a readerly question

Last week, I regaled you with a story from my childhood (riveting, I know :may19 ) & my excitement over finding a number of Nancy Drew books at a thrift store that helped me at least partially realize the dream I’ve had since childhood of owning the entire Nancy Drew collection. :may35

And that got me to thinking about some of the other wonderful books I just loved when I was a kid…

Like the Trixie Belden mysteries.  I remember borrowing them from the bookmobile all the time, thrilled each time I found a one I hadn’t read yet.  I loved them so much, I even convinced Madame Mommy Dearest to buy them for her school library…then made her bring them all home for me to read first. :may34

Between Trixie Belden & Nancy Drew, I clearly really wanted to be a girl detective. :may4

Or The Boxcar Children.  The first in this series has always been & probably always will be my favorite, but I still read them all.  I swear, this book made me want to be an orphan & live in an old train car. :may24

Later, I fell in love with S.E. Hinton—The Outsiders most of all, but I read all of her stuff.

And later, my first foray into the romance genre was the Sunfire Romances collection.  I both loved & hated these books at the same time.  Loved them because they were romance…  Hated them because each story revolved around one girl having to choose between two guys, & I always fell in love with the wrong one.  (Usually the “bad boy,” if that tells you anything. :may25 )

Gosh, do those bring back happy memories! :may3

So instead of posting this week’s QUESTION OF THE WEEK only to my “Fans of Heidi Betts” Facebook Page, I’m going to share it here, as well:

What were some of your favorite books as a kid?

Feel free to share as many titles/authors & details as you like!  I love hearing about others’ books obsessions as much as I love talking about my own. :may15

Comments

14 Comments  •  Comments Feed

  1. Mary Kirkland says:

    I’ve never heard of those books.

    I’ll let you in on a little secret…I didn’t read for my own pleasure until I was 15 years old. Everything I had read up until that point was because the school made me. The only book I can remember before that was Where The Wild Things Are.

    That first book I read when I was 15… Cujo by Stephen King. I read nothing but horror after that for a long time until my mom gave me a box of her romance books that she had read. I was hooked on romance ever since.

    :may11

    • Heidi says:

      Oh, wow—so you just sort of jumped into the deep end, huh? Well, at least you *did* start reading. And clearly, you have excellent taste. (Which I say because you read Moi, not Stephen King. :may2 )

  2. Anne says:

    I didn’t read too many kids’ books. When we traveled my mom would buy comic books for us, at 9 I was reading her Agatha Christie’s. I have, however, read some Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys. As I recall, I liked the Hardy Boys better.

    Is that a leaf? :may18

    • Heidi says:

      Huh. I must have gotten my early reading style from Madame Librarian. I read what she brought home for me to read. :may34

      But as I got older (jr high-ish) I did read some Agatha Christie & more adult books, & I was probably the only student in the entire school who actually *loved* what we were required to read for English Lit class. :may35

  3. Anne says:

    Nope, now that I can see a bigger picture I can see it’s a G string. Nice.

    • Heidi says:

      LOL Yeah, it’s a G-string…but a leaf would be a good idea. You know, since it’s getting closer to Autumn & all the leaves will soon begin to fall… :may26

    • Heidi says:

      I also changed the automatic avatars that pop up when commentors don’t have their own. They’re cartoon monsters now, &, um, Anne…I don’t meant to embarrass you, but your brain is showing. :may32

  4. Susan Frank says:

    Loved the Trixies – Have them all thanks to ebay. Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys of course. Then there were the Cherry Ames nurse stories, and the Sue Barton nurse stories. Little House books, Anne of Green Gables series. I read A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and The Lost Prince (all by Frances Hodgson Burnett) multiple times. I think I read almost all the Childhood of Famous Americans biographies that our public library had. That’s just the beginning…

    • Heidi says:

      So jealous of your Trixie Belden collection!

      I forgot about the Little House & Anne of Green Gables books, but yes, yes, yes! Read & loved them all!!! :may22

  5. barbie says:

    Well I started with those babysitters club spin off then to babysitters club goosebumps then some very old HR. Then Sidney Sheldon(some romance ,thrills and crazy mess). :may20 But it was my first historical from the dollar store that I did wanted to read romances. Yet we didn’t have the money until a yard sale a lady sold all her romances ….so happy….lost most of the those …. :May37

    • Heidi says:

      I think romances at yard sales & thrift shops end up getting a lot of readers hooked. And that’s a good thing. :may15

      I never read the Babysitter Club or Goosebumps books, tho I remember shelving many, many of them at MMD’s library. :mat27 And I may have tried a Sidney Sheldon or Judith Krantz at one time, but they weren’t true romance enough for me. :may24

      • Barbie Pomales says:

        Read Sidney Sheldon If Tomorrow comes .Trust me its an amazing read….it has everything that if u reads thrillers/conartists/wrongful ly accused stories /revenge tales u will love. (Gets a little freaky) but its a worthwhile read.

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