Childhood Discovery Reads

In my previous post I mentioned my boyfriend and I have an unspoken agreement to read books of each other's child hood. Well that got me thinking.

What was the biggest book series when you were a kid?

not like a little little kid when you first start to read but you know that sweet age where you start to find books on your own. Perhaps you find them at your school or local library and get hooked, but you're still too young to really have money so you beg your parents for the book, and continue doing so when the sequels start getting published. Then suddenly everyone's reading them. Did you ever have that? and what were the books series?

Two come to my mind. The first being Harry Potter by JK Rowling

This little gem got published in 1998, and at first didn't get much hype. in '98 I was in first grade but I didn't start hearing about it until my third grade year. By the time my mom had tried to get me into it, and actually bought me the Sorcerer's Stone, was my fifth grade year. But I can't say I was interested in it at the time. Probably because the movie was just about to come out. When the movie came out I was 10 and, in my opinion, a perfect age to introduce the Harry Potter series. I grew up with Harry, Hermione and Ron, as they met each other and started being friends at this new school, I was getting ready to move from my elementary school to a middle school. There wasn't a kid I knew that hadn't read the books or watched the movies. I remember taking a field trip to see Chamber of secerets in theaters. While other books were being picked up: Twilight and The Hunger Games.

I didn't get into the books until I saw Order of the Phoenix. I remember when watching that there was so much time lapse I felt like I was missing some key details. It had kind of happened in the Goblet of Fire, but not to the point where I felt like I missed something important.
I got pissed, not only because Professor Umbridge was the perfect villian you'd love to hate, and the time lapse made me feel lost, but because how they portrayed the time lapse in the movie. News article after news article, flying past. My vision sucks, I can't go to 3-D movie's with out getting a headache, even some action movies (damn shaky cam), there needed to be a focus and there wasn't. I get that was kind of the point, to be able to just catch a couple headlines here and there to get the general gist of what was going on, but it infuriated me because if I was able to snag a title or two my head would start hurting and I'd forget what it was anyway. I made the decision to not see any more movies until I read the books and found out what happened.

I didn't pick up the books until 2009. Fresh out of high school and onto a junior college where I found it hard to make friends and found the library disappointing. I picked up a used copy of the Sorcerer's Stone at a used book store, and devoured it. I was 10 again, waiting for my 11th birthday, getting excited about learning new things and if Harry was excited about learning new things at Hogwarts. When I was about done with one book I'd go to the local used book store and look for the next one. Sometimes slowing my reading pace because I'd have to wait a week or so before they got the next book in.

By this point all the books were published and The Deathly Hallows were under controversy due to a potential rating of "R' due to Hermoine showing boob in a scene. It was dropped to PG-13 and the movie was going to be in two parts.

By the end of me finishing the series of books I was crying and cursing JK Rowling for killing who she did (despite knowing due to Deathly Hallows book coming out my junior year of highschool) and critiquing the rest of the movie adaptions. I also dove into the fandom, found out my House (Hufflepuff at the time, after re-taking the quiz Ravenclaw and I'm going to say pending on the day I could be either or) wearing my hufflepuff cardigan proudly and defending the house of any ill conceived notions  and was devouring the information on Pottermore. And like the rest of the Potterheads I want more about the world and was ecstatic about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.

I have yet to read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the play by Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, and backed as the 8th book by JK Rowling, our of pure fear. I got it with the intention of reading it after my boyfriend finished the series. But I was also getting into Booktube and it was just critique after critique about how Potterheads don't except this book as canon. So I'll wait on that a bit.

The second series that comes to mind recently got hyped up again due to Netflix producing the series staring Neil Patrick Harris, and that's A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.

First published in 1999, I didn't get into them until 2004. This one I picked up due to a challenge my mom had presented to us kids. While we were at a book fair at my old elementary school she'd said she'd get the first three if I would read them before the movie came out (which it was due to that December). From what I remember I got through seven of them, and hated the movie. The movie starred Jim Carry playing Count Olaff and Jude Law as the narrator, and was only focused on the first three books, which I get, there's thirteen but they were off to a good start when I learned that this was going to be the only movie. I found Carry way to animated to be count Olaff. Though I did enjoy Law's narration (find me someone who doesn't love his voice). The movie also irritated me because the events weren't in order. This movie adaption was an early example of why I can watch the movie after I read the book.

The books themselves were charming, and though I didn't finished the series (I do intend to at some point) They held my interest for quite a bit. I was unable to finish due to the lack of access, my mom did buy me the first three, the next four I was able to get from my middle school library, but when in high school our library didn't carry them.

I do feel bad for this series as Harry Potter was just picking up steam about that time, the movies were being produced, the books of the series were still coming out. Even though Lemony Snicket's series was coming out as a movie, it was a flop and therefore over shadowed.

When asking my boyfriend (who is 5 years younger than I am) he said that the series that were popular at the time, were

The Maze Runner by James Dashner

and

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Also when asking my mom (who is 23 years older then me) this same question she came up with:

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardobe by C.S. Lewis

and

It by Stephen King

Though they both wanted to note that they're not entirely sure if these books were "popular" at the time but rather they were into them. Which I get.

The three of us were those children you would find in the library rather than on the playground. My mom was a "jock" and got along better with boys, but because she wasn't a "boy" didn't always get to hang out with them, so she spent most her time in school reading and doing extra curricular activities. My boyfriend and I realized that we were both those "awkward" kids. Not in any offence to any one, we both switched schools at an awkward time, and found it hard to make friends, the library was a safe haven, and it's books filled that void.

So what series did you first discover and devour as a kid?

Until next time

Litta