I'm the wrong person to ask. I read most of these in about six months when I was eight.

[apocalypsos]

Every once in a while I remember the Fine Lines articles on Jezebel about YA fiction most of us grew up with and when I go back and read the new stuff I always find something I remember more fondly than I thought I did. (Just rereading the one on "Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself" made me want to go out and get a copy of the damn thing. I read my copy so many times it fell apart.)

I was engrossed in a romance novel when we went to visit my grandfather in Boston a few years back -- he hadn't been around when I was growing up -- and when he asked my dad if I was always like that, my dad said, "Yeah, we used to be able to give her a book and she'd go sit quietly in a corner for a few hours and leave us alone." Which I would have protested, but ... yeah. Heh. That was how I learned about sex. My parents threw a book on the pile when I was about six or so and I breezed through it and moved onto the next one. I wasn't the kid who asked a lot of questions so much as I was the one who was more likely to go to the library, find what I was looking for in the index cards, and read until I found what I was looking for. It's like all of those times my grandmother told me that if I swallowed my gum it'd stay there. I got so frustrated I went and looked it up and proved her wrong.

I did that a lot because I pretty much lived in the library. I learned how to cross the street by myself specifically to get to the library. (Also, to get to the store that sold the penny candy. Oh, candy fish in a paper bag. *happy sighs*) The library had a rule that you couldn't take out more than three books at a time. During the summer, I was up there taking out and returning books almost every day. Hey, I wasn't supposed to spend all day in my grandmother's house but you could read outside, right? ;)

So saying I was the class bookworm is kind of an understatement. I had that in the bag from somewhere around kindergarten. My teachers gave up on yelling at me for getting finished and reading something not on the assigned reading list because it was a safe bet I'd already read all of the books on it. The best was in ninth grade (I think) when we had a reading list from which everyone else was picking the thinnest books possible. "A Separate Peace", "The Outsiders", etc. Meanwhile, I was one of the few people who asked for the thicker ones. It was sorta hilarious, really. The high school was mostly one long hallway at the time, and in between classes that thing got insanely crowded, but somehow I could navigate my way from one end to the other before everyone else got to the next class with my nose buried in a Stephen King or Anne Rice novel.

And the thing is, in all that time I was reading obsessively I never really thought about writing until tenth grade or so. I bought this cheap romance novel at a CVS that I'm horribly tempted to ask about on Smart Bitches and find, because I imagine it wasn't nearly as bad as I recall. It was set on the Titanic -- that was the major reason I got it; I'd read "A Night to Remember" when I was ten and I'd been hooked ever since -- and this was maybe five years before the movie came out. While I didn't know what a Mary Sue was at the time I did know that this book somehow had two of them -- identical twins -- and they irritated the hell out of my sixteen-year-old self. They were rich and blonde and smart and everybody loved them, they were staying in first class, and one fell in love with a rich man while the other fell in love with either a guy from steerage or one of the White Star employees. And one was named Smoke and the other was named (I think) Swan. Also, Captain Smith had a mistress on board who if I remember correctly was actually staying in his damn cabin.

The main thing I remember about that book was that I was almost personally offended by it. I'd been reading romance novels since I was maybe eleven or twelve -- my parents never kept me from reading anything, which could have gone so horribly wrong and thankfully never did -- and I hated it. But what I specifically remember is that it's the only time I ever felt the urge to throw a book at a wall and indulged. And I'm not sure if I said it aloud or not, but I distinctly remember thinking, "Hell, I could write better than that." Aaaand that's when I started writing.

So, yeah. I'm feeling the book love today. :)

Comments

[juice817.livejournal.com]

That was me, too. The librarians saw more of me than my parents did until I hit junior high or so. And in eighth grade, my teacher wouldn't let me count John Jakes toward my assigned pages. When I asked her why, she said "Have you read it?" and when I answered yes she said "Don't you think it's too mature for an eighth grader?"

*snerk*

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

HA! I think my teachers gave up on the maturity of what I was reading when I came to school with V.C. Andrews books for a while there.

I was in the gifted program and I know I tested as reading past college level ridiculously young. I was all proud of myself and everything. :)

[jillsjourney.livejournal.com]

Titanic: A Love Story by Shannon O'Cork. (No I haven't read it, but it sounded so ludicrous that I had to google it.) Looks like you're not the only one who thought it was crappy.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

... OMG I LOVE YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW.

Oh, man I almost forgot she made Ismay gay! Oh, WOW. I so have to buy a used copy when I get my big fat paycheck this week.

\o/

[anne-jumps.livejournal.com]

My lord, what a stinker that looks to be!

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Seriously, that was one of the worst books I've ever read. I bet when I reread it -- because goddamn it, I want a copy SO MUCH right now -- I throw it at the wall all over again.

[tinylegacies.livejournal.com]

Oh man - I loved "Starring Sally J Freedman as Herself". I've recently been picking up new copies of old favorites - like I finally replaced my battered and falling apart set of Little House on the Prairie books.

And the other day I was inspired to order a bunch of used Baby-Sitters Club books.

Also? I miss penny candy. There was nothing like going to the candy store with a dollar and walking out with a bulging paper bag of yummy goodness.

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

It sounds like we had the same exact childhood.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Wasn't it the best?! *beams*

[laurelin-kit.livejournal.com]

Totally. The one problem is that now I feel like I've read all the books in the world already.

[kijikun.livejournal.com]

You've just compounded my want to find a copy of Dealing with Dragons.

[storm_dancer]

I remember the day I found out my library had no restrictions on how many books one could take out. I took out 40 books that day, and rarely took out less than 20 at a time after that. :: happy sigh :: Those were great summers.

[polaris-starz.livejournal.com]

Oh my god. The Titanic book-- was it by Diana Hoh? Or something to that effect? I THINK I READ THAT.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Shannon OCork, it seems. Oh, man, it was awful.

[acetal.livejournal.com]

Seems rather strange to me. How dare you read something not on the assigned reading list? We can't encourage you to...*gasp* enjoy reading!

Although the fact that you had a kindergarten that actually got kids to read books is rather cool.

[audrey1nd.livejournal.com]

I was exactly like that! I used to get to be in these special groups of like, three or four people because we'd already read the book. The book that we read wasn't much better, but we got to be out in the hall reading by ourselves, which was pretty kick-ass. And as far as censoring goes, when my parents found out I was reading Romance novels in 7th grade they made me stop. Too bad I'd already discovered I liked them. In the same vein, when I was in 2nd grade I was reading the same books as my sister in 5th grade and she always tried to stop me from reading books she thought of as "inappropriate." As a result, I never read any of the classic children's books and now have an obsession with children's books.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

My parents didn't want me reading Richard Bachman. So naturally that's exactly what I shot for.

[audrey1nd.livejournal.com]

I read Francesca Lia Block in 3rd grade. I think a lot of it went over my head back then, but it certainly left an impression. Re-reading it now I see how very inappropriate it was. My sci-fi books (which can sometimes be racier than romance novels) totally outnumber my romance novels, but I think my collection of children's books beats all. Though I don't think all the Baby-sitters club books should count.
These days my book collection is the one to raid, and my parents readily do so.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Heh, Stephen King is definitely smuttier then the 'turgid manhood' romance nonsense I've encountered.

[audrey1nd.livejournal.com]

I started reading the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan in 5th grade and I remember sitting in school reading it in 6th grade and blushing so hard because I was reading a sex scene and I totally hadn't been expecting it. Also, I finished Gone with the Wind on the last day of 6th grade. Sadly, I don't have that much time to read anymore except during vacations.

[pen37.livejournal.com]

This sounds like me. Except the first time I thought I could do better was when I caught an author going back and contradicting something she'd written earler and hoping we wouldn't notice.

Then I thought that maybe it was just and issue with me, because surely the publishing house wouldn't relase something with that big an error.

Now that I'm older, I know better.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

I threw Catcher In The Rye at the wall. Assigning it to hormonal thirteen year olds is not one of the smartest things the local school system ever did.

Plus, it just plain sucked rocks.

[beautifulstars.livejournal.com]

Ah, those were the days. I was totally the same! My mother used to occasionally ban books, in the hopes that it would lure me out of my room to do other things. I can remember she would sometimes warn me that if I kept reading the way I was, I would run out of books. It became a nightmare for me: the thought of nothing new to read!!! EEk!

Loved the L.M Montgomery books. And can remember reading Stephen King under the covers.

[mercurydraconix.livejournal.com]

in my elementary school we had "DEAR" time - "Drop Everything And Read" - which was a huge hit with basically only me. I had this problem where I would start reading and TUNE OUT everything else - and then I'd look up and suddenly everybody else WOULDN'T be reading, they'd be working from the math book instead or something, and I'd have no idea what the assignment was, and I'd drive my neighbors crazy - they were all "what do you MEAN 'what're we doing'? don't you LISTEN?"

yeah. that ever happen to you? it was like once a week for YEARS for me. Maybe more.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

*snickers* That happened all the time with me. God forbid you tried to pry my attention away from whatever book I was reading.

Once, when I was in study hall reading, I looked up at one point and saw that all of the popular girls had gotten so bored they'd started timing how fast I read. That was kinda funny. :)

[elusive-life-77.livejournal.com]

My greatest love in love is to read. I devour books. And when I am engrossed in a book you can talk to me all you want and odds are good I won't even be aware that you are there. I am not using my eyes to read individual words on a page...I am using my mind to watch an in depth facinating movie screening only for me.

Also, what is this 'smart bitches' of which you speak? There's this cheezy romance book I read years ago and I can only remember the basic plot and a couple of lines from it and if this site is what I am hoping maybe I could finally figure out what the damn name of the book is.

I remember when I was about 10 or 11 I was reading Jean Auel's Clan of the Cave Bear books and my mom's friend about had a coronary when she saw me. She asked my mom if she knew what was in THOSE books (she said it like that too) and my mom was all "yeah, I read it already." and just blew her off. It was great. Didn't bother me none.

Ah, to read...