wonderful, wonderful book and I still have a copy.

Libragirl said...

I've been reading since I was 4 so I have no idea what got me hooked. Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein. I devour books, I have 4 waiting to be read by the 27th, so I can give them to my mom. Books rock.

Paisley said...

I always loved reading and books, but I read The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton when I was 10 and I fell in LOVE with Ponyboy Curtis. That was the first time characters became real to me and after that I was hooked!

lizgwiz said...

I can't even remember a time when I wasn't reading. I do remember once in second grade when I was the only one in the class allowed to go to recess. Apparently there was a big to-do going on in the classroom, everyone was misbehaving so badly they had to stay inside, and I had my nose so far inside my book that I never even noticed. So the teacher made a big deal out of pointing out how good I was, and I went out to recess alone, and stood there by myself, since all my friends were inside being punished. Umm, thanks?

I loved the Dr. Seuss books first, probably. Then the Little House books, and the Oz books, of course. The Anne of Green Gables series. Marguerite Henry's horse stories. My mother was my reading teacher from grades 4-6, and she always made sure I was well-stocked with everything I wanted from the "Scholastic Books Program"--did you have that?

I tested at a 12th grade reading level in third grade, so I made my way to the regular stacks of the library pretty early on. Yay, reading!

-R- said...

I loved The Secret Garden and the Anne of Green Gables series. And the Baby Sitter's Club. =)

M.Amanda said...

They all kind of blur together. That was a long time ago! I remember I had this book of nursery rhymes that just fascinated me, but I gotta say I became a reading maniac in first or second grade when I discovered Beverly Cleary.

I can't pinpoint the exact one, but I think it was probably a Ramona book. I also read all about Henry and Ribsy and Ralph. Our tiny school library had almost all of her books and I just went down the shelf reading one after another. I was obsessed until I'd read every single one. Then I got my parents to buy the others our library didn't have.

I remember one teacher commenting that she couldn't believe that I could sit in the chaotic classroom just before the end-of-day bell rang and read so intently. Well, if you want to find out what happens enough, you learn to tune out a bunch of rowdy kids....

Nessa said...

The first book I remember was an Austrian children's book about a boy with poor habits. He refused to keep his nails clean and trimmed, so they cut his fingers off. He refused to keep his hair combed and trimmed so they cut off his ears. I loved that book.

Anonymous said...

The Wuggie Norple Story, by Daniel Pinkwater. You must check it out, although it's no longer in print. Then later, the Betsy-Tacy books. And the Shoes books! And Gordon Kormon's Bruno & Boots series! And the All-of-a-Kind Family books! And Ginnie & Geneva! Yes, I was a total bookworm nerd girl and PROUD.

wire said...

There are so many to mention!

The Hardy Boys Series - Franklin W. Dixon
The Faraway Tree (and associated books)- Enid Blyton
The Redwall Series - Brian Jacques
The Biggles Series - Captain WE Johns
The back of the cereal box at breakfast... as a child, if you put it in front of me i would read it. My primary school teacher used to tell me off because i would routinely sit next to the bookshelf and read through class.

Man, this brings back such good memories, i think i should definitely re-aquiant myself with these old friends of mine.

don't call me MA'AM said...

metalia: I loved the Berenstain Bears! I think we had them memorized to the point of exhaustion for my parents. :-)

gabrielle: that will be on my list of books to hunt down!

libragirl: I was also very young, so I don't actually recall my very first favorites. But you're right... books DO rock!

paisley: oh, the Outsiders! I remember reading that in 7th grade, and all of us, even the kids who hated reading were hooked!

lizgwiz: YES! We had Scholastic, and I always spent all my money on those books! When I taught reading, I think I was more excited for those fuzzy paper forms than the kids were.

-r-: I had this ancient copy of The Secret Garden that made it seem all the more mysterious. At least, my nerdy little self thought so!

sparkling cipher: Beverly Cleary is a genius in my opinion. Plus, I wanted an older sister called Beezus.

goldennib: I'm guessing those weren't Disney-ized at all... wow!

gg: I'll add that Wuggie-Norple to my list of must-finds as well!

wire: great list! And I'm the same... I'll read shampoo bottles, cereal boxes, you name it.

stinkypaw said...

So many books, so little time!

For me it was the series of books by La Comtesse de Ségur (in French as you might have guessed) and then in English it was "Of Mice and Men" and "Catcher in The Rye"...