favorite books from your youth

[thik_3rd]

bunnicula
sideways stories from wayside school

add on

[mattbib]

The Chronicles of Narnia

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

The Westing Game

Johnny Tremain

[Mon-el]

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in...

#1: The Secret Of Terror Castle (1964, by Robert Arthur)
#2: The Mystery Of The Stuttering Parrot (1964, by Robert Arthur)
#3: The Mystery Of The Whispering Mummy (1965, by Robert Arthur)
#4: The Mystery Of The Green Ghost (1965, by Robert Arthur)
#5: The Mystery Of The Vanishing Treasure (1966, by Robert Arthur)
#6: The Secret Of Skeleton Island (1966, by Robert Arthur)
#7: The Mystery Of The Fiery Eye (1967, by Robert Arthur)
#8: The Mystery Of The Silver Spider (1967, by Robert Arthur)
#9: The Mystery Of The Screaming Clock (1968, by Robert Arthur)
#10: The Mystery Of The Moaning Cave (1968, by William Arden). .Buy this book
#11: The Mystery Of The Talking Skull (1969, by Robert Arthur)
#12: The Mystery Of The Laughing Shadow (1969, by William Arden)
#13: The Secret Of The Crooked Cat (1970, by William Arden)
#14: The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon (1970, by Nick West)
#15: The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints (1971, by M. V. Carey)
#16: The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion (1971, by Nick West)
#17: The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent (1972, by M. V. Carey)
#18: The Mystery Of The Shrinking House (1972, by William Arden)
#19: Secret Of Phantom Lake (1973, by William Arden)
#20: The Mystery Of Monster Mountain (1973, by M. V. Carey)
#21: The Secret Of The Haunted Mirror (1974, by M. V. Carey)
#22: The Mystery Of The Dead Man's Riddle (1974, by William Arden)
#23: The Mystery Of The Invisible Dog (1975, by M. V. Carey)
#24: The Mystery Of Death Trap Mine (1976, by M. V. Carey)
#25: The Mystery Of The Dancing Devil (1976, by William Arden)
#26: The Mystery Of The Headless Horse (1977, by William Arden)
#27: The Mystery Of The Magic Circle (1978, by M. V. Carey)
#28: The Mystery Of The Deadly Double (1978, by William Arden) #
#29: The Mystery Of The Sinister Scarecrow (1979, by M. V. Carey)
#30: The Secret Of The Shark Reef (1979, by William Arden)

and the First 40 or so Hardy Boys

[cactusmaac]

Anything written by Isaac Asimov.

[ocelotrevs]

George's Marvelous Medicine

[C.O. Jones]

The White Mountains
The City Of Gold And Lead
The Pool Of Fire
When The Tripods Came---prequel


The Prince In Waiting
Beyond The Burning Lands
The Sword Of The Spirits

[Roquefort Raider]

I devoutly followed two series as a kid:

(1) Bob Morane (all 142 books of the original run).
High adventure, mystery, a dab of SF; all the goodies that
the late 50s, the 60s and 70s could deliver.

http://web.bob.morane.free.fr/images/Pm130.GIF

(2) Perry Rhodan : unapologetically campy space opera,
replete with space empires, mutants, godlike beings, robots
and ray guns!

http://sgc.chez-alice.fr/1.jpg

[Davideaux]

I loved 'Prince Prigio' books by Andrew Lang. These were stories about a prince and his magical encounters with monsters. Lots of fun.

[Solaris]

Walter Farley's books (Black Stallion, etc.)

Margueritte Henry's books (Misty, King of the Wind, etc.) (Yes, I loved horses.)

Laura Ingalls Wilder books

Madeline L'Engle

L.M. Boston (IIRC, the author of the "Greene Knowe" books)

Estes's book "The Witch Family"

Drummer Hoff

Wendy the Witch

Two Too Many (book about Halloween, and a witch's kittens)

Bill Peet Books (Hubert the lion with his square mane, for one)

Robert Burch books (great tales about Southern rural kids in the Depression and 40's).

Those are a few of the many. :)

[SPAfreak]

The Westing Game


Was that a murder mystery in a big old house?

Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Risng" series turned me into the fantasy fan I am today.

[CaptMagellan]

Anything and everything by Dr. Seuss.
The books by Madeline L'Engle.
The Chronicles of Narnia.
The scary stuff from Bradbury.
Everything by Edgar A. Poe.
The Conan stories by Robert E Howard.

[thik_3rd]

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

i remember that title. was that about the girl who livedin a museum?

[Roquefort Raider]

Anybody heard of the Jennings series by Anthony Buckeridge?

It's a humorous one set in a British boarding school. I liked it a lot.

[Slam_Bradley]

i remember that title. was that about the girl who livedin a museum?


I'm not Matt, but yeah, that was pretty much it. A girl and her little brother ran away and lived in a museum in NYC for a couple of months. I read it not super long ago with my 8-9 year old.

When I was first learning to read...it would be Thornton Burgess' Mother West Wind tales. I still have The Adventures of Long-Legs the Heron somewhere.

Other than that I mostly read history stuff until I moved on to adult science fiction. I do remember the Childhood of Famous Americans books.

I read my uncles copy of Stranger in a Strange Land at 11. It was all downhill from there.

[K'Nort]

The Mouse and His Child.

[Blueferret]

Edding's Belgariad

Weiss and Hickman's Dragonlance

Dumas' Three Musketeers

Twain's Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn (Which I absolutely hate now :eek: )

[Puma]

Half Time Gypsy
Pyewacket
Ribsy
The Great Brain
Djingo Django

[Damon]

Dragonlance was probably my favorite from my youth

[Phoney Bone]

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0688093388.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg


http://images.amazon.com/images/G/covers/0/06/443/178/0064431789.l.gif



http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0142400580.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[K'Nort]

I LOVED the Great Brain! Took me forever to figure out what Gentiles were, though.

[Puma]

I LOVED the Great Brain! Took me forever to figure out what Gentiles were, though.

I didn't know about Mormons.

[The Adventurer]

Invitation to the Game
The A.I. Gang
Aliens Ate My Homework
I Left My Sneakers in Dimention X
The Search for Snout
Aliens Stole my Body
Burton and the Zoom Zoom VaRoom Machine
Henry Higgins
Animorphs
The Stand
Jurassic Park


Oh yes, and the story of the greatest kid of all.

MANIAC MAGEE!

[thik_3rd]

Aliens Stole My Homework

i think i remember that.

wait, no. i'm thinking of aliens for breakfast.

[Tadhg]

The Tarzan and Barsoom series of novels by Burroughs

How to Eat Fried Worms

[The Adventurer]

i think i remember that.

wait, no. i'm thinking of aliens for breakfast.

I made a mistake on the title. It's Aliens ATE my Homework

It was writen by Bruce Covlle. Author hero of my youth. Single handedly got me interested in Science Fiction (him and Invitation to the Game, best beginers Cyberpunk yarn there is)

I think I went from those comedy/adventure/scifi books to stuff like Dune, Hitchhiker's Guide, and Starship Troopers.

[Phoney Bone]

I LOVED the Great Brain! Took me forever to figure out what Gentiles were, though.

:D

My favorite of the series was Me and My Little Brain.

[xgeek52]

anything by ellery queen; ed mcbain; any westerns or sciene fiction... :cool:

[K'Nort]

How to Eat Fried Worms

Super awesomeness.


Encyclopedia Brown.

Wolves of Willoughby Chase

[Jonathan Bogart]

Gosh. There was so much (I learned to read when I was three, apparently), and I borrowed most of it from libraries, so I don't have them hanging around to remind me.

I loved almost anything by Sid Fleischman, Beverly Cleary, or Robert Lawson. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that no child's library should be without any of them.

The usual kids' fantasy: C. S. Lewis, E. Nesbit, The Wind in the Willows, The Hobbit, the Prydain Chronicles, Madeline L'Engle. One book I found in a used-book store and still have, called The Northern Kingdom, which I think might have been published by a Christian vanity publisher, but is a really good historical fantasy about an island kingdom to the north of England in the days of King Arthur. Dragons, wizards, child kings, unspeakably evil creatures (obviously inspired by Orcs but what the hell), and Sherlock Holmes makes a cameo too. Norman S. Powers is the author, and the illustrator was named Michael Jackson, which I always loved.

The Hardy Boys, the Three Investigators, Nancy Drew, Tom Swift, Danny Dunn ... there was a British series of kid detectives which I believe featured two boys and two girls. I only ever read one of the volumes, but loved it very much. Something about a dog that had to wear one of those trumpet-shaped collars and a secret entrance to something under a gorse bush in a commons. (I had no idea what a commons or a gorse bush was.)

The Indian in the Cupboard and related books. I'm still charmed by the idea of tiny people.

Most of L. M. Montgomery's stuff, starting with Anne of Green Gables.

I think a good deal of my unconscious outlook on life and family and country and duty and stuff is due to Laura Ingalls Wilder's books. When I re-read them in high school, I fell romantically in love with Laura.

There are other books, murkier in memory, swimming around there. Isaac Asimov's Norby series (one of which somehow made me fall in love with the 1910s, something I'm still working out). Something about a kid named Alvin and his Great Brain (which I confused for a while with the Great Brain books. Jacob Two-Two, whose older siblings were superheroes. This one writer whose name I can't remember but it must have been in the D's because the books were near to Charles Dickens' in the library. Sci-fi stuff, often to do with cats. One of them featured a mother and son whose presence made machinery not work. The Freaky Friday series of books. Pippi Longstocking. Meindert DeJong. My Side of the Mountain. One picture book that kind of freaked me out as a very young kid about kudzu taking over a small town. Something called (I think) The Girl with the Golden Eyes about a group of kids with psychic powers, which had a very profound impact on me for a while. Another series about kid (or teen)detectives, only they were ghosts. Doctor Dolittle. E. B. White. Disney storybooks based on the movies. The Rescuers, and the Basil Mouse books.

And then all the centuries-old kids' classics. Twain, Wyss, Sewell, Spyri, Collodi, Andersen, Grimm. Nothing beats a weird, long, not-famous Brothers Grimm story.

I was a nerd and watched Reading Rainbow, too, even when I was way past that level of reading. They showed reruns all the time, too, so some of the books I may think of as having read were only through that show.

Hell, I even went through a Babysitter's Club phase. I didn't go to school for most of my childhood, and had a lot of time. A lot of time.

[Banner]

The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key was the first novel I ever remember reading. I thought it was so cool.

I have to mention POTLUCK POGO by Walt Kelly. I remember being 7 or 8 years old and going to the Mall (which we only did once or twice a year) and wanting to buy a Batman comic book and my Dad made me buy this instead. I was so mad at him, but on the way home in the car, I started reading it and could not stop laughing. Great memory.

Doc Savage paperbacks.
The Conan stories by Robert E Howard

But of course Marvel comics by Stan Lee were my first love.

Banner

[Shem the Penman]

Encyclopedia Brown and the Three Investigators, definitely. The Great Brain, too. And Danny Dunn and Alvin Fernald.

Victor Appleton II's Tom Swift Jr. books. I had a nearly complete set, and even some of the original Tom Swifts from the 1910s, but gave it away to another kid. Dumb. I'm slowly collecting them again now, though ...

Choose Your Own Adventure books, and the billion other ripoff series they spawned.

Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game and the (too few) other weird mystery/puzzle books she wrote -- you got to at least try TWG or The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon -- I Mean Noel.

Matt Christopher's sports books, even though I was far from an athletic kid. There was another sports series called "Ollie's Team" that I liked, too.

Susan Cooper and Lloyd Alexander, of course; thanks to them, my first trip overseas when I was old enough to travel solo was to Wales.

Ed Emberley's drawing books; even if you were a terrible artist (like me), you could create cool-looking doodles following his step-by-step instructions.

[K'Nort]

Ed Emberley's drawing books; even if you were a terrible artist (like me), you could create cool-looking doodles following his step-by-step instructions.

I bought Ed Emberley's Book of Drawing Animals at the Goodwill last year for $1. I couldn't help it. It just made me happy to see it.

http://www.barbsbooks.com/EmberAni.jpg

[Dennis K]

Encyclopedia Brown and the Three Investigators, definitely.



You beat me to it, especially with the Three Investigators books. Jupiter Jones forever!

[Expletive Deleted]

A ton of 'em have already been listed, but I'll toss in Donald Sobol's THE AMAZING POWER OF ASHUR FINE. It's about a kid with the ability to tap into the skills of historical figures (granted to him by a mysterious ancient elephant) and his adventures in pursuit of the guys who beat up his private investigator aunt.

Goofy but fun. Shame the sequel never materialized, though.

[JeffreyWKramer]

The Three Investigators books...

The Encyclopedia Brown books...

The Doc Savage books...

[Deathstroke]

Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators in...

#1: The Secret Of Terror Castle (1964, by Robert Arthur)
#2: The Mystery Of The Stuttering Parrot (1964, by Robert Arthur)
#3: The Mystery Of The Whispering Mummy (1965, by Robert Arthur)
#4: The Mystery Of The Green Ghost (1965, by Robert Arthur)
#5: The Mystery Of The Vanishing Treasure (1966, by Robert Arthur)
#6: The Secret Of Skeleton Island (1966, by Robert Arthur)
#7: The Mystery Of The Fiery Eye (1967, by Robert Arthur)
#8: The Mystery Of The Silver Spider (1967, by Robert Arthur)
#9: The Mystery Of The Screaming Clock (1968, by Robert Arthur)
#10: The Mystery Of The Moaning Cave (1968, by William Arden). .Buy this book
#11: The Mystery Of The Talking Skull (1969, by Robert Arthur)
#12: The Mystery Of The Laughing Shadow (1969, by William Arden)
#13: The Secret Of The Crooked Cat (1970, by William Arden)
#14: The Mystery Of The Coughing Dragon (1970, by Nick West)
#15: The Mystery Of The Flaming Footprints (1971, by M. V. Carey)
#16: The Mystery Of The Nervous Lion (1971, by Nick West)
#17: The Mystery Of The Singing Serpent (1972, by M. V. Carey)
#18: The Mystery Of The Shrinking House (1972, by William Arden)
#19: Secret Of Phantom Lake (1973, by William Arden)
#20: The Mystery Of Monster Mountain (1973, by M. V. Carey)
#21: The Secret Of The Haunted Mirror (1974, by M. V. Carey)
#22: The Mystery Of The Dead Man's Riddle (1974, by William Arden)
#23: The Mystery Of The Invisible Dog (1975, by M. V. Carey)
#24: The Mystery Of Death Trap Mine (1976, by M. V. Carey)
#25: The Mystery Of The Dancing Devil (1976, by William Arden)
#26: The Mystery Of The Headless Horse (1977, by William Arden)
#27: The Mystery Of The Magic Circle (1978, by M. V. Carey)
#28: The Mystery Of The Deadly Double (1978, by William Arden) #
#29: The Mystery Of The Sinister Scarecrow (1979, by M. V. Carey)
#30: The Secret Of The Shark Reef (1979, by William Arden)

and the First 40 or so Hardy Boys


I'd have to pretty much agree with everything on this list. I also loved The Chronicles of Prydain, and Ronnie Finkelhoff, Superstar. I also enjoyed Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary and the Encyclopedia Brown books.

[Deathstroke]

Laura Ingalls Wilder books


I read them when I was a kid, but I never really LOVED them.

[Deathstroke]

The A.I. Gang

Oh man, now that is a flashback and a half. I remember reading those.

[Watchman]

George's Marvelous Medicine
Hell, anything by Roald Dahl.

Loved a good mystery, too. Sherlock Holmes was the man.

[howyadoin]

Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak)

Rascal (Sterling North)

My Side of the Mountain (Jean Craighead George)

Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

The Brains Benton and Encyclopedia Brown books

Have Space Suit, Will Travel (Robert A. Heinlein)

Old Yeller (Fred Gipson)

Sounder ( William H. Armstrong)

The Outsiders (S.E. Hinton)

Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O'Dell)

And a whole series of biographies for young adults that my mom brought home from the library for me.

And lots of Scholastic and Dr. Seuss books whose names escape me.

[K'Nort]

I've just been trying to remember chapter books, but when I go to baby showers (or just send a present), I bring a combination of whatever the store has at the time of:

Over in the Meadow
Harry the Dirty Dog
Tiki Tiki Tembo
Bread and Jam for Frances
Millions of Hats

I'm probably forgetting one or two. Things that are really good and classic but won't be automatically thought of by all the others. And that I remember particularly enjoying as a kid, of course.

[DrewTheXenocide]

Hell, I even went through a Babysitter's Club phase. I didn't go to school for most of my childhood, and had a lot of time. A lot of time.

I was a Babysitter's Little Sister kinda guy. :D

And I read a lot of Animorphs by K.A Applegate.

[Deathstroke]

I was a Babysitter's Little Sister kinda guy. :D


Karen was quite the imp.

[atoningunifex]

There are three books I love and treasure from my childhood.

The first is One Monster After Another by Mercer Mayer.
http://alyxchance.com/onemonsterafteranother.jpg
The Letter Eating Bombonat was my favorite.

The second is Half Magic
http://alyxchance.com/Half-Magic-50th.jpg

And the third (and one of my top three books of all time) is A Wrinkle in Time
http://alyxchance.com/A-Wrinkle-in-Time.jpg

[Panman]

Alice in Wonderland
Discworld series
Narnia series
anything by Raold Dahl
anything by Dr Seuss
anything by JRR Tolkien
Tintin
Asterix
Goosebumps
Animorphs
anything by Edgar Allen Poe

[The Adventurer]

I like how alot of people are mentioning Animorphs.

I liked it's near montly format and it's neat sci-fi adventure setting.


And the best part? It didn't suger coat anything. Death was prevelant, the slavery of the mind by the Yeerks was truly scary, and it had some right bastards as the main villians.

It was very muture for it's target audiance.

[Kirayoshi]

Dr. Seuss, of course.

The Magnificent Brain of Alvin Fernald, and the assorted sequels. Especially Superweasel(where he, his best friend Shooie and his sister the Pest create the identity of an environmental superhero).

Pippi Longstocking. Never mind the movies, check out the original books.

The McBroom books by Sid Fleischman. The McBroom family and their wonderful one-acre farm!

The Contests at Cowlick by Richard Kennedy. I wish that one would go back into print, my nephew would love that one for Christmas.

Roald Dahl. Especially Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach and The Witches.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster. Long live King Azaz the Unabridged and the Mathemagician!

[Ghost]

My three biggest inspirations as a kid was Michael Ende, Roal Dahl and L. Frank Baum. Astrid Lindgren also have a place there, though not to the same degree. I also enjoyed the Narnia Books, the Prydain Chronicles and The Hobbit.

Tolkien's other works were too heavy for me, but during my teens I admit to reading David Edding's Belgarion books and loving them. They were the ones to really introduce me to epic fantasy, which ironically means that I have Eddings to thank for discovering people like Roger Zelazny and Tad Williams.

[traxler]

I read truely awful rot when I was a kid.
Sadly, or perhaps happily, none of it stands out.
I didn't discover good kids books untill I was much older.
For example I didn't read the Narnia books untill I was at university.

It's a wonder I turned out so fab.

[seaflower]

1. Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
2. Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
3. Greek Mythology
4. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
5. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

[traxler]

I hate you all.
I am rivven by envy.
RIVVEN I TELL YOU.

[seaflower]

I hate you all.
I am rivven by envy.
RIVVEN I TELL YOU.

I could...um lend you some of my books...
No reason for envy...

[traxler]

I could...um lend you some of my books...
No reason for envy...

It's not the books I want....
It's my childhood. *sobs*
It's my youth.

[seaflower]

It's not the books I want....
It's my childhood. *sobs*
It's my youth.


If my time machine ever works...I will let you know. Just keep in mind, that if you change this aspect of your life...you will change who you are today...

[Nate C.]

The King's Stilts. Dr. Seuss.
The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Ronald Dahl.
The King's Six Friends. ______.

The Three Investigators Series.
Encyclopedia Brown Series.
Choose Your Own Adventure Series.
Narnia Series. Lewis.
Magic Kingdom For Sale-Sold Series. Brooks.
Myth Series. Asprin.

and like Traxler, things I found too late and enjoyed almost as much as I would have as a child-

Lord of the Rings. Tolkein.
Redwall Series. Jaques.

[Paul McEnery]

I was a sucker for series when I was a kid: famous four, secret seven, and all that. But particularly Tom Swift and the Three Investigators.

The first negative review I ever wrote was of Green Eggs and Ham. Too repetitive and infantile, I said. I was six.

Shortly after that, I was on to The Colors of Space (Marion Zimmer Bradley), which has a scene on page 10 that's stuck with me ever since, when a guy gets shot down by the police and gets turned into "a puddle of protoplasm". Aaaaaaaaagh!

And then Citizen of the Galaxy (Heinlein) and Cat's Eye (Andre Norton).

And alongside that, the Moomin books by Tove Janssen -- a series that turned me into an anarchist long before I got to Ursula K. LeGuin.

[howyadoin]

The first negative review I ever wrote was of Green Eggs and Ham. Too repetitive and infantile, I said. I was six.See, I think that book is the source of hip hop.

[K'Nort]

See, I think that book is the source of hip hop.

Hop On Pop is a more logical source, and not just because of the title. Think of the Tweedle Beetle Battle.

[Nate C.]

See, I think that book is the source of hip hop.

and see, I think it has profound theological implications. (Psalm 34:6)

[UniqueFrequency]

i loved the five find-outers, 3 investigators, hardy boys, and this quartet about the steps up the chimney by william corlett.

and much to my disgrace, i've not read narnia

[DrewTheXenocide]

I like how alot of people are mentioning Animorphs.

I liked it's near montly format and it's neat sci-fi adventure setting.


And the best part? It didn't suger coat anything. Death was prevelant, the slavery of the mind by the Yeerks was truly scary, and it had some right bastards as the main villians.

It was very muture for it's target audiance.

What always stuck for me was how their ants experience horrored them until like, the end of the series.

[xakko]

Beginner
Dr. Seuss- all of it that I read
The B Book by the Berenstains
The Monster at the End of this Book

A little older
Encyclopedia Brown series

Early teen
Shannara series by Terry Brooks
Xanth series by Piers Anthony

Mid teen
Belgariad by David Eddings

There are others, of course, but these come to mind immediately.

[GozertheGozarian]

Anything by Lloyd Alexander, but especially Prydain Chronicle and Westmark trilogy.

[The Adventurer]

What always stuck for me was how their ants experience horrored them until like, the end of the series.

The Ant Experiance was one of the best bits of the series.

"me...my...MARCO!"

[Michael P]

Hell, this brings back some good times.

Bunnicula... Howard was my favorite author for so long.

Totally Hardy Boys, 3 Investigators, Encyclopedia Brown.

Bruce Coville was the f-ing man. I have all the "My Teacher..." books, the first two Rod Allbright books, and the "Bruce Coville's Book of..." short story anthologies. My gateway drug into genre fiction.

The Berenstein Bears were a large part of my 3-5 reading diet. "Hooray, hooray, we're on our way, our summer vacation begins today!"

I was also big into Beverly Cleary, who I notice is woefully underrepresented in this thread. C'mon, we at least have to have some Ralph S. Mouse fans here.

And, of course, I read The Hobbit for the first time when I was 9. Changed my life.

[K'Nort]

My mother read us The Hobbit at least once a year, long before we could read it ourselves.

I forgot that Canadian boarding school series. Someone and Boots. MacDonald Hall. Insanely funny. And apparently the author was a teenager himself at the time, although I didn't know that then.

[Zissou]

My favourite books from childhood are unquestionably The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, which include:

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King

Anyone else ever read these?

[Deathstroke]

My favourite books from childhood are unquestionably The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, which include:

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King

Anyone else ever read these?

Did you skip reading the ENTIRE thread? More than a few people have mentioned the books.

[GozertheGozarian]

My favourite books from childhood are unquestionably The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander, which include:

The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King

Anyone else ever read these?


I actually liked the Westmark trilogy better. Much harder to find though.

[Jared_Humpherys]

Nobody else liked Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" series? I adored it. Lots of parallels to Arthurian legend.

"Manaic McGee" was also a favorite, as was a lot of the "Goosebumps" series, and all of Tolkein's works.

And if early teens counts as youth, all of Jack L. Chalker's and Steven King's books.

Oh, and I used to like the Shanarra series quite a lot in my youth(emphasis on "used to" and "in my youth").

[Zissou]

Did you skip reading the ENTIRE thread? More than a few people have mentioned the books.

Woops, you're right. I should be more thorough, I was skimming the other posts.


GozertheGozarian, I read the first book in the Westmark Trilogy, aptly named Westmark. It wasn't my thing, or at least it wasn't my thing when I was eleven years old. It was the fantasical setting of the Prydain Chronicles that I enjoyed so much. I remember especially liking the Black Cauldron. I was struck when the prince sacrificed himself to destroy the cauldron, it was very heroic of him.

I should read these again sometime, I can't remember very many details about the entire series.

[GozertheGozarian]

Woops, you're right. I should be more thorough, I was skimming the other posts.


GozertheGozarian, I read the first book in the Westmark Trilogy, aptly named Westmark. It wasn't my thing, or at least it wasn't my thing when I was eleven years old. It was the fantasical setting of the Prydain Chronicles that I enjoyed so much. I remember especially liking the Black Cauldron. I was struck when the prince sacrificed himself to destroy the cauldron, it was very heroic of him.

I should read these again sometime, I can't remember very many details about the entire series.


Westmark was definately meant for an older audience than Prydain, I admit. Certainly darker than Alexanders usual fare.

[rric528]

have not read the entire thread but

a Wrinkle in Time.

I only found out later in life that there were more stories in the series.

I read Doc Savage a lot in 6th grade.

[Cambece]

The Scary Stories to tell in the Dark series
Tales from the Cypt (they came out with a series of paper back books)
Scary stories for sleep over series

Love those short scary stories, man no wonder I had trouble sleeping as a little kid :)

Cambece

[gary bolt]

My favourite book from my youth was "Tom Swift and His Flying Lab". I don't remember much about the story but it was my favourite because I hollowed it out with one of my dad’s old razor blades and used it to hide stuff.

[thik_3rd]

the scary stories to tell in the dark series

[jimmyboy]

The Hobbit
Dune
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Those are three that were truly memorable.

[BlairH]

The Lord of the Rings naturally!


'This is the house of Theoden, not of Aragorn, even were he King of Gondor in the seat of Denethor,' said Hama, stepping swiftly before the doors and barring the way. His sword was now in his hand and the point towards the strangers.

'This is idle talk,' said Gandalf. 'Needless is Theoden's demand, but it is useless to refuse. A king will have his way in his own hall, be it folly or wisdom.'

'Truly,' said Aragorn. 'And I would do as the master of the house bade me, were this only a woodman's cot, if I bore now any sword but Anduril.'

'Whatever its name may be,' said Hama, 'here you shall lay it, if you would not fight alone against all the men in Edoras.'



Hama: Look, pal, even if you were King - which you ain't - you ain't King here.
Gandalf: Oh, fer pete's sake. Look, Theoden doesn't have anything to fear from us, but whatever.
Aragorn: Yeah, whatever. But this isn't just any sword, this is ANDURIL, and I WILL NOT have some two-bit coat-check stick it on a shelf.
Hama: And THIS episode of "Yeah, Whatever" is brought to you by the rest of the kingdom. You check your piece, pal, or you'll have me and everyone else around to deal with."