Cherished Childhood Memories with Books

Books were a big part of my childhood. One of my favorite things when I was being homeschooled was going to the local library. My mom would let us pick out a few books each, and then we would take them home. I always felt like such an adult when I was little, sitting in one of the library chairs and reading my book. Besides the books we would check out, we loved audiobooks. When I was tiny, cassette tapes were still available to be checked out at my local library. I would take my cassette tape player on road trips and listen to different books, and I remember the noise the tape would make as I rewound it. Cassette tapes were used only briefly, and then everything moved to CDs. The problem with CDs was the same as with cassette tapes: they were easily damaged, and the audio quality would be compromised. Oh, the books we would listen to on road trips, and I would listen to them. I still remember them with great fondness.
Part of what has me thinking about this is that my paternal grandmother loved books. She bought us a book called Cat Up a Tree. I found the illustrations funny, and since Grandma loved cats, it was an appropriate gift that summed up two of her favorite things. She also bought us a book called The Strawberry Snatcher, which I found disturbing as a child. The last book I remember her giving us was called Meaner than the Meanest. An old witch brews a potion that’s supposed to create a big, scary monster. Instead, a little girl named Daisy has bright pink hair. I would always read that book around Halloween time.

I don’t remember my first book, but I do remember my dad reading the Children’s Bible to us and reading Goodnight Moon. Some of my favorite book series were Rick Riordan’s A to Z Mysteries, Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Books, James and Deborah Howe’s Bunnicula Series, Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl Books, and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter Books. I loved the A to Z Mysteries because the mysteries they solved were never too dark and still provided an entertaining story. I remember finding the police chief’s description hilarious as a child. In one of the books, the police chief is described as chewing gum, drinking coffee, and typing on a keyboard. I found an adult being so busy entertaining. I also imagined growing up to have a significant, busy job. I, too, would be chewing gum, drinking coffee, and typing loudly. I rarely chew gum and don’t like coffee, but I type loudly. The Ramona Books offered a relatable series in which the children weren’t perfect. The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, and The Hardy Boys were unbearable because they were always perfect. No one ever misbehaved, and I knew I wasn’t a perfect child, so I gravitated toward books whose characters I found more relatable.

Bunnicula was a family favorite. Each time we went on a road trip, we checked out a new audiobook from the series. For some reason, we started in the middle of the series. We didn’t realize Bunnicula was a series; we grabbed an audiobook off the shelf and started listening. I remember laughing hard while we listened to “The Celery Stalks at Midnight.” We then went back and started the series at the beginning. Harold is one of the family dogs who serves as the narrator of the series. Bunnicula is a vampire rabbit who sucks the living juices from vegetables, leaving them white. This book series is probably my favorite from my childhood. Themes of grief, betrayal, friends making bad choices, etc, are just a few explored in this series. As for the Artemis Fowl books, I enjoyed the various characters and their antics. When the villain returned from being in a coma, and the LEPRECON commander was killed, I was so devastated that I stopped reading the books. I would still recommend them, but they weren’t my favorite.

I have a whole blog post devoted to my complicated relationship with the Harry Potter series. My maternal grandmother started by reading the first book to us, and I always found her reading them very entertaining. I’m not a huge fan of the movies. I’ve always preferred the books. I’ve continued the tradition of passing on the love of books by giving my boyfriend’s son books. He’s only two, almost three. So far, I have bought him four books. The first two were trains, and the most recent two were trucks. His birthday is approaching, and I will have to come up with another subject he is interested in. My love of reading has given me so much, and I hope to foster that same passion in the next generation.