Admit your shameful reading history!

[inverarity]

I may joke about how much Twilight sucks. (And it does suck, with the suckiness of a thousand sucking suckers -- this is not open to dispute. Twilight is Bad. If you disagree, you are wrong, in the same way that someone who says the sun orbits the Earth is wrong.) But while a hundred million tween and teen girls may be making Stephanie Meyer rich for her sucky, creeptastic Mormon vampire epic, I'll bet all of you, like me, have skeletons hiding on the dusty top shelves of your own bookshelves. Books you thought were awesome when you were fourteen. Books that you would now not be caught dead reading.

Books like....



Yes, I totally read these books when I was fourteen.

In my defense, I was going through a serious pulp fiction phase. I loved Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft, and the first few Gor novels actually were pretty standard swords & sorcery.

(Then, so the rumor goes, John Norman went through a nasty divorce, and everything he wrote after that became endless misogynistic BDSM fantasies.)

I also used to read a lot of Piers Anthony.



Yes, he's a shameless hack with an ego that affects the tides, but several of his series started out interesting.

Okay, your turn.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Haha, never read any of those books but they do seem kinda corny!

When I was 13 I read some of the Sweet Valley High series, liked it then, would never read it now. I really can't think of anything else as I tend to avoid books I have a feeling I won't like. I did go through a bit of a Twilight phase though a couple years ago. I read the first 3 books in one go and thought I'd read thr 4th one when it came out but when I heard what it was about I was like, "no way!" Looking back, I just needed something new to read and Twilight was it and it seemed ok at first but once I thought about it I saw how off it really was and now I can say I don't like it anymore. It's not the worst series ever, Meyer had some passable ideas, but it's nowhere near great either (aka. bad writing, horrible Bella character, and wacked out Edward).

I do have a least favourite book though that I could barely finish without pulling my eyes out because of the sheer boredom - The Pearl by John Steinback. Unfortunately, it was required reading when I was in grade 7.

- dream-child

[(Anonymous)]

I am not proud to say I have read all the Twilights... multiple times. I don't know what it is that pulls me back in. I am not the target audience, I don't think it is good writing, and I don't like how any of the plots turn out. I am trying to figure out what it is that seems to force me to read them and try to include it in anything I ever write.

[(Anonymous)]

Goosebumps? Fear Street, also, which is another R.L. Stine (Stein?) series. I enjoyed them, and they were what I read when I was like, 10-13. From then, I started reading murder mysteries. It wasn't really until I was about 16 that I started reading fantasy.

I've read 8 books of a series called "Weather Wardens" by Rachel Caine. I'm not proud of that.

[swissmarg]

Harlequin romances. I would read like one a day, I was so addicted. I even joined a mail-order book-of-the-month club. I don't know how my mother allowed that. I guess they were pretty tame, after all.

Also, the Clan of the Cave Bear series. I only read them for the smut.

[hermoinejean7.livejournal.com]

>.> I read a lot of Enid Blyton when I was young. Along with a ton of comics - Asterix, Mickey Mouse and oh yeah, Archies, to name some. That, and a lot of regional language short story books.

First year of high school was spent reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and Perry Mason. I don't think it's shameful or anything, but yeah, those pretty much dominated my life at that point. And then in the latter half of high school I mostly read Classics and Indian authors, because I got bored of the same plot being recycled in a dozen detective stories.

I think I should also mention that I was a fan of Agatha Christie at some point of time.

/Shar's reading history.

(Also, unrelated: Chapter 7 illustration has me itching to read AQATDR. Physics exam is needing more of my attention, however! >.<)

[fpb.livejournal.com]

It's not reading - it's music. There was a time when I had a great deal of liking for bands which I now regard as either pretentious or immature - the Pogues being the best known example. But I don't really remember admiring a book greatly, even as a teen, and changing my mind later.

[malinbe.livejournal.com]

The Sweet Valley High series- only up to number 15, because they didn't bother translating anymore. I was ten years old! I must admit that it was the first time I was introduced to themes like sex, drugs and the teenage world. They were rather cheap and I could afford four of them out of my allowance. At the same time I started reading the Fear Street series- they were priced the same.

I still own them all. I kept them for my little sister, who wouldn't touch a book unless at gunpoint, so they'll probably end up in a box in the attic any day.

[(Anonymous)]

Ah, memories of books that make me giggle now.

I was super into the Replica series by Marilyn Kaye. Also all of those books about sick kids by Lurlene McDaniels.

With those two in my past, I refuse to be ashamed of liking Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High or Babysitters' Club and Babysitter's Little Sister or The Boxcar Children. :p

-So this is real life...

[(Anonymous)]

I will own up to reading all of the Gor Series. Also Twilight, Goosebumps and Animorphs. And if were counting comics Power Pack.