iluvpink
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,279
Location: Michigan
Jul 13, 2014 12:40:31 GMT
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Post by iluvpink on Aug 6, 2020 13:22:06 GMT
I think I read just about everything mentioned above and more - I read pretty much anything I could get my hands on as a tween/teen and I came from a book-family so there were plenty of choices - some better than others. From 9.5-12.5 we lived with my grandparents and there was a bookcase in the hall right outside my bedroom. Let's just say it didn't house the classics (those were downstairs in the living room along with the Readers Digest condensed books -which I also read). I would sneak a book at night and read under the covers by flashlight or sit right inside the doorway and read using the hallway light and hope I heard the footsteps on the stairs to warn me to crawl quietly into bed before I got caught. By the time we moved out, I had read through the entire bookcase which had everything from James Herriot's vet series to Lace. After that we had our own house and my parents' books came out of storage and the collection rapidly grew. We went to yard sales and library book sales and bought books by the bag and box. And of course there was the school library and the public library. My parents didn't pay a whole lot of attention to WHAT I was reading. Hahahaha, you sound so much like me. I used to babysit a lot, and always read their books. There was a very popular writer of gothic novels, Victoria someone? I remember reading my first of hers at 13 while babysitting. As a kid I stuffed a blanket under the door of my bedroom so the parents couldn’t see the light was on. Then I read for hours. Yes, so many of the books and authors mentioned are ones I’ve read. That’s what I was hoping for. Victoria Holt? I was really into that kind of stuff in my late teens/early twenties.
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Post by auntkelly on Aug 6, 2020 13:37:07 GMT
Here's a blast from the past: Jacqueline Susann. Who remembers her? I remember my mom had a copy of "Valley of the Dolls" hidden in her closet. I snagged it and read it when I was in middle school - like 8th grade. M I N D Blowing lololol My book club just read Valley of the Dolls (a 50th anniversary edition was just released). I can't say it's one of my all-time favorite books, but I was shocked to find that I actually enjoyed the story. (We all agreed however, that the narrator of the audio version was awful). We had one of our best discussions ever after reading this book. We talked about how in some ways life has changed so much for women since this book was written and how in other ways it hasn't changed at all.
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Post by quinlove on Aug 6, 2020 13:47:32 GMT
First reading, in junior high, all the Nancy Drew books. I think there was a lag there in my reading, reading time. Move forward to Ann Rule ! Read every single one of hers. RIP dear Ann.
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Post by katiescarlett on Aug 6, 2020 13:59:00 GMT
This thread brings back memories! I loved Sweet Savage Love, Shanna, and Flowers in the Attic. Another favorite was The Proud breed by Celeste De Blasis. I looked for that book recently on Audible as I wanted to read it again to see if it held up to my memories but it was not available. I also remember reading my mom's copy of Forever Amber and loved that. Stephen King and Dean Koontz were also favorite authors.
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Deleted
Posts: 0
May 2, 2024 10:41:37 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2020 14:00:48 GMT
I read RL Stine, Christopher Pike, Stephen King, Dean Koontz. At the same time, I also read Babysitter Club, Sweet Valley Twins, Nancy Drew.
I spent most of college reading classics for my English major and non fiction for history so I didn't do a lot reading for myself.
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oh yvonne
Prolific Pea
Posts: 7,996
Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
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Post by oh yvonne on Aug 6, 2020 14:04:01 GMT
In 7th grade my friend was reading Sybil so she gave me her copy when she was done with it. O M G that was mind blowing and so disturbing. I remember reading it in class and my English teacher asking me if my mom knew I was reading it, and well mom had no idea what I was reading so I lied and said she did. I remember she made a face and said 'that's an awfully heavy book'. Boy was it. The horrific abuse, ugh.
Diary of Ann Frank was next and that depressed me so bad I cried and cried for my friend Ann. After that I wanted lighter things and after I saw a commercial for a book called Nakoa's Woman I begged my mom to buy for me and and oh my gosh that was my first romance novel and I passed it around to all my girlfriends and we talked about it endlessly, that book just enthralled us and we debated the ending all the time.
Amityville Horror was huge in high school, that freaking book I read in one night. We were all convinced it was a true story. Then Flowers in the Attic was the next big series to read. I had a cool English teacher who assigned Salem's Lot to us and again, it was fun sharing the same read with everyone. All of Mrs Bahn's students walking around school with that paperback.
Clan of the Cave Bear was next. Oh gosh another great series. I know the movie with Darryl Hannah was a flop years later but I still liked it.
I miss the days of being excited to shop at Pickwick Books or Walden. The smell of new books, the thrill of the hunt. I go into Barnes and Noble now and it feels like a flea market of toys and Starbucks and gift store items. Not the same. I sure hope after Covid is over that they can recover and stay around.
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Post by leslie132 on Aug 6, 2020 14:12:39 GMT
Let’s give credit where credit is due........ SWEET VALLEY HIGH is what started my love of reading!!! I wish I had the entire set so I could hand it down to a new young trader!!!! In my 20-30’s I read lots of romance and some criminal suspense. Mainly it was Johanna Lindsay, Julie Garwood and Judith Mcknaught. Now in my 40’s I read Nora Roberts, JD Robb, and my two newest authors are Devney Perry and Kristen Ashley. I still read a Grisham or King book if I’m interested, but I’m a sucker for romance. If I read a period time piece I’m always going to an Irish setting. My husband laughs when I say traveling to Ireland is #1 on my bucket list. He insists I don’t like beer and I’m not into sight seeing so I will not like Ireland. Someday I will be able to know if that’s true or not
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hutchfan
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,101
Jul 6, 2016 16:42:12 GMT
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Post by hutchfan on Aug 6, 2020 14:20:05 GMT
As a child I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder books and The Hardy Boys. As young teen I read every V.C. Andrew's books. John Jake, my favorite books from the school library were by Rosamund Du Jardin Pam and Penny series. I loved Mr. and Mrs. Bo Jo Jones by Ann Head. My all time favorite book ever is The Ambassador's Women by Catherine Gaskin. I love Danielle Steel books, Jane Austen and The Bronte sisters.
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Post by pierkiss on Aug 6, 2020 14:32:58 GMT
R.L. Stone’s Fear Street series. I had every single one of them until I quit reading them in 1998. My favorites within the series were the Fear Street Saga books. I still have those.
Babysitters Club by Ann M Martin. Again, I collected all of them until I gave up on the series in the 90s.
Pretty much everything by Lurlene McDaniels.
I kept all of those books for well over a decade in boxes in my parents house. When my oldest was 2 I took my kids and went to visit them for a week. We dug through all my old boxes and figured out what to do with stuff. I told my mom she could donate my books.
She took them a few weeks later to their local elementary and middle schools. The librarians were thrilled. The elementary school had been trying to get a hold of the babysitters club books for a long time. And apparently the horror genre was quite popular with the middle schoolers, and those books were no longer in print. My mom was happy that she got to do a good thing for her local schools. I was happy my books were going to a place where they would be loved and re-read. I
Fast forward to now. My daughter thinks the babysitters club books are the bees knees. I kept a few of my favorites, and she has read all of them. She wants to read the rest. But we cannot find them. 😫😆
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purplebee
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,726
Jun 27, 2014 20:37:34 GMT
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Post by purplebee on Aug 6, 2020 14:40:10 GMT
Wow, Peas, thanks for all the book flashbacks! I am and have always been an avid reader and have read so much of what has been mentioned. Nothin’ like a good book!
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Post by austnscrapaddict on Aug 6, 2020 14:43:19 GMT
Wow, What a great thread! I had totally forgotten so many of these authors.
I've always been an avid reader, Too bad adulthood and real life responsibility keeps me from hours and hours of reading these days. As a pre teen in the summers, I would ride my bike to the library every morning, check out several books, go to the park, climb a tree and read, read, read,
Several of my favs have been listed. Judith Krantz, M.Higgins Clark, Sidney Sheldon, The Amityville Horror and on an on.... Maybe it's time to pull an oldie off the shelf. I wonder if it will be like watching an old movie and not be as appealing as it is in my memory?
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GiantsFan
Prolific Pea
Posts: 8,287
Site Supporter
Jun 27, 2014 14:44:56 GMT
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Post by GiantsFan on Aug 6, 2020 14:56:59 GMT
I was just cleaning a cabinet out and across a five (real!) books that I saved that were favorites. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Leee, The Shell Seekers by Rosemunde Pilcher, Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart, The Bronc Rider by William Crawford and the Revolt of Sarah Perkins By Marian Cockerell. I rarely read a book twice and these are dog-eared, falling apart and taped back together.
My mom was an avid reader and she passed on a lot of harlequin romances to me. I also read all the Judy Blume books, John Saul, VC Andrews, Mary Higgins Clark, Barbara Taylor Bradford, etc. Really anything I could get my hands on!
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Post by Crack-a-lackin on Aug 6, 2020 15:09:30 GMT
In middle school I read nearly every true crime book about serial killers Flowers in the Attic, The Clan of the Cave Bear series (i was pretty young for the sex parts) I'm not really sure what else. I read a lot Oh, gosh! I completely forgot about the Clan of the Cave Bear series! I thought I was so grown up reading those.
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paigepea
Drama Llama
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Posts: 5,609
Location: BC, Canada
Jun 26, 2014 4:28:55 GMT
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Post by paigepea on Aug 6, 2020 15:38:49 GMT
My dd is just finishing the flowers in the attic series, but she’s reading the new books that I never read. She’s 14.
Around that age I was also very into CIRCLE OF FRIENDS or anything by MAEVE BINCHY.
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oh yvonne
Prolific Pea
Posts: 7,996
Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
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Post by oh yvonne on Aug 6, 2020 15:40:17 GMT
My dd is just finishing the flowers in the attic series, but she’s reading the new books that I never read. She’s 14. Around that age I was also very into CIRCLE OF FRIENDS or anything by MAEVE BINCHY. oh I remember going through my Maeve phase, read everything she wrote, but COF was the best!
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Post by karinec on Aug 6, 2020 15:45:27 GMT
Everything. I read it all!
What pops in my head as favorites: Stephen King, Flowers in the Attic series, whatever romance book my mom was reading. And then in my early 20s, all the Vampire Lestat/Anne Rice books.
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Post by karinec on Aug 6, 2020 15:47:25 GMT
I miss the days of being excited to shop at Pickwick Books or Walden. The smell of new books, the thrill of the hunt. I go into Barnes and Noble now and it feels like a flea market of toys and Starbucks and gift store items. Not the same. I sure hope after Covid is over that they can recover and stay around. I get this, 100%!
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Post by karinec on Aug 6, 2020 15:49:00 GMT
Here's a blast from the past: Jacqueline Susann. Who remembers her? Yargo! I loved that book, let's hear it for bald intergalactic lovers lol!
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Post by slicksister on Aug 6, 2020 16:33:36 GMT
Reding this thread is like a walk down memory lane with old friends! I read anything and everything I could get my hands on. Almost all of the authors mentioned as well as any horse book written. From grade 3 to grade 7 we lived in a very small town with a tiny tiny library. We could order books from other libraries. The librarian just automatically ordered me any horse book she could get her hands on. I'd come in every week and sometimes she's have a great surprise for me. It was grand!
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janeinbama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,174
Location: Alabama
Jan 29, 2015 16:24:49 GMT
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Post by janeinbama on Aug 6, 2020 16:48:42 GMT
I loved Kathleen Woodiwiss. I still have my copy of Shanna. That was the first one that I read! Me too! I recall it had a red cover. Like so many of you, I recall many of these books as old friends. I met Judith McNaught at a meet and greet in the early 80's she was so sweet. I love to read everything from classics to trash romances. Through the years I have changed genres - never Horror (The Exorcist put me off them forever). I read cereal boxes My Dad was an avid reader as was my maternal grandmother. Of us 3 kids, 6 grandchildren there are 3 readers; me, 2 of my DDs and 1 niece.
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Post by freecharlie on Aug 6, 2020 17:23:24 GMT
I read every Christopher Pike book. I knew when the next one was coming out and would have it ASAP. When I was in late elementary, I loved Sweet Valley High books.
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Post by katlady on Aug 6, 2020 17:27:50 GMT
That was the first one that I read! Me too! I recall it had a red cover. I know they had different covers. I once had two copies. One had the classic “man/woman about to engage in naughtiness” cover, and one had no people on the cover. Mine even has a foldout map of the island in the back. Yeah, I loved that book so much. If I read it for the first time today, I don’t know if I would have liked it as much.
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Post by peano on Aug 6, 2020 17:56:13 GMT
In grade school, I read mostly horse books--Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley's The Black Stallion series, etc. and other books about animals. Charlotte's Web and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I also loved The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and From The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. The Little House series. Jane Eyre.
In later elementary and junior high, I started reading my mother's romance novels--The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss, Sweet Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers. She had a French romance novel series--the Angelique books by a husband and wife team--Sergeanne Golon, which were pretty good. Forever Amber. Gone With The Wind. Kathryn by Anya Seton is one of my favorite books ever. Valley of the Dolls, Judith Krantz's books, Sidney Sheldon and Irwin Shaw--Rich Man, Poor Man. In high school, I read some true crime like from Ann Rule, and had a flirtation with Ayn Rand (blech!).
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janeliz
Drama Llama
I'm the Wiz and nobody beats me.
Posts: 5,633
Jun 26, 2014 14:35:07 GMT
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Post by janeliz on Aug 6, 2020 17:57:24 GMT
If I’m talking tween years, I was very into the Sweet Valley High books and Nancy Drew. Judy Blume, of course. I went through some of my old paperbacks when I was cleaning out my mom’s house, and it’s clear that I was into anything that featured a teenage girl in crisis.
Later on, I got really into mysteries and true crime. I loooved Ann Rule’s books, and I think I read Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter at least 3 times.
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Post by lesserknownpea on Aug 6, 2020 18:02:50 GMT
Hahahaha, you sound so much like me. I used to babysit a lot, and always read their books. There was a very popular writer of gothic novels, Victoria someone? I remember reading my first of hers at 13 while babysitting. As a kid I stuffed a blanket under the door of my bedroom so the parents couldn’t see the light was on. Then I read for hours. Yes, so many of the books and authors mentioned are ones I’ve read. That’s what I was hoping for. Victoria Holt? I was really into that kind of stuff in my late teens/early twenties. Yes! That was her. I read a lot of her books. Thank you.
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Post by Karene on Aug 6, 2020 18:13:11 GMT
When I was a pre-teen I was so into horse books. My Friend Flicka, Misty of Chincoteague etc. Then my friend and I got into Trixie Beldon Mysteries (like Nancy Drew but more modern). I had the whole collection.
I was also interested in historical fiction as a young teen. Ancient Eqypt, Biblical times, then pioneering, anything with castles.
As an older teen, my aunt used to give me all her harlequin romances.
I used to go to flea markets and pick up used books. Then I would also take the bus and subway downtown and go down the streets and visit all the used book shops I could.
I also got into teen books as well.
I was a very big reader and still love to read. I used to read well into the night and then wake up and continue on. My mom used to get mad when she would see my light still on!
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oh yvonne
Prolific Pea
Posts: 7,996
Jun 26, 2014 0:45:23 GMT
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Post by oh yvonne on Aug 6, 2020 18:20:46 GMT
Reding this thread is like a walk down memory lane with old friends! I read anything and everything I could get my hands on. Almost all of the authors mentioned as well as any horse book written. From grade 3 to grade 7 we lived in a very small town with a tiny tiny library. We could order books from other libraries. The librarian just automatically ordered me any horse book she could get her hands on. I'd come in every week and sometimes she's have a great surprise for me. It was grand! oh I love this! I had a librarian that did that me when I was about 12. We had just moved into a new town and had not made friends yet that summer, so I'd make the long walk to the library and befriended a lovely woman named Emily. She'd lead me around and read off titles to herself and hand them off to me, as her head twirled with memories of books. Around we'd go..Wrinkle in Time, everything by Zilpha Keatly Snyder..Headless Cupid, Witches of Worm. I'd leave with my arms full of books. Every week I'd go back for more. I just loved her. She saved me that long lonely summer. I'll never forget her.
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Post by cadoodlebug on Aug 6, 2020 19:38:16 GMT
Sidney Sheldon was my favorite. Easy to read and so compelling! Rage of Angels captivated me but Jacqueline Smith should never have been in the movie.
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Post by shelby on Aug 6, 2020 21:08:22 GMT
I liked Mary Higgins Clark and Nary Stewert books In the past. The last few years I have enjoyed a little lighter reading and have loved Lillian Jackson Braun's The Cat who books and Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy Schulz series. I can no longer read books because of my Macular D. and it makes me so sad.Being half blind is for the birds but I am grateful for the sight I do have.
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