what books did you like to read as a kid?
i loved babysitter's club and shortly thereafter I became obsessed with nancy drew.

henry hutchins.

i used to read the hardy boys when i was little

I read a few Nancy Drew books...I also liked Goospebumps, Encyclopedia Brown, and Little House on the Prarie books. I read "A Wrinkle in Time" and "Catherine, Called Birdy" numerous times. Do Archie Comics count as books? I loved those things.

Archie comics should count!!! I have hundreds of those. Are they worth anything now? I loved Nancy Drew, the Babysitter's Club books, and those Anne of Green Gables books were wonderful. Anne was such a drama queen!

-Choose your own adventure books.

-Marvel/Valiant/Image comics (X-Men/Force/Calibur/Factor, Wolverine, McFarlane's Spiderman, Iron Man (MAKE A MOVIE ALREADY!), Hulk, Spawn, Wildcats, XO Manowar, Turok, Harbinger, etc).

-Boy's Life Magazine

-Hardy Boys

(Edited by carligula at 1:51 pm on Jun. 9, 2004)

I always enjoyed Curious George because I was way ahead of the "monkeys is funny" movement. I also liked the Encyclopedia Brown books.

Don't forget the Thundercats comics, GI Joe and HeMan. I think I need another hobby.

My mom made me read Boxcar Children. They were pretty cool, as orphans go.

Maniac McGee
Indian in the Cupboard
Goodnight, Little Bear
The Poky Little Puppy
Tootle
Scuffy the Tugboat
The Saggy Baggy Elephant
The Little Red Caboose

*On a related note, I used to confuse the Book of Mormon with Dinotopia. I think the television commercials were similar. In any case, I'm sure that Jesus rode around North America on a Triceratops.

I found this next book to be a bit odd...

WTF? Bitter Democrat publishing company?

That's probably the version they sold to impoverished inner city schools. They won't know any better.

i also liked the babysitters club books a LOT (i tried to get into sweet valley high, but those were too scuzzy for my tastes). i liked 'choose your own adventure' too. one time in 3rd or 4th grade, sister gertrude was our substitute teacher & read one of those straight through. we tried to explain the concept to her, but she didn't understand. silly old nun!

wee smee enjoyed "the boy who was followed home" (about a young boy who is followed home by a bunch of hippos) and "the magic blanket" (about a magic blanket) and "who's got the apple?" (about a thief who stole an apple).

Did you stop taking your medication again, dear?

I remember that book! I think the guy's pinstripe suit has a profound influence on my sense of fashion.

Ramona books, Boy by Roald Dahl, Babysitters club, Phantom Tollbooth, The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and Bill and Pete by Tomie dePaola (there's something so magical about an alligator having a bird as a toothbrush)

Comic books, the Fudge books, and The Boxcar Children series. I also enjoyed the Choose Your Own Adventure books, but only if they involved dinosaurs, aliens, or superheroes.

i enjoyed the babysitter's club books, books by beverly cleary, boxcar children, goosebumps, that goosbumps knockoff, the "scary stories" short story books (most of which are still scary to me), the indian in the cupboard books (up through the third one, i don't know if there were anymore after that or not), and a series of book i think was called "girl talk" (it was like bsc, minus the babysitting). and i still have my copy of "are you there god? it's me, margaret." i was/am also a shel silverstein fan. additionally, can we talk about how muh the babysitter's club little sister books SUCKED? because they did.

as a tot, i like "the little red hen" and those carboard peter rabbit books (when i was 2 i made my mom read me these so much that i memorized them. then company would come over and i'd be sitting there reading these books aloud, correctly. they thought i was a genius).

(Edited by HaveSomeSoma at 3:29 pm on Jun. 9, 2004)

I came to the conclusion not too long ago that I didn't read any of the books I thought I did as a child. I just saw them on Reading Rainbow.

"The Giving Tree" is the saddest book ever.

i used to watch reading rainbow for the sole intention of catching the episode where they talked about star trek. otherwise, the show was pretty gay.

i have about 30 goosebumps books, but i only read about 5. i was obsessed with the "collect 'em all" frenzy and i bought anything that was numbered. this is why i still have a thousand x-men comics in my closet. other than those two, i didn't really read as a kid.

All of my childhood favorites have already been named:

-the Hardy Boys. I started reading these books at a young age and didn't stop until...well, let's just say later than intended by the publishers of those books. I have a very vivid memory of lying on the bed in a chalet my family was staying at in Colorado, reading a Hardy Boys book and listening to Automatic for the People. Yeah, that was 8th grade, but those books were addictive, you know? They segued seamlessly into reading John Grisham novels.

-Choose Your Own Adventure. Like probably many of you, I felt kind of cheated only getting one adventure. So at the end of my adventure, I would go back and make all different choices until I had read the entire book.

-Beverly Cleary. I feel kind of ashamed for being into these, since I'm a male and all. But I did like them. Especially the ones about Ralph S. Mouse. Did ya'll ever see the TV series on PBS that they made about the Quimby family? I did. I think I still have it on tape somewhere.

-Boy's Life (the magazine, not the [excellent] book by Robert McCammon). I was a Cub/Boy Scout, so this was a must. But I didn't really enjoy the parts that were about Scouting. I liked the parts that were about building robots. Carl, do you remember the build-your-own robot kits that were always advertised in the back? I wanted one of those SO BADLY. This magazine subscription later segued seamlessly into Popular Mechanics.


If you want to go further back into early childhood, I really enjoyed:

-the Berenstain Bears
-Curious George
-Big Boss
-Where the Wild Things Are
-Richard Scarry books
-Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
-that book about the caterpillar
-Goodnight Moon

(Edited by jamiecarroll at 9:33 pm on Jun. 9, 2004)

Funny. My mom encouraged me to read the Railway Children by Edith Nesbit when I was young. Recently, I saw a Boxcar Children book and was wondering if they were somehow related. The Railway Children were British, and they were formerly rich but then poor and lived near the railway, meeting nice railway friends along the way. I read it again in the last few years and really enjoyed it.

I also enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia series, the Ramona Quimby books, and the Dear God... one by Judy Bloom. Ashamedly, I also tried out a few Sweet Valley High books.

In adulthood, I discovered the Swallows and Amazons series, also recommended by my mom and very much enjoyed by me. The [British] children all fantasize about being pirates while they sail around their neighborhood streams (in the Lake District, I think) and their ever-obliging mum brings them "grog" (Ginger Beer - yum). Very sweet.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

This thread reminds me that I want to read "The Cat and the Devil," a children's book by James Joyce. I keep forgetting to buy it.

Hell yeah.

My brother Eric and I enjoyed this book on many levels.

Yeah. Wasn't the body of the robot supposed to be an upside-down plastic garbage can or something?

I was more of a "build your own hovercraft" kind of guy.

I shared the love for Choose Your Own Adventure, Ralph S. Mouse, Who's got the Apple, Wrinkle in Time, and From the Mixed Up Files... I also read all of the Narnia books and all of the Bunnicula books and all of Susan Cooper's books (Over Sea Under Stone, The Dark is Rising,e tc). I was addicted to books- my mom once threw a book of mine out the car window because I would not respond to the conversation.

Did anyone read Christopher Pike books and remember how racy they were?

- Dear Dragon
- Berenstein Bears (I saw one of the cartoons last night. it was awesome)
- Baseball Digest
- Highlights
- some big book of Disney stories
- Hansel and Gretel

comic books:
Green Lantern
Superman
The Flash
X-Men
Spiderman
Teen Titans
early X-Factor

Now, by early X-Factor, do you mean issues 1-70 when the roster consisted of the original X-Men (Beast, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Cyclops, and Angel) or the revamped 1991 edition from #71 on featuring Multiple Man, Havok, Strong Guy, Polaris, Wolfsbane and Quicksilver? The revamped edition is amazing and the best thing that the X-Books put out in the 90s.

the giving tree IS the saddest book ever!

caps for sale and "streganona" were favorites of mine.
"sue like blue" and the pokey little puppy were kick ass too.

yeah, in hindsight, the babysitters club did suck.
i also got into the kid sister baby sitters club books about karen's little sister.

berenstein bears, all the way. i still have each and every one of them, too!!!

i was big into "babysitter's little sister". i mean, i wanted to be just like smee, and, still want to be just like smee, (hence "smee's little pootie"), so why not read the junior version of her favorite books? as i grew older, i moved on to "the babysitter's club"...and thank god i did, because stacey was one of the only diabetics i knew of when i was diagnosed. hahaha!!!

i really liked "where the wild things are" and richard scarrey books too. me and smee's dad invented find-it games with those books, long before "where's waldo" was ever around. the "little critter" series was also popular in our family.

YES- I forgot about that entire genre. R.L. Stine, too. Read 'em all.

Can I get a what what for the Chronicles of Narnia?

I just bought the cartoon version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe the other day. Good times, even though it seems more and more like a Bible rip off as I get older.

I loved that cartoon/story. But yeah, Aslan is totally Jesus.

(Edited by MissSeptember at 7:14 pm on Jun. 12, 2004)

well, initially I meant 1-70, but after thinking about it, the subsequent version of x-factor was badass. havok, man. havok. he was awesome.

I always enjoyed Les Mesarables, the unabriged version, and Watership Down, though i never understood the title. edward gorey books too. And "Harry the Dirty Dog" which is not a blaxploitation story but is actually about a dog that gets dirty. I think I spent a couple of weeks actually thinking I was some incarnation of Encyclopedia Brown. Though he's got nothin on my mystery solvin skills.

That was kind of the point, right?

Is that the one about the bunnies? A friend told me about that one just last night. Weird.

I guess so, but I never really made the connection when I was a kid. Lions and swords were cool enough.

Life's funny like that sometimes.Yeah, its about bunnies, but the scary talking kind. Anyhow it remains a good read at my ripe old age. Still I'll give a lovin spoonfull to anyone who can tell me why its called watership down.

Never made the connection? Goober indeed.

Why the book is called Watership Down? Because it is a real place that Richard Adams grew up near. As for why the down itself was called Watership, I have no clue.

(Edited by Ceeze at 9:22 pm on Jun. 14, 2004)

Very well then, Cezee as soon as we all confirm just what a lovin spoonfull is you may have mine, and if you're as cute as everyone says you are you may even get two. (insert appropriate smiley-face here)

So I'm a goober for not analyzing a poorly animated cartoon that I watched as a 5 year old? As horrible as it may be, I had yet to research CS Lewis' relgious convictions by that point. Turd.

(Edited by damon at 10:38 am on Jun. 15, 2004)

Ask John Sebastian.

I'm really just more an a-hole than a turd, and I dont know who John Sebastian is. Does that mean the goob is on me?

Could be. Aside from co-starring in a Time-Life infomercial, John Sebastian was a member of the Lovin' Spoonful, writing or co-writing such memorable tunes as "You Didn't have to Be So Nice," "Did You Ever Have to Make up Your Mind," "Summer in the City," and "Do You Believe in Magic." He also wrote the "Welcome Back."

i'm right there with you, jc...i read them until long after it was decent to be doing so. there was something both addictive & comforting about them. i read up to about 100 of those things, and then one day someone told me that carolyn keene was franklin w. dixon and i lost the faith. i felt a little cheated...like i had been reading nancy drew all along! turns out that isn't true--franklin w. dixon didn't exist, though. they were written by a couple of different people, none of which were carolyn keene apparently. there were some books that were 'nancy drew & the hardy boys' mysteries, which always made me suspicious. i reckon carolyn keene wrote those, but i'm not sure.

(Edited by andrewjsmithson at 5:23 pm on Jun. 15, 2004)

Carolyn Keene is also several people, if I'm not mistaken.

The Hardy Boys and The Mystery Of Pirates Cove was the first novel I ever read. Good times. The Bombay Boomerang was also a favorite as well as the Night of the Werewolf. The world sure seemed to be full of smugglers back then...

I had quite an aptitude for choosing the most boring paths in the choose your own adventures.

To stand and fight the band of ninjas, turn to p.56
To run and fight another day, turn to p.72

...

page 56

The ninjas unexpectedly ask Jesus Christ into their lives. They ask for your forgiveness and disappear into a cloud of smoke. *Christian vanish*

I'd say my favorite book when I was really little was Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I had it memorized.

I would have to say my most-hated book was and quite possibly still is Love You Forever. I remember we had some woman come in and read it to us in 3rd grade. I hated it so much.

no way! dissillusionment! all these yeasr!