I've been thinking about the books I've read. Which titles stand out and which authors made an impact on me.

The first series of books I remember were the Little House books. I loved them all. I loved Pa and his fiddle and the songs he would sing. I loved the Frances books and Dr. Suess. All of Beatrix Potter books were wonderful. I especially remember The Tale of Two Bad Mice- everything was so precious. I loved The Lonely Doll books (I looked at them recently and wasn't that impressed, but there was something so tragic and fragile about them when I was little). Individual books that stand out are Where the Wild Things Are, How Spider Saved Halloween, and A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats.

In the upper elementary grades, I was always reading. I remember Heidi, The Little Princess (when she wakes to find her room transformed, it is magical), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlotte's Web. Where the Red Fern Grows, Old Yeller, Peter Pan, The Adventures of Huck Finn, and Tom Sawyer. I also read the Encyclopedia Brown, Nancy Drew, and Trixie Belden series.

In junior high, I read Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, My Side of the Mountain, A Day No Pigs Would Die. I loved Louisa May Alcott. I read Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys and The Eight Cousins - Little Women is the one that sticks with me. I went on a S.E. Hinton kick and read The Outsiders (stay gold, Ponyboy), That Was Then, This is Now, Tex, and Rumble Fish. I also discovered Judy Blue and V.C. Andrews. Flowers in the Attic (or any of Andrews' books) is not one I'd recommend to anyone (especially a teenage girl) but I loved it - it was scary and suspenseful and had such a cool cover. I must have opened and closed that cover 1,000 times. I read lots of Stephen King. I was hooked at 13 by The Dead Zone. I loved Pet Semetary, Cujo, Carrie, The Shining, Salem's Lot, The Shawshank Redemption and The Stand. I gave up Steven King when I got to It and suddenly felt I was re-reading the same stories. That, and normal clowns are creepy enough. I still get freaked out by my garbage disposal because of Stephen King.

My high school and college reading will have to wait - dinner's not going to make itself (I knew I should've thrown something in the crock pot).