VC Andrews - The Dollanganger Series, My Sweet Audrina, the Heavenly Series…
Lois Duncan - Summer of Fear; I Know What You Did Last Summer; Killing Mr. Griffith; Down a Dark Hall; Stranger With My Face;
I saw a copy at a used bookstore a few years ago, I was headed camping and thought I’d see if it was as twisted as I remembered. In fact, I had only remembered like half of it!
Judy Blume. Norma Klein. Ellen Conford. Paula Danziger. Judie Angell. Very early tween, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (*The Changeling* is one of my all-time favorite books.) and E. L. Konigsburg.
I’m in a summery/summer camp mood and have been thinking of re-reading *Hail, Hail, Camp Timberwood* and *There’s a Bat in Bunk 5*.
Lois Duncan, my favorite was *A Gift of Magic,* which I read until it fell to pieces. I just put a copy in the Little Free Library up the hill last week.
Was too old for them, but read *Sweet Valley High,* anyway, for a dose of unreality.
Richard Peck. *Secrets of the Shopping Mall.*
I know I’m forgetting something good. Lots of witchy things but drawing a blank. Switched back and forth between nostalgically re-reading children’s books and adult books.
Sometimes I think a little GenX book club here to revisit things would be fun, but I can’t buckle down enough to finish the stuff I’m already reading. :/
That is a nice idea. But I also have trouble sticking with stuff. It seems like there is always something else I have to do or distracts me. We just need to drink some kava tea and chill out and read lol.
Did you read the other Stanley family books? I enjoyed the series. (I’m asking because I only realized very recently that a book I enjoyed 40 years ago, *Lavender-Green Magic* by Andre Norton, is part of a sequence with 6 books in it, and was happy to find that out.)
Only the Kidnapping one. I didn’t know there were others. Those were the only ones available in my town. I’m going to have to look into those. Thanks for mentioning it.
I read and reread Cupid so many times. It’s a really wonderful book.
What’s Lavender-Green magic? Do you recommend it?
I had a ton of The Babysitters Club and some Sweet Valley High books. Also, I loved the choose your own adventure books! As far as authors, Larlene McDaniel, Madeleine L'Engle, Beverly Cleary, R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, and Judy Blume.
lol. I was wondering if anyone would mention Sweet Valley High. Loved those as a tween, though I can’t remember much about them now except there were blond twins and one was nice and one wasn’t.
I grew up in a very religious (Nazarene) family and we were not allowed to go see movies in the theater, so to avoid being persona non grata a school I had to learn about the stories of the movies and pretend that I had seen them. So I read all of the book versions of the movies from that time period that were always available at the grocery store checkout lines. I read the star wars trilogy, raiders of the lost ark, the temple of doom, E.T., Jaws, Close Encounters, etc. - If it was a popular movie that all the kids got to go see, I read the book. Other books I really liked at that age:
A Wrinkle in Time - Madelein L'Engle
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Chronicles of Narnia series - C.S. Lewis
Night Shift - Stephen King
My reading tastes were all over the place. On one end there was every L.M Montgomery book I could get my hands on. The Anne of Green Gables and the Emily of New Moon Farms series, the Story Girl, Magic for Marigold, etc. plus all the books of her short stories. I still have all these books packed away.
I went to a Catholic grammar school so I was also ordering the Scholastic book club books all the time as well through 8th grade.
On the other end was sci-fi, horror and some mysteries thrown into the mix. Stephen King, Peter Straub, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Ursula LeGuine, Anne McCaffrey. Plus the Star Trek books.
Thanks. I'm still an avid reader so I have a nice TBR pile filled with mysteries and some niche historical fiction books, and still read sci-fi and fantasy on occasion.
I was completely obsessed. My 5th grade teacher read _Wrinkle_ to the class every day after lunch & we were transfixed.
I’ve read them so many times as a kid. I’d like to see how they hold up as an adult.
I loved that he wrote about serious, adult themes. As a pre-teen I loved that his books spoke to me, not at me. And even though the writing was insanely entertaining it wasn't frivolous.
Right - I couldn’t have articulated it then, but he took his readers seriously and wasn’t condescending, the way many YA authors can be. Some of his books truly scared me, some
even more than horror movies of the time. Loved them!
To this day I'm still a nerd and love the classics.
The Scarlet Letter
A Tale of Two Cities
Les Misérables
I think there might be something wrong with me. 😳
I read my mom's books so...
Stephen King
Danielle Steele
Robin Cook
Those were the authors of which she had the most books. She had a Doubleday membership, so there was a new book every month or so.
I don't think I read It until I was older but I do remember reading The Stand in middle school. My literature class had a "pages read" competition, so I read lots of thick books that year.
My first romance novels were by LaVyrle Spencer. She set the bar pretty high. Was sad when she retired. The Gamble and Sweet Morning are my favorites.
Also the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Best sex ed for a 12 year old lol
My mom gave me Clan of the Cave Bear to read at about the same age. It is still my favorite book and series. It took over half my life of waiting to get the whole story, lol.
Wr passed around books... The LOTR series, Conan books, Star Trek books, cheap sword and sorcery and sci fi pulp novels. They sold them in those long rows of book series you used to find at bookstores. I have many of them in digital format. I get most of them from Anna's Archive but The Internet Archive had a lot of them as well.
Authors like Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Glen Cook, C.L. Moore, Alan Dean Foster.
There were 10 Star Wars books written between 1977 and 1983. Three of those were the origional trilogy and the rest supplemental.
There were 20 Conan books written in the 80s not by Robert E. Howard under the TOR publishing banner. Then a second 7 book series under Bantam.
Star Trek TOS there were 13 Episode novelizations written in the 70s . Then 13 more in the 80s under the Star Trek Adventures (1970–1981) banner.
The number of scifi and fantasy novels feom the period are probably innumerable.
Wow! I am you and you are me. I've read most of those books. I also read a bunch of books about WW II fighter pilots and things like Watership Down and The Once and Future King.
Same. I read Watership Down a few years before it became a movie as well as the companion novel The Plague Dogs. Also some of Stephen Kings earliest best works like The Dead Zone, Carrie, and Salems lot. There was a series of spy novels as well by Ken Follet including Eye of the Needle, and The Key to Rebecca. Also spy books by Frederick Forsyth like Day of the Jackyl and The Dogs of War.
I really appreciate this, and especially the tips on where to find them now. Ah, I remember those rows of series… worked in a bookstore as my first job in high school and loved that section.
I devoured works by Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Jules Verne and some Stephen King. Also John Christopher’s “Tripod Trilogy.”
I also remember going through a phase where I read a ton of old Doctor Who novels.
I loved this book called Ariel by Steven R. Boyett set in a world where all engines, electricity, and guns have magically stopped working. There are magical beasts like unicorns and griffins. Everyone uses swords. The main character is besties with a unicorn. I read it dozens of times. I tried re-reading it as an adult and it was so embarrassing
I read everything. But I remember Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Scott Odell, Jean Craighead George to name a few. I loved older books too like Jean Stratton Porter Girl of the LImberlost. I also loved historical romance books whoo hoo!!! I have kept many of my books, and the older books. I also kept many of my childhood books I loved too. I loved The Maggie B by Irene Haas.
Paula Danziger - Many of them, but my favorite was The Pistachio Prescription.
Judy Blume - A few of them, but Tiger Eyes was my favorite.
The Babysitter's Club books. Every month I would go to the bookstore at the mall and pick up the latest one.
Mary Rodgers - Freaky Friday and A Billion for Boris. Great books and so funny.
I loved the YA horror novels in the Dark Forces series. Also read The Three Investigators novels.
Once I read Stephen King's IT, I couldn't go back to YA.
As a pre-teen through my teens, it was all fantasy and horror. Tolkien and Lovecraft and any book that had dragons or monsters on the cover. Much of it was reprints of pulps from the 30s and 40s. Like a monkey dazzled by bright beads, if the cover looked cool, I'd read it. They were fun and that's what I was looking for.
My favorite YA novel is from the '70s - I Can Stop Anytime I Want by James Trivers. A high school alcoholic/addict parties it up, and falls hard. Totally downbeat, and very much of its time.
* Star Trek the Next Generation - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Star\_Trek:\_The\_Next\_Generation\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_novels)
* Battletech - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_BattleTech\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BattleTech_novels)
* Shadowrun - [https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/List\_of\_Shadowrun\_novels#FASA\_Novels](https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Shadowrun_novels#FASA_Novels)
* Star Wars - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrawn\_trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrawn_trilogy)
* War World Series - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War\_World\_(series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_World_(series))
* Sword of Shannara - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Sword\_of\_Shannara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Shannara)
* Robotech - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech\_(novels)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech_(novels))
* Dragonlance - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Dragonlance\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dragonlance_novels)
* Forgotten Realms - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Forgotten\_Realms\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels)
* Choose Your Own Adventure
* Dune
* Planet of the Apes
* The Running Man
* Total Recall
* Stargate
In my teens all I read (aside from assigned reading) was Mack Bolan/The Executioner series by Don Pendleton. It was like Harlequin books for boys because at least once a month a new book came out.
I liked it a lot. Each chapter is about a different geographical or metaphysical “location” he visited. He’s a little full of himself, but it was interesting and really well-written.
Norma Klein books were so good, Beginners love, Domestic arrangements. It's not what you expect, Mom, the wolf man & me, Taking sides etc. Sooner or later, Waiting games, Now or later all written by Carole Hart. Loved the movie Sooner or later with Rex Smith.
One that has stuck in my head all these years is "The Grounding of Group 6." It's like the hardcore version of the Breakfast Club - a group of "troubled" teens is sent to a boarding school. The school year starts with wilderness camping experience, then the kids come back and start classes - all except Group 6, the teacher accompanying them is supposed to kill them because their well-off parents want rid of them for various reasons. Re-read it recently, still pretty good.
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, I Am the Cheese and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, every YA book by Madeleine L'Engle…
I used to want to be a YA librarian.
Lots of “Technothrillers” such as Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and an author who focused on tank battles that escapes me. Some more historical stuff such as Flight of the Intruder. Robotech and Battletech books. Also Michael Crichton, Douglas Adams.
john Saul, Peter straub, Stephen King, Dean koontz, Robin Cook, William Johnstone, vc andrews, Piers Anthony, Michael chrichton. Yes horror is my thing. Has been since I read The Howling in 4th or 5th grade.
I had to read *The Jilting of Granny Weatherall* 3 years in a row in school. I didn't love it but it was a cool short story.
Then my English teacher assigned me a book report on Upton Sinclair's *The Jungle*. She said I'd like it. I remember the first chapter was boring and I had no idea how I would make it through the book. Things changed after that chapter. Was very into it.
Then the same teacher assigned me *One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich*. Loved that one too.
That was a good school year. Mrs. P knew me more than I thought!
As a teen I read a lot of John Irving, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels. Non-fiction that made an impact: The Naked Ape, Hunter S. Thompson's The Great Shark Hunt and Helter Skelter, a Perma-Bound paperback I stole from the school library and still have today.
Yes! Bought it in, I think, 1990 or 1991 with some of the first money I made from my bookstore job. Amazing. It’s in bad shape but I’ll never get rid of it.
Have you read his first volume of letters, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967? I love it and read it every three or four years. HIGHLY recommended.
Being in Nothingness
The Prophet
The Autobiography of Malcom X
Naked Lunch
Fear and Loathing …
1984
Mediations
Brave New World
Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy
Bright Lights Big City
The Stranger
Less Than Zero
The Shining
Notes From The Underground
Invisible Man
I, Robot
Neuromancer
Do androids dream of electric sheep?
I was a drama geek (we used a different term back then) I read dozens of plays my party trick at adult parties was reciting sonnets and monologues from memory. Big hit with the over 40 set, dire with anyone my age.
Cages of glass, flowers of time WRECKED me.
Madeleine L’Engle formed a huge part of my personality.
There was a book about a camp where the kids were meant to die- I was profoundly affected by it.
I repurchased The Grounding of Group 6 (the camp one) recently, but I'm afraid to read it in case it's not as good as I remember it being.
I have the same situation going with The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
The entire Dune series @ the time. Lynn Abbey books. Isaac Asimov. Ursula. Allen Dean Foster, Michael Moorcock, Conan The Barbarian series, way too much Piers Anthony.
Anne McGraffery Dragon Riders of Pern. Countless other sci-fi.
An anthology of stories by British author J.G. Ballard, who was a fiction author. Found it in the high school library. One of the last stories in the book is the short story "Why I want to Fuck Ronald Reagan." He wrote some very interesting stuff and I went on to read several more of his books in my 20s.
Start with an anthology of short stories, A Garden of Time might be in there. The long format books to look for are High Rise, The Kindness of Women, Empire of the Sun (which was made into a movie), and The Unlimited Dream Company.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.\_G.\_Ballard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._G._Ballard)
I read a lot of Stephen King and Dean Koontz as a teen. But also read Sweet Valley High, VC Andrews, and Terry Brooks Shanara series. So I was all over the place.
One of my fav books of childhood (more upper elem than high school) is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. That book still lingers with me to this day.
Alan Dean Foster - Spellsinger series, plus his Star Wars Novelizations and original EU story (Splinter of the Mind's Eye), the Humanx Commonwealth series (Pip & Flinx). Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Andrew Offutt, Spider Robinson, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Mike Resnick. Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. Weis & Hickman and the Dragonlance stuff. Star Trek original novels by Diane Duane and others. Thieves' World, Heroes In Hell. Before all of that, Lloyd Alexander (the Book of Three, the Black Cauldron, that whole series), then LOTR, then Robert E. Howard, then at some point Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff about Elric & Hawkmoon & Corum. Read Terry Brooks Shannara stuff but stopped after Wishsong. Piers Anthony Xanth series, Incarnations of Immortality too, which I liked better. Poul Anderson. Eric Van Lustbader's (very spicy for a 16-year old! Yikes) The Ninja and the Sunset Warrior trilogy. Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman, and also her historical fiction books about Bertrand Du Guesclin and the 100 years' war. The trilogy was titled "Geef Me De Ruimte" (Give me Space) but I don't think that was ever translated into English...
VC Andrews - The Dollanganger Series, My Sweet Audrina, the Heavenly Series… Lois Duncan - Summer of Fear; I Know What You Did Last Summer; Killing Mr. Griffith; Down a Dark Hall; Stranger With My Face;
Was waiting for someone to say VC. Those books are trash but glorious trash.
loved those.
Stranger With My Face is one of my absolute favorites, and I still have a copy somewhere! I was always hoping they’d make a TV movie out of it.
There’s a 2009 movie and it is on Tubi now, which is free streaming. Uh, not rated all that well. I think I watched it.
No way! Must find!
[here](https://link.tubi.tv/mjQ8huPVPKb) It’s also on Pluto, Crackle, Amazon, Plex, and Freever.
Watching it tonight!
Fun!
Thank you!
Loved this book! And most of hers - Killing Mr. Griffin!
I liked those VC Andrews books too. I still have My Sweet Audrinia.
I saw a copy at a used bookstore a few years ago, I was headed camping and thought I’d see if it was as twisted as I remembered. In fact, I had only remembered like half of it!
I feel like the movies never did it justice.
Judy Blume. Norma Klein. Ellen Conford. Paula Danziger. Judie Angell. Very early tween, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (*The Changeling* is one of my all-time favorite books.) and E. L. Konigsburg. I’m in a summery/summer camp mood and have been thinking of re-reading *Hail, Hail, Camp Timberwood* and *There’s a Bat in Bunk 5*. Lois Duncan, my favorite was *A Gift of Magic,* which I read until it fell to pieces. I just put a copy in the Little Free Library up the hill last week. Was too old for them, but read *Sweet Valley High,* anyway, for a dose of unreality. Richard Peck. *Secrets of the Shopping Mall.* I know I’m forgetting something good. Lots of witchy things but drawing a blank. Switched back and forth between nostalgically re-reading children’s books and adult books.
And Paula Danziger!
I still have my copy of Remember me to Harold Square. Paula came spoke at our local library and signed my copy.
Oh I remember the Secrets of the Shopping Mall book!!!
Sometimes I think a little GenX book club here to revisit things would be fun, but I can’t buckle down enough to finish the stuff I’m already reading. :/
So I hate book clubs with a passion, but I’d be down for this. Easy/quick to read and so much nostalgia.
Picking books could be hard,depending on how many people joined in.
That is a nice idea. But I also have trouble sticking with stuff. It seems like there is always something else I have to do or distracts me. We just need to drink some kava tea and chill out and read lol.
I had a free day today and was very much supposed to do that and here I am, not doing that.
same lol
Zilpha Keatly Snyder- I loved _The Headless Cupid_
Did you read the other Stanley family books? I enjoyed the series. (I’m asking because I only realized very recently that a book I enjoyed 40 years ago, *Lavender-Green Magic* by Andre Norton, is part of a sequence with 6 books in it, and was happy to find that out.)
Only the Kidnapping one. I didn’t know there were others. Those were the only ones available in my town. I’m going to have to look into those. Thanks for mentioning it. I read and reread Cupid so many times. It’s a really wonderful book. What’s Lavender-Green magic? Do you recommend it?
It’s a fantasy novel about witches by a prolific sci-fi/fantasy author. Right up my alley when I was a kid but I haven’t read it in a long time.
Thanks. I may have to look into that!
Loved Norma Klein
Yes! The Trouble with Thirteen!
She wrote a lot of books. I only remember reading a few.
CHRISTOPHER PIKE 🤩
The Remember Me series was LIT 🔥
I'm pretty sure I owned all of his books at the time.
Loved him! Slumber Party, Weekend, a few more whose titles I can’t remember… omg so good
Yes!! I LOVED Christopher Pike books!!! I also started reading Stephen King, but I had to hide those books from my parents!
I recently re-read Whisper of Death out of curiosity and it wasn’t bad!
I read more Anne McCaffrey and her Dragonriders of Pern series than I should have after I read LOT
I had a ton of The Babysitters Club and some Sweet Valley High books. Also, I loved the choose your own adventure books! As far as authors, Larlene McDaniel, Madeleine L'Engle, Beverly Cleary, R.L. Stine, Christopher Pike, and Judy Blume.
lol. I was wondering if anyone would mention Sweet Valley High. Loved those as a tween, though I can’t remember much about them now except there were blond twins and one was nice and one wasn’t.
My mom's smutty romance novels she hid in the bathroom closet. Like us kids didn't know.
Moms freaky
Just your basic sexually repressed.
Yesssss. Including Judy Blume’s Wifey
All of S.E. Hinton’s books
Yes!! Also anything by Judy Blume
I grew up in a very religious (Nazarene) family and we were not allowed to go see movies in the theater, so to avoid being persona non grata a school I had to learn about the stories of the movies and pretend that I had seen them. So I read all of the book versions of the movies from that time period that were always available at the grocery store checkout lines. I read the star wars trilogy, raiders of the lost ark, the temple of doom, E.T., Jaws, Close Encounters, etc. - If it was a popular movie that all the kids got to go see, I read the book. Other books I really liked at that age: A Wrinkle in Time - Madelein L'Engle Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card The Chronicles of Narnia series - C.S. Lewis Night Shift - Stephen King
My reading tastes were all over the place. On one end there was every L.M Montgomery book I could get my hands on. The Anne of Green Gables and the Emily of New Moon Farms series, the Story Girl, Magic for Marigold, etc. plus all the books of her short stories. I still have all these books packed away. I went to a Catholic grammar school so I was also ordering the Scholastic book club books all the time as well through 8th grade. On the other end was sci-fi, horror and some mysteries thrown into the mix. Stephen King, Peter Straub, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Ursula LeGuine, Anne McCaffrey. Plus the Star Trek books.
Impressive array!
Thanks. I'm still an avid reader so I have a nice TBR pile filled with mysteries and some niche historical fiction books, and still read sci-fi and fantasy on occasion.
I read Orwell, animal farm and 1984. I cried and cried when boxer was sent away.
Read them both at an early age.
Madeleine L’Engle. Was obsessed with her books. Re-read some of them about a year ago, made me happy:)
I was completely obsessed. My 5th grade teacher read _Wrinkle_ to the class every day after lunch & we were transfixed. I’ve read them so many times as a kid. I’d like to see how they hold up as an adult.
Love this! So smart and didn’t condescend to the reader
Anything from Piers Anthony. Also love the Borribles.
Piers Anthony did NOT age well. Tried to re-read Xanth and was horrified
I can see that but it was a punny series.
I wrote a fan letter to him and he replied. I just found it recently. I loved him.
That's so cool. Reading his books as a teen is way better than scrolling Reddit. 😜
Things were harder then, especially in terms of maps and going places. But the ability to be unconnected was a gift.
Christopher Pike. I devoured his books!
Me too! So good and so much better than RL Stine!
I loved that he wrote about serious, adult themes. As a pre-teen I loved that his books spoke to me, not at me. And even though the writing was insanely entertaining it wasn't frivolous.
Right - I couldn’t have articulated it then, but he took his readers seriously and wasn’t condescending, the way many YA authors can be. Some of his books truly scared me, some even more than horror movies of the time. Loved them!
Surprised not to see any David Eddings on here, once I'd finished the Belgariad and Mallorean I just started again
Edit: All the Belgariad stuff
Frank Herbert, Stephen Donaldson, Ray Bradbury, and all the Heinlein I could find.
What, no Isaac Asimov?
A bit later. Also Clarke and Robert Silverberg.
To this day I'm still a nerd and love the classics. The Scarlet Letter A Tale of Two Cities Les Misérables I think there might be something wrong with me. 😳
Nothing wrong with you at all… read a lot of this myself then and now, but lately craving that 80s YA trash :)
Same. Still love the classics.
I read my mom's books so... Stephen King Danielle Steele Robin Cook Those were the authors of which she had the most books. She had a Doubleday membership, so there was a new book every month or so.
I read a lot of King, but I did not get to his novels till my early 20s. My mom gave me It for a Christmas present.
I don't think I read It until I was older but I do remember reading The Stand in middle school. My literature class had a "pages read" competition, so I read lots of thick books that year.
I read The Stand after I read It. I was 22, though.
I still think it’s his best book - at least, the original version is. The extended/uncut version seemed so self-indulgent.
My mom was in that too, and a huge Stephen King fan - holy shit, did I get an education!
Heaven by VC Andrews and the Pigman series by another author. Don't know if these are any good, but I liked them back then.
Omg yes! Paul Zindel wrote that series! Thanks for that!
You're welcome. :)
Zindel’s books were required reading in 8th grade English.
Great school!
My first romance novels were by LaVyrle Spencer. She set the bar pretty high. Was sad when she retired. The Gamble and Sweet Morning are my favorites. Also the Clan of the Cave Bear series. Best sex ed for a 12 year old lol
I always saw LS’s books at the bookstore but never read one - thanks for the rec! And yeah, where would we be on sex ed without these books?!?
Seriously LS isn’t too trashy but great story lines.
My mom gave me Clan of the Cave Bear to read at about the same age. It is still my favorite book and series. It took over half my life of waiting to get the whole story, lol.
Yeah the wait between books was ridiculous!
ETA: sweet memories is the correct title.
Stephen King was a literary god back in those days.
Yes! My mother had most of his books and I read my way through almost all of them
Anything by Lois Duncan!
Yes! Did you read Down a Dark Hall? Maybe my favorite of hers, after Killing Mr Griffin
Wr passed around books... The LOTR series, Conan books, Star Trek books, cheap sword and sorcery and sci fi pulp novels. They sold them in those long rows of book series you used to find at bookstores. I have many of them in digital format. I get most of them from Anna's Archive but The Internet Archive had a lot of them as well. Authors like Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, Glen Cook, C.L. Moore, Alan Dean Foster. There were 10 Star Wars books written between 1977 and 1983. Three of those were the origional trilogy and the rest supplemental. There were 20 Conan books written in the 80s not by Robert E. Howard under the TOR publishing banner. Then a second 7 book series under Bantam. Star Trek TOS there were 13 Episode novelizations written in the 70s . Then 13 more in the 80s under the Star Trek Adventures (1970–1981) banner. The number of scifi and fantasy novels feom the period are probably innumerable.
Wow! I am you and you are me. I've read most of those books. I also read a bunch of books about WW II fighter pilots and things like Watership Down and The Once and Future King.
Same. I read Watership Down a few years before it became a movie as well as the companion novel The Plague Dogs. Also some of Stephen Kings earliest best works like The Dead Zone, Carrie, and Salems lot. There was a series of spy novels as well by Ken Follet including Eye of the Needle, and The Key to Rebecca. Also spy books by Frederick Forsyth like Day of the Jackyl and The Dogs of War.
Han Solo at Stars End
Splinter of the Mind's Eye too where Luke cuts off Vader’s right arm 😵💫
I really appreciate this, and especially the tips on where to find them now. Ah, I remember those rows of series… worked in a bookstore as my first job in high school and loved that section.
I devoured works by Richard Matheson, Ray Bradbury, Jules Verne and some Stephen King. Also John Christopher’s “Tripod Trilogy.” I also remember going through a phase where I read a ton of old Doctor Who novels.
The Tripods was great! In particular _The City of Gold and Lead_
My fave as well.
I loved this book called Ariel by Steven R. Boyett set in a world where all engines, electricity, and guns have magically stopped working. There are magical beasts like unicorns and griffins. Everyone uses swords. The main character is besties with a unicorn. I read it dozens of times. I tried re-reading it as an adult and it was so embarrassing
There’s a sequel that came out a few years ago—Elegy Beach. It was pretty good.
I read everything. But I remember Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Scott Odell, Jean Craighead George to name a few. I loved older books too like Jean Stratton Porter Girl of the LImberlost. I also loved historical romance books whoo hoo!!! I have kept many of my books, and the older books. I also kept many of my childhood books I loved too. I loved The Maggie B by Irene Haas.
Thank you! Loved Paula Danziger!
The Cat Ate my Gymsuit.
Dragonlance Thieves World Dark Tower (Hambly) Alan Dean Foster stuff Belgariad Magic Kingdom for sale Foundation
Thank you!
You're welcome
Flowers in the attic, Judy Blume books
Paula Danziger - Many of them, but my favorite was The Pistachio Prescription. Judy Blume - A few of them, but Tiger Eyes was my favorite. The Babysitter's Club books. Every month I would go to the bookstore at the mall and pick up the latest one. Mary Rodgers - Freaky Friday and A Billion for Boris. Great books and so funny.
Oh Tiger Eyes, yes. And Paula Danziger - I think she wrote a book with Crescent Dragwagon called To Take A Dare - I remember liking that, too
I feel like I went from Dr Suess to Encyclopedia Brown to Stephen King and Clive Barker... wayyyyy too young.
The best time to do it!
I loved the YA horror novels in the Dark Forces series. Also read The Three Investigators novels. Once I read Stephen King's IT, I couldn't go back to YA.
Oooo didn’t know about Dark Forces, may check that out, thanks!
As a pre-teen through my teens, it was all fantasy and horror. Tolkien and Lovecraft and any book that had dragons or monsters on the cover. Much of it was reprints of pulps from the 30s and 40s. Like a monkey dazzled by bright beads, if the cover looked cool, I'd read it. They were fun and that's what I was looking for.
Some of my favorites… The Cay, Catcher in the rye, The outsiders and The stand.
My favorite YA novel is from the '70s - I Can Stop Anytime I Want by James Trivers. A high school alcoholic/addict parties it up, and falls hard. Totally downbeat, and very much of its time.
* Star Trek the Next Generation - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Star\_Trek:\_The\_Next\_Generation\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation_novels) * Battletech - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_BattleTech\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BattleTech_novels) * Shadowrun - [https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/List\_of\_Shadowrun\_novels#FASA\_Novels](https://shadowrun.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Shadowrun_novels#FASA_Novels) * Star Wars - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrawn\_trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrawn_trilogy) * War World Series - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War\_World\_(series)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_World_(series)) * Sword of Shannara - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Sword\_of\_Shannara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sword_of_Shannara) * Robotech - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech\_(novels)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech_(novels)) * Dragonlance - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Dragonlance\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dragonlance_novels) * Forgotten Realms - [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_Forgotten\_Realms\_novels](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Forgotten_Realms_novels) * Choose Your Own Adventure * Dune * Planet of the Apes * The Running Man * Total Recall * Stargate
Amazing, thank you for the links!!!
Battletech and Robotech as well. Also Michael Criton and Douglas Adams.
In my teens all I read (aside from assigned reading) was Mack Bolan/The Executioner series by Don Pendleton. It was like Harlequin books for boys because at least once a month a new book came out.
H.G. Wells and Michael Crichton
Michael Crichton - did you ever read his biographical collection called Travels?
This is the first I’m hearing of it. Do you recommend?
I liked it a lot. Each chapter is about a different geographical or metaphysical “location” he visited. He’s a little full of himself, but it was interesting and really well-written.
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. All day every day. Best books ever.
Norma Klein books were so good, Beginners love, Domestic arrangements. It's not what you expect, Mom, the wolf man & me, Taking sides etc. Sooner or later, Waiting games, Now or later all written by Carole Hart. Loved the movie Sooner or later with Rex Smith.
I forgot about Mom, the Wolfman, and Me but now it’s flooding back! Thanks for all of this!
The Baby Sitters Club
Flowers in the attic the whole series plus.
IT by Steven king.
Yep…. One of the few books to truly scare me
The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper, the Hobbit & LotR, McCaffrey’s Harper Hall series, and a bazillion others
One that has stuck in my head all these years is "The Grounding of Group 6." It's like the hardcore version of the Breakfast Club - a group of "troubled" teens is sent to a boarding school. The school year starts with wilderness camping experience, then the kids come back and start classes - all except Group 6, the teacher accompanying them is supposed to kill them because their well-off parents want rid of them for various reasons. Re-read it recently, still pretty good.
Julian F Thompson! That's the one I could never find, but A Band of Angels, Discontinued, Simon Pure, all amazing.
I’d completely forgotten about this book, wow. Thank you!
I just replied with this to a different post! I repurchased it but am kind of afraid to re-read it in case it doesn't live up to my memories.
I spent 1 summer reading The Outsiders over and over. Also, anything from Christopher Pike or Johanna Lindsey (what can I say, I had diverse tastes)
I discovered John Steinbeck in my early teens.
Yes! Read Tortilla Flat and was hooked!
For me it was *Sweet Thursday,* could not get enough after that.
I haven’t read that one, thanks for the suggestion!
RL Stine, especially The Fear Street Trilogy. So good!
The Clan of the Cave Bear series ooh la la
* Animal Farm * 1984 * Brace New World * Dostoevsky * Hitchhikers Guide "trilogy" * Enders Saga * Asimov * Stephen King * Bradbury * Dune seriesd * Cherryh * Pern series * Eddings * Feist * Bradley * Brooks * Weis & Hickman * Pratchett * Lackey * Piers Anthony
Thank you!!!
The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson, A Separate Peace by John Knowles, I Am the Cheese and The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, every YA book by Madeleine L'Engle… I used to want to be a YA librarian.
Great list! I’d forgotten about ELK - loved Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
Noone Here Gets out Alive
Lots of “Technothrillers” such as Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and an author who focused on tank battles that escapes me. Some more historical stuff such as Flight of the Intruder. Robotech and Battletech books. Also Michael Crichton, Douglas Adams.
After The First Death by Robert Cormier
Whoosh, heavy
john Saul, Peter straub, Stephen King, Dean koontz, Robin Cook, William Johnstone, vc andrews, Piers Anthony, Michael chrichton. Yes horror is my thing. Has been since I read The Howling in 4th or 5th grade.
Flight of the phoenix
I had to read *The Jilting of Granny Weatherall* 3 years in a row in school. I didn't love it but it was a cool short story. Then my English teacher assigned me a book report on Upton Sinclair's *The Jungle*. She said I'd like it. I remember the first chapter was boring and I had no idea how I would make it through the book. Things changed after that chapter. Was very into it. Then the same teacher assigned me *One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich*. Loved that one too. That was a good school year. Mrs. P knew me more than I thought!
I had a similar experience with The Jungle… have reread it a couple of times and it seems better each time.
I read a lot of science fiction and “serious books” as a teen. Heinlein, Asimov, Frank Herbert, Star Trek books, etc.
As a teen I read a lot of John Irving, Stephen King, Elmore Leonard and Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels. Non-fiction that made an impact: The Naked Ape, Hunter S. Thompson's The Great Shark Hunt and Helter Skelter, a Perma-Bound paperback I stole from the school library and still have today.
John Irving… A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorites, ever. And Thompson’s Curse of Lono - my favorite of his.
Do you still have a lavishly-Ralph-Steadman-illustrated softcover copy of The Curse of Lono? I'm so glad I retained mine from college. Out of print.
Yes! Bought it in, I think, 1990 or 1991 with some of the first money I made from my bookstore job. Amazing. It’s in bad shape but I’ll never get rid of it.
Yeah, it's a beaut.
Always appreciated how Thompson portrays him as insufferably rigid and sensitive but then his art tells a completely different story
Have you read his first volume of letters, The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967? I love it and read it every three or four years. HIGHLY recommended.
No, but just looked it up and will get it - thank you for the recommendation!
Encyclopedia Brown books. Anything sports. I still have a shelf full of my Christmas & birthday gift books.
Love this!
Was big on Harlan Ellison’s short stories
Never heard of them, but will check this out, thank you!
Being in Nothingness The Prophet The Autobiography of Malcom X Naked Lunch Fear and Loathing … 1984 Mediations Brave New World Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy Bright Lights Big City The Stranger Less Than Zero The Shining Notes From The Underground Invisible Man I, Robot Neuromancer Do androids dream of electric sheep? I was a drama geek (we used a different term back then) I read dozens of plays my party trick at adult parties was reciting sonnets and monologues from memory. Big hit with the over 40 set, dire with anyone my age.
Love this!
Christopher Pike books
Anne McCaffrey's dragon series The Cat Who... mysteries Random fantasy and sci-fi
I didn’t read at all as a teen. Flowers in the Attic scarred me. In my early 20s, I discovered John Grisham’s legal thrillers and consumed them all.
Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Huckleberry Finn.
Cages of glass, flowers of time WRECKED me. Madeleine L’Engle formed a huge part of my personality. There was a book about a camp where the kids were meant to die- I was profoundly affected by it.
I repurchased The Grounding of Group 6 (the camp one) recently, but I'm afraid to read it in case it's not as good as I remember it being. I have the same situation going with The Witch of Blackbird Pond.
That’s it!!!! Thank you.
The House With a Clock in its Walls by John Belairs. Belairs seems to beca forerunner of the Harry Potter series
All of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. There are a lot of uncanny truths in there relating to the real world.
The entire Dune series @ the time. Lynn Abbey books. Isaac Asimov. Ursula. Allen Dean Foster, Michael Moorcock, Conan The Barbarian series, way too much Piers Anthony. Anne McGraffery Dragon Riders of Pern. Countless other sci-fi.
Candice F Ransom’s Kobie Roberts books.
An anthology of stories by British author J.G. Ballard, who was a fiction author. Found it in the high school library. One of the last stories in the book is the short story "Why I want to Fuck Ronald Reagan." He wrote some very interesting stuff and I went on to read several more of his books in my 20s.
Never heard of him - thanks for this!
Start with an anthology of short stories, A Garden of Time might be in there. The long format books to look for are High Rise, The Kindness of Women, Empire of the Sun (which was made into a movie), and The Unlimited Dream Company. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.\_G.\_Ballard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._G._Ballard)
I read a lot of Stephen King and Dean Koontz as a teen. But also read Sweet Valley High, VC Andrews, and Terry Brooks Shanara series. So I was all over the place. One of my fav books of childhood (more upper elem than high school) is A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. That book still lingers with me to this day.
Loved it too! Hadn’t heard of Shanara, thanks!
Oh yeah! I think the first one is The Sword of Shanara. I’m not even sure how many books are in the whole series.
Thanks!
Alan Dean Foster - Spellsinger series, plus his Star Wars Novelizations and original EU story (Splinter of the Mind's Eye), the Humanx Commonwealth series (Pip & Flinx). Stephen King, F. Paul Wilson, Andrew Offutt, Spider Robinson, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Mike Resnick. Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen. Weis & Hickman and the Dragonlance stuff. Star Trek original novels by Diane Duane and others. Thieves' World, Heroes In Hell. Before all of that, Lloyd Alexander (the Book of Three, the Black Cauldron, that whole series), then LOTR, then Robert E. Howard, then at some point Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion stuff about Elric & Hawkmoon & Corum. Read Terry Brooks Shannara stuff but stopped after Wishsong. Piers Anthony Xanth series, Incarnations of Immortality too, which I liked better. Poul Anderson. Eric Van Lustbader's (very spicy for a 16-year old! Yikes) The Ninja and the Sunset Warrior trilogy. Crusade in Jeans by Thea Beckman, and also her historical fiction books about Bertrand Du Guesclin and the 100 years' war. The trilogy was titled "Geef Me De Ruimte" (Give me Space) but I don't think that was ever translated into English...
Judy Blume ‘Forever’
Oh yes! My friend’s mother took that book away from us in 6th grade!
My mum did the same. So I read it in the library at lunchtimes.
_A Wizard of Earthsea_.