It’s First Wednesday so it’s Insecure Writer’s Support Group Post Day!
Today’s question is: What were some books that impacted you as a child or young adult?
Oh goodness, that’s a looooong time ago! Let me see if I can even think back that far and come up with book titles.
I suppose the first book I remember reading regularly with my mother was the classic children’s book Goodnight Moon, which we read frequently enough that I still remember some of the rhymes and images. We also read a particularly fascinating series by Lois Lenski whose illustrations I adored.
As I grew older, I discovered two branches of interest: adventure and horses. I read “abridged classic” tales from mythology and legend, stories of great heroes and their quests. I also found out about fictional heroes like Zorro and Tarzan. I still have a fondness for Lord Greystoke and his many escapades, which are still being created today.
Horse stories probably began with picture books, but soon I found classic literature like Black Beauty, Misty of Chincoteague, and the Black Stallion. We didn’t live anywhere we could actually keep horses until I was in high school, but I longed for a special animal companion that would carry me away from the everyday grind.
Believe it or not, YA really wasn’t “a thing” when I was in school reading anything I could get my hands on. I read The Lord of the Rings when I was around ten, I think. My mom had to explain to the librarian that I had already read through the children’s section and to let me browse the adult books within reason. A book either belonged in Children or Adults back then. Of course, once YA came into its own, I had to catch up on some of the latest fads by reading some of them. I still peruse the occasional YA novel.
So my young adult years were spent in the Adult section of the library, looking for more adventures and horse stories. I branched out into science fiction and fantasy, that being where the most amazing adventures happened to be at the time. My favorite author was Andre Norton, who I found, sometime in my reading, was actually a woman.
Of course, I devoured our English textbooks. Hell, I had the things read cover to cover by Week 2, then had to sit around and wait for the rest of the kids to wade through the stories as though reading wasn’t a magical power. I used to live for those Scholastic Book Fairs where you got to actually purchase books of your own. That’s where I picked up stuff like The Forgotten Door and The Little Witch (early fantasy novels).
Is it any wonder I became a writer myself? With all that reading, I had to find an outlet for my own stories somehow!
