My Life in Books, Part 1

What is the first book you remember reading? Or having read to you? Or owning?

Last week I asked my readers and social media friends to submit their favorite books to me. I did get some responses (thank you), but I don’t have enough yet. I will be making those responses into a post in a couple of weeks, so please submit your favorite books or genres to me at bigwords101@yahoo.com.

Here is a question: Can you tell a person’s age by the books they remember reading? 🙂 

The first book I remember owning is Uncle Wiggily and His Friends, which was first published in 1939 (no, I wasn’t born yet!). I think my mother read it to me, and I remember Uncle Wiggly looking like a wolf. Come to find out, he was a big bunny!

The next books I remember owning are Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and a few Bobbsey Twins books. I am not sure I ever read Rebecca of Sunnybook Farms, but I remember the glossy hard cover it had with sky blue and a very blonde girl. I don’t think I ever really got into the Bobbsey Twins so much.

The book that has had the most effect on my life is probably Mr. Popper’s Penguins because it led to my lifelong adoration of penguins! I bought the paperback several years ago, so I would own it; however, I never saw the movie. I shall have to add that to the list of things I must do.

As most girls of my generation, elementary school also brought a love of the Nancy Drew series. The first Nancy Drew books I got were The Secret of the Old Clock and The Hidden Staircase, given to me by a much older cousin. I loved those books! And in fifth grade, I had a couple of close boy friends who loved the Hardy Boys, so I read a couple of those and enjoyed them.

Other memorable books from elementary school, or maybe junior high, included Fifteen by Beverly Cleary, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, and Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth.

In junior high I was put into some type of accelerated reading group. The first book I remember reading in that group was The Bridge of San Luis Rey by Thornton Wilder. The teacher talked about it for weeks before we read it, and I felt very adult reading it. I remember nothing about it and suspect I didn’t like it.

Other books I remember well during my earlier years were Agatha Christie mysteries, of which I read many, and the short stories of Poe.

I didn’t like many of the books we read in junior high high school: Ivanhoe, Evangeline, David Copperfield (but only the first third!), Moby Dick, The House of the Seven Gables (because The Scarlet Letter was banned in my high school!).

But I believe I was in another of those advanced reading groups in high school, and we read A Separate Peace by John Knowles, which I name as my favorite book ever. Did Phineas really fall out of the tree? I tried reading the book again as an adult, and I just couldn’t get into it. My reading tastes have become less complicated.

In my high school, college, and shortly- after years I read the “classics” that were trending at the time. There were the dystopian novels: Lord of the Flies, Animal Farm, 1984. There was Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey. Then there were the Vonnegut books, On the Road by Kerouac, Catch-22, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

And of course I read (and loved) Gone with the Wind. I tried to read War and Peace (speaking of long books), but  got to only page 110. 

I read some science fiction, including Dune and some Asimov and Bradbury books. I no longer read science fiction. That is another genre that has become too complex for me! Oh, and in college I read Dianetics by L Ron Hubbard, the science fiction writer who founded scientology. Fascinating book. 

I went through a D. H. Lawrence phase, including Sons and Lovers. Other trendy books I read in college or shortly thereafter were The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass, which must have been popular at the time, and The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth. I must have liked Barth at the time because I also read Giles Goat Boy and Lost in the Fun House. And I only know this because I have them in my Goodreads list.

Trashy books? Of course! And I loved them all, particularly Valley of the Dolls and a few other Jacqueline Susann books, including The Love Machine. Oh, and Peyton Place. And more recently Fifty Shades of Grey and its two followup books. I know people say they are awful and poorly written, but I liked them, particularly the second one of the series. 

And I had a long love affair with the V.C. Andrews’ books, beginning with Flowers in the Attic. She died ages ago, but she keeps writing those books! (Actually, someone or more than one person in her family are apparently writing them). I read two of them not that long ago, and still liked them – for entertainment.

I have also read most of the Janet Evanovitch light mysteries, even though they have gotten repetitive. I haven’t read quite all of them, but I have read most of them, and I have her latest one in my to-read pile right now. 

In my many years of angst, I read a ton of self-help books. I don’t read them anymore. I don’t think they helped.

And, of course, I read books about grammar and words. The best ones I have read are Dreyer’s English, Verbatim, and especially Word by Word by Kory Stamper, which I have previously recommended in this blog.

These days I mostly enjoy women’s fiction. Some of my favorite authors include (but are not limited to) Jennifer Weiner (who is so funny that if you get the chance to see her, please do), Mary Higgins Clark (good mysteries), Elizabeth Berg, Janet Evanovitch, Liane Moriarty (of Big Little Lies fame), Kristin Hannah, Sophie Kinsella (British writer of the Shopaholic books), Lisa Genova (amazing neuroscientist who writes amazing fiction), Jane Green, and Judith Dechesere Boyle (who is a friend of mine).

Enough about me — for now. I want to know your favorite books: just titles, or something you remember about them, or what you liked about them, or what genres you like — or don’t. Please e-mail them to me at bigwords101@yahoo.com. I will write a blog post about your responses in February.

But don’t miss Part 2 of this series for a list of the books that I loved so much, I actually remember I loved them!