I liked just about everything from mysteries to dog books to fantasy to romances about teenagers in high school. The year In Cold Blood came out, my mom wanted me to read it. I was about 10 or 11 years old. I guess she thought true crime was kind of like a mystery, although that may be making excuses for her since she read it first. We were raised basically wrapped in cotton wool, way over the top protected from anything my mother thought was dangerous, and there were a lot of things. So it was a mystery to me why I had to read that book.
When I was eight, my mother made me read The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West. I didn't understand much about that book, but when my mother said to do something, we hopped to.
I still believed in Santa Claus when I was 10. My mother called me from a department store to ask if I'd read the Cherry Ames books she had picked out for me. She started her question with "I know you don't believe in Santa any more". Oh my gosh, I was so disappointed. At least I had my two younger siblings to pretend for. Plus we kids made elaborate stockings for my parents and our dog, and filled them, and had a great time trying to make their Christmas special, and that was fun. Christmas wasn't nearly as exciting until I had kids. I started preparing for it on July 1. Then they turned on me by not wanting toys any more -- everything was little and electronic.
I also read all the Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie books about Poirot and Marple. I was sick a lot when I was a kid, until I had surgery when I was 10. Being sick, that cotton wool was especially thick. I got to play outside and go to school, but nothing adventurous. My mom was raised in Leipzig during WWII, and had severe untreated PTSD from that experience. She was 10 when the war ended, but until she escaped at age 18, her life was pretty miserable.
When I was in 7th grade, I had read everything available at the library. My mom had to write a letter to the librarian, telling her to allow me to read books from the adult section. I went over there, and the books seemed so boring. So I decided to start with funny books, and read everything they had by Art Linkletter about funny kids- Kids Say the Darnedest Things.
We were and still are a reading family. I read at least 300-400 books a year, and I am a fast reader. I hold my eyes open while I read a particularly engrossing book when I should be sleeping. I pay for that in the morning.
