Book Snails Book Group discussion

Would you like to share some of your bookish memories with the group?

Okay men of our group, please bear with me one moment!

My love of reading started when I was young. I began reading the book "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret". The things that she was talking to God about was exactly what I was going through in my life, well mostly (bras, periods, but not religion). It made me feel that I had someone that understood what I was going through and I read that book every single day. I re-read it numerous times. It opened my eyes to the world of reading and made me excited to learn more about Judy Blume and her other novels (she is the author of said book). My love of reading began from there and I am so thankful for my teacher who recommended the book to me.

That's a wonderful reading memory, Julie! Believe it or not, I have not read this one.

It is a great book. I haven't read it as an adult so not sure if it would have the same effect as it did back then. I would still gamble a read though if you have a chance. :-)

I grew up in a library, and learned what "censorship" was at a young age. A certain librarian was famous for using a black marker to hide what she considered inappropriate passages in YA books (Judy Blume, mostly). That librarian was nuts.

StarMan wrote: "I grew up in a library, and learned what "censorship" was at a young age. A certain librarian was famous for using a black marker to hide what she considered inappropriate passages in YA books (Jud..."

Sounds like the wrong job for that Book Nazi! LOL

Allison wrote: "StarMan wrote: "I grew up in a library, and learned what "censorship" was at a young age. A certain librarian was famous for using a black marker to hide what she considered inappropriate passages ..."

Agree with you Allison. What gave her the right to choose what what right or wrong for others? Her values were hers alone. Maybe what she thought was wrong, would have been acceptable by others. In fact, I am pretty sure that would be the case. Hopefully she is no longer there. For us booklovers, taking away our rights to read what we want, it's not acceptable. :-)

Exactly! No banned material in MY book world!

I LOVED "Are You There" as a kid/preteen. Pretty sure that's where I first learned about menstruation! I remember that my middle school library wouldn't stock "Forever" by Judy Blume because of the "mature themes". Of course, that was in the 1980's, so a different world.

Amy wrote: "I LOVED "Are You There" as a kid/preteen. Pretty sure that's where I first learned about menstruation! I remember that my middle school library wouldn't stock "Forever" by Judy Blume because of the..."

The 80's were so great!!!

Wow, I think I read Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret in middle school but that was so long ago I don't remember it at all.

My earliest bookish memories are of my mom reading to my brother and I at bedtime when we were little. She read us the Little House on the Prairie series and they are still some of my favorite books to this day!

Was there a series of books that you devoured as a kid?

Erin already mentioned the Little House on the Prairie series...

Lots of people grew up reading Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books.

Does anyone remember Encyclopedia Brown?

What series were you hooked on?

I was probably born with a book in my hand. I loved the Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and the Babysitters Club series. I still read them. I would get so excited when we went to the bookstore.

Now I get excited when my books get delivered to me via Amazon Prime. :)

StarMan wrote: "Was there a series of books that you devoured as a kid?

Erin already mentioned the Little House on the Prairie series...

Lots of people grew up reading Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books.

Does anyon..."

I read Girl Talk books when I was younger. I remember my mom would have to order them and they came in sets of 3 or 4. If I didn't finish a set, my mom wouldn't order the next batch.

And in middle school, I'm pretty sure I read every single Goosebump book published back then.

I also read a lot of the Boxcar Children books and Berenstain Bear books too!

I loved the Boxcar Children as well. And Dr. Seuss helped me love rhyming.

I didn't read these as a kid or teen, but I remember these being popular:

R.L. Stine books

Christopher Pike books

Flowers in the Attic series

I miss those days. Maybe we could set up a challenge where we read again the books we read as kids. It would be a light and simple challenge if y'all are up for it.

OMG! I’ve read all those books/authors mentioned! Are You There God It’s Me Margaret (loved Judy Blume!), Encyclopedia Brown, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Babysitters Club, Dr. Seuss books, R.L. Stine, Shel Silverstein (loved Where the Sidewalk Ends and The Giving Tree), Beverly Cleary (Beezus and Ramona was awesome!), etc. My all-time favorite children’s books back then (and still are today technically) were Charlotte's Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and The Trumpet of the Swan – read all of these books too many times to count. Oh and another book I remember reading and liking a lot back then was Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar – it was the first time I had read such a bizarre book but it was wonderfully humorous at the same time.

Ev – that is a great idea for a challenge! I actually have a “childhood favorites” shelf here on Goodreads with books that I read as a child, which I’ve been trying to add to as I remember the books (my childhood was too long ago for me to remember every single book though, lol). Sometimes I would just scroll through the book titles on my shelf and reminisce about old times.

Julie wrote: "Amy wrote: "I LOVED "Are You There" as a kid/preteen. Pretty sure that's where I first learned about menstruation! I remember that my middle school library wouldn't stock "Forever" by Judy Blume be..."

The 80s was awesome!!! So many fond memories of that time period!

I didn't read R.L. Stine or Chris Pike when I was a kid/teen, but I occasionally read one now.

The best Pike books I've read so far are the "THIRST" series (reprints of his old "Last Vampire" series, collected into some thicker volumes). Here's the first one:


Thirst No. 1: The Last Vampire, Black Blood, and Red Dice

I do remember reading these non-kid books at a too-young age:

Cujo
Watership Down
James Herriot's veterinarian books All Things Bright and Beautiful, etc.

but I read lots of Hardy Boys, Encyclopedia Brown, and even some Nancy Drew when I was probably 9-12. And I read every single Louis L'Amour western as a kid/tween/teen.

When I was about three, I was obsessed with The Monster at the End of this Book (I always adored Muppets/Sesame Street). That was THE BOOK. You know, the one you make your parents, or siblings, or random strangers read to you over and over. THAT book. The one people get tired of reading to you, so they tell you to go read it yourself. So you do.

I loved Richard Scarry and Dr. Seuss. We had a lot of Little Golden Books and several from a Disney collection that I liked, too, when I was little.

When I got a little older, I remember often hunting for something to read. Sadly, I rarely read anything I loved, or even liked very much. Yeah, I tried a lot of the ones mentioned in above posts. Just not my thing. I probably would have liked Goosebumps, if those had been around earlier. I discovered more that I really liked in school than on my own. Poe, Lovecraft, Shakespeare... Ok, I know I was weird.

I was 12 when my eyes were opened...when my brother bought me a copy of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and simultaneously granted me permission to borrow any books I'd like from his collection (he was away at college). He had a lot of Stephen King... Yes, Cujo was one of them. Maybe it's that I had already had my traumatized-by-horror experience much earlier, but Stephen King never freaked me out. I read a lot of them in junior high.

The children's books I've read in recent years are things I wish I'd discovered when I was young, or in some cases, that I wish had been written when I needed them.