What I Loved When I Was Young

During a lovely conversation on the Check Your Shelf podcast with Alabama Take's own, Jaimee Hannah, she asked me what my favorite books I read when I was in high school. Now, because this is not a therapy sesh, I will not get into why I cannot for the life of me remember all that I read during high school.

I remember multiple mandatory reading lists. I remember Romeo & Juliet and Gatsby. But what REALLY sticks out to me from high school is when we got to choose what we wanted to read (from a list) when I was a senior (I believe). Me and a bunch of other friends chose Catch-22 and is, to this day, one of my favorite books. It is funny, weird, and sad and made me feel like *this* is what college was going to be like. Reading weird, sad literary tomes that have a lot of depth to it.

I also remember getting to choose The Awakening by Kate Chopin and it feeling like a grown up choice to me too because it was about *gasp* an affair. A woman awakening to her sexuality. Now, did I get EVERYTHING about that book, no, because I was a dumb 17 year old but I felt grown up reading about it anyway.

I remember more about my late elementary/early middle school reading than high school. I believe late elementary and on in to middle school, we had Accelerated Reading, which baby Laura, a type A-first born-people pleaser, absolutely dominated at. I absolutely was that girl who loved The Babysitter's Club and Sweet Valley High. Those books helped me discover a love of series and exploring friendships at a time when I was VERY introverted.

I remember reading The Diary of Anne Frank and discovering what the Holocaust was and I was never the same.

I remember SOBBBBBBING over Where the Red Fern Grows and is probably why I will not read a book with a dog to. this. day.

I remember reading Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Patterson, opening up my love of historical fiction.

I remember Maniac Magee that truly introduced me to the history of segregation, knowledge about a topic that did not hurt me or make me feel less than, but set me off on a journey of learning about the truth of our nation's past.

Finally, I remember reading Missing May and coming to the realization that I would lose someone I loved one day and how painful that would be. (I had been lucky not to at that point.)

What do you remember reading when you were younger and how did it change you?

Currently reading: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff.

My name is Laura. I am a librarian and review books on The Alabama Take. You can follow me at bamareads on Instagram where I also talk about books. I really like talking about books.  It’s nice to be here. 😃