My Favorite Childhood Reads [Top Ten Tuesday]

It is choose-your-own-adventure day at Top Ten Tuesday and participants are picking from their favorite missed topics. I read a lot as a kid, so when I got to choose my own Top Ten Tuesday subject today, I went with the very first topic – Top Ten Childhood Favorites. This is roughly in the order I read the books and really only touches the surface of what I read as a child.

1. Charlotte’s Web

I can’t tell you how many times I read this as a kid. Confession: I used to read just the end when I needed a good cry. And it was actually the baby spiders flying away that would get me bawling.

2. Babysitters Club

I devoured these as a kid. The regular series, the mysteries, the Super Specials – I read them all. And I loved the prequel released last year.

3. Where the Sidewalk Ends

I was in love with Shel Silverstein’s poems. I read them over and over and over. Such fun.

4. Sideways Stories from Wayside School

These are also stories I would read multiple times. Nine-year-old me found them absolutely hilarious.

5. Narnia

I loved to slip away into the magical world of Narnia.

6. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

I read this book in 5th grade and fell in love with it. I once had lunch with my principal and gushed about it instead of the book I was supposed to discuss.

7. Little Women

I don’t remember the first time I read Little Women but I love it to this day. The last time my mom saw me reading it a few years ago she exclaimed, “How many times have you read this book?!”

8. Streams to the River, River to the Sea

My Aunt Martha gave me this book one Christmas and I am grateful to this day. It’s a beautiful telling of Sacajawea’s story.

9. The Giver

I read this one in 6th grade. I may not have known the word dystopia at the time, but it was my entry into the genre I would end up adoring.

10. Starlight Crystal

I’ve expressed my feelings for this book before. I once read it beginning to end twice in one day. I am afraid to re-read it for fear that it is actually less than amazing.

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by the lovely ladies of The Broke and the Bookish.

The Characters I Wish Were in My Family [Top Ten Tuesday]

Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme hosted by the lovely ladies of The Broke and the Bookish.

This week’s topic is The Top Ten Characters We Wish Were in Our Family.

Just a quick list today guys. No pictures or explanations because there is NO TIME.

Sisters:

1.      Jo March from Little Women

2.      Elizabeth Bennett from Pride & Prejudice

3.      Frankie from The Disreputable Life of Frankie Landau-Banks

Brothers:

4.      Reynie from The Mysterious Benedict Society

5.      Harry Potter from Harry Potter

Parents:

6.      The Rays from Betsy-Tacy

7.      The Weasleys from Harry Potter

8.      Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird

Grandparents:

9.      Leo Gursky from The History of Love

10. Mimi (Claudia’s Grandmother) from The Babysitters Club

Top Ten Books I Just HAD to Buy…But Are Still Sitting on My Bookshelf [Top Ten Tuesday]

Top Ten Tuesday

I am excited to participate in Top Ten Tuesday for the very first time. I always love reading these posts and this week’s topic – Top Ten Books I Just HAD to Buy…But Are Still Sitting on My Bookshelf – is too good to pass up.

1. The Passage

The Passage

The excitement I felt at coming across Justin Cronin and The Passage at BEA when it was NOT on the schedule was overpowered by my summer reading slump and temporary fear of chunksters.

2. Shanghai Girls

Shanghai Girls

When the paperback came out a year ago, I think I specifically went to the bookstore to buy it. Because I love Lisa See. But I never seem to get to her books in a timely manner.

3. The Handmaid’s Tale

The Handmaid's Tale

Sigh. I have had this book for at least 4 years. And I’ve wanted to read it longer. Someone make me. Soon.

4. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

I’ve owned this since I finished Everything is Illuminated. Recently, a few bloggers have finally read it and enjoyed it. I must join them.

5. Unaccustomed Earth

Unaccustomed Earth

I cannot express my love enough for The Interpreter of Maladies and The Namesake. Why haven’t I picked this up yet?

6. The Art of Racing in the Rain

I was SO EXCITED for this book for about a month. Then I kind of forgot about it. Funny how that happens.

7. Her Fearful Symmetry

Fearful Symmetry

I think the mixed reviews made me hesitate. But I still very much want to read it.

8. Jane Austen’s Letters

Jane Austen's Letters

This was one of the many things I picked up during the Jane Austen obsession of 2007. And also one of the many things I never read.

9. The first book in about a trillion YA series (like Uglies, The Luxe, Vampire Academy, The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Forest of Hands and Teeth)

Uglies

So many YA series. So few hours in the day.

10. All of the nonfiction books sitting unread on my shelf that look really interesting but I never feel like reading (The Audacity to Win, Jane Austen: A Life, The Code Book, Flow, and Supreme Conflict to name a few)

The Audicty to Win

I want to learn. But I also prefer fiction. Herein lies the problem.

This post is just the tip of the iceberg. I have SO MANY books I need to read. What are some of your top I-needed-it-but-never-read-it books?