YA Highway asked, for their regular Road Trip Wednesday feature, what books you were obsessed with when you were a kid.
For me, three series stand out. Two of them, notably, were the books that helped me take that step from children’s fiction to adult fiction – up until then I’d been sticking dutifully to the appropriate section of the library.
Goosebumps! I sped through every one of these horror novels when I was young, and watched the TV Show every chance I could. My favourite involved a colourless world and a girl’sl lipstick tube, I think it was The Haunted School.
Harry Potter! I caught onto this series on my best friend’s recommendation, just before it became a huge thing in school. After doing a parade for the Girls Brigade, I think it was, I got to pick up ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban‘ from the supermarket. I remember reading the jacket copy and thinking ‘it’s about serial killers is this really a children’s book SERIAL KILLERS should I buy it IT LOOKS SO DARK’. After I convinced myself to buy and read it it, and thought it was the most amazing thing ever, especially the hippogriff and the time travel.
It’s still my favourite book out of the seven, and I was gutted when the Harry/Hermione relationship didn’t work out. Romantic hippogriff flights! It was meant to be.
Discworld! Again thanks to my best friend’s savvy recommendations, I picked up my first Discworld book, The Truth, out of the local W.H.Smith and felt a little guilty every time Sir Terry mentioned unusually shaped vegetables, because this was A Book For Adults and they were making Jokes For Adults.
Other books I loved: Malorie Blackman novels (especially Hackers, and Pig-Heart Boy), The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, anything by Eoin Colfer (especially The Wish List and the Artemis Fowl series), The Saga of Darren Shan, and Garth Nix’s Abhorsen trilogy.
What books did you love when you were young? Drop me a comment, or join in the blog road trip yourself. =)
Alexis Gunderson says
SABRIEL! Yes. YES YES. That is one of my absolute favorite books, YA or otherwise. I don’t know if there is a large contingent of tough-girl necromancy split worlds fantasies out there, but it stands out in my experience as superbly unique, and very well realized. Mogget is one of my favorite sidekicks ever, in great part because he is so unpredictable, unallied, and ultimately very dangerous.
Ah. Thanks for that.
E.Maree says
I really don’t think there’s anything out there like it – Sabriel and Lirael are two of the most kickass female protagonists I know, and the necromancy in the book has such a wonderfully detailed system.
My favourite thing about Mogget was how he was always a cat above all things. Unallied, self-centered – the stuffy cat stereotype played at its finest while still keeping him smart and likeable.
The Abhorson series really doesn’t get enough recognition, I’ll need to start throwing copies of it at my friends.
Kate says
Oh Harry Potter, how I love thee. <3
E.Maree says
You’d have to be an utter muggle not to love it.
(Also, hello! I am a great admirer of your snazzy blog design and even snazzier posts and was delighted to have you stop by.)