First off, if you haven’t already entered the THE SECRET YEAR Teen Diary Contest Extravaganza, please do so in the official contest thread! The contest will be open until 4 PM Pacific time today, so best get diarying.
Tomorrow THE SECRET YEAR will be published, and it will soon, dare I predict, become a favorite for many teens out there. And since we have both teens and former teens alike here on the blog: what was/is your favorite book as a teenager?
And by popular demand, a bonus question for the former teens: what was the worst outfit/hairstyle you wore as a teenager? Bonus points for a link to a photo.
Something by Stephen King — Hearts in Atlantis, probably. But I equally loved The Scarlet Letter.
I didn't have a favorite book. I loved too many.
I posted pics from high school on my blog. Yes, there was flannel. 😀 One pic includes another writer that reads your blog. 🙂
https://www.reganleigh.com/?p=825
Probably The Lord of the Rings, since I read it every summer. But for non-Tolkien fare, maybe The Left Hand of Darkness, which I was crazy enough to do a year-end report on. Most people picked books that were a lot easier to explain to the class; it didn't really fit on an index card.
Worst style error was probably my poorly self-permed hair. Aaak! What frizzies!
Anyone else have one of those awful, full-length down coats? I had a rust-colored one that made me look like a giant chess piece. All hail the Queen of Hearts!
Oh, and for people who don't recall the long-down-coat phenomenon, it was big around 1980. Bad perms, however, are timeless.
I was reading mostly adult (mainstream, non-YA genre, whatever you want to call them) books well before I was out of high school, as I imagine most people do, but my favorite YA book for many years was The Changeling by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I loved the characters and the setting, I loved the adventures the two main characters had and hwo they were misunderstood by the adults around them, I loved that there was a pretty neighbor girl whom all the adults loved but who was a major bitch to other girls when the adults weren't looking, and I loved the protag's character arc, particularly the scene where she stood up to her family to defend her friend. It's hard to explain exactly why this book resonated with me — I'm sure there are many other books which have similar characteristics — but something about this one made me focus on it and reread it for years.
Angie
Watership Down by Richard Adams.
Read it every year for the longest time.
No idea how that happened. And I still have the book.
Uhuru and The Honey Badger by Robert Ruark and anything by Wilbur Smith. Also went through a short Judith Krantz phase.
I had the world's ugliest afro and the purple/yellow combination was very popular – gotta love the '80s.
There's a lot to be said for being so old that all of your family pictures from when you were growing up aren't digital!
Demian, by Herman Hesse. It scared and upset me the first time I read it; the second time it was the most profound thing I had ever read.
VC Andrews, John Grisham, Judy Blume- basically anything I could get my hands on and I loved every minute! Charlotte's Web was my first love in elementary school and will always hold a special place in my heart!
Big hair, big bangs and Gap…lots of Gap!
i read the bell jar when i was 14 (10 years ago) and it's been my favourite book ever since
Remember Me by Christopher Pike as well as most of his other books. I also read a lot of VC Andrews. As a preteen I read the Babysitters Club books and the Sweet Valley High books.
"Salem's Lot" by Stephen King. I've ready it many, many times since. I like the character development and plot. I'd read it late at night and imagine I heard something clawing at my window. Creepy. My neighbor was reading "Twilight" and I loaned her my copy of "Salem's Lot." I informed her this book is a well-written novel about vampires. I know, I know – writing "Twilight" is not the best story ever is blasphemy.
Lord of the Rings.
I'm old. Black Beauty.
Three shared top billing, all found in 8th grade: "Catcher in the Rye", "Catch 22", and "Stranger In A Strange Land". I read a great deal before then but these three changed my attitude toward words, books and reading.
My hair was very curly and well over my shoulders and eyes. That's when my beard and mustache started coming in. I wore a white oversize tee that said, "Keep America Green, Grow Grass" with a huge marijuana leaf on it, loose bell bottom jeans holed in the thighs and rear from wear – and I didn't wear underwear then — white high tops that I'd painted florescent orange, and an army fatigue shirt, signed by people whenever I met them (I carried a marker and I never washed it).
For some reason, no one took any pictures of me from then.
The Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia were my favorite, together. If I had to pick one Chronicles it would be the first one: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I think, even in three volumes, the Lord of the Rings is really one book anyway, so I don't have to choose, lol.
The Hobbit-
Favorite, favorite. Hm.
Anna Karenina by Tolstoy (you know, that one) or The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy, both of which remain two of my favorite novels.
Flowers in the attic and petals on the wind by V.C Andrews awesome books!. I have never read anything like it.u_u
I dug up some pictures: https://bit.ly/5YM6zD
WV: strap. Really? You couldn't come up with a better one Blogger?
A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne.
And I used to wear a lot of torn jeans.
I've got three of them: Ender's Game (so glad everyone seems to be saying this), Gone With the Wind (saw a few of those, too) and Jurassic Park.
Watership Down by Richard Adams.
As an older teen, I thought The Exorcist was a great book. Scary stuff, well written.
Harry Potter pretty much dominated my life. But one book I just loved and still do, is Rabbit, Run by… well, if you're a writer and don't know who that's by then you should be kicked in the face… and then in the stomach… and then in the face again. Then given a copy of "The Paris Review" and some alone time.
Harry Potter pretty much dominated my life. But one book I just loved and still do, is Rabbit, Run by… well, if you're a writer and don't know who that's by then you should be kicked in the face… and then in the stomach… and then in the face again. Then given a copy of "The Paris Review" and some alone time.
Salem's Lot by Stephen King.
Wow, so many deep thinkers. My favorite was probably Little Women, but I read mysteries constantly. Mary Stewart, Phyllis Whitney, Agatha Christie, and others.
My worst fashion was when I used to spray and backcomb my hair, then smooth it into a sort of helmet. Thought it looked great. LOL