First off, if you haven't already entered the THE SECRET YEAR Teen Diary Contest Extravaganza, please do so in the official contest thread! The contest will be open until 4 PM Pacific time today, so best get diarying.Tomorrow THE SECRET YEAR will be published, and it will soon, dare I predict, become a favorite for many teens out there. And since we have both teens and former teens alike here on the blog: what was/is your favorite book as a teenager?
And by popular demand, a bonus question for the former teens: what was the worst outfit/hairstyle you wore as a teenager? Bonus points for a link to a photo.
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334 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 1 – 200 of 334 Newer› Newest»The Stand, Stephen King
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card.
Also The Stand by Stephen King. I still <3 that book.
I think it's a tie between "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card and "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle. I had a thing for weird and/or creepy.
Outfit: overalls. Anything involving overalls.
The Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard
Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger. I identified with every word.
It was a toss up between "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card and "Have Spacesuit, Will Travel" by Robert A Heinlein.
I always go back to The Island by Gary Paulsen. That book really moved me. Also, Zlata's Diary, by Zlata Filipovic, changed the way I thought about myself as a citizen of the world.
When I was 14 I had an AWESOME outfit that consisted of black velvet overalls and a shiny, silver top that was made out of stretchy accordion material. HECK YES, 1998!
I loved the Xanth series by Piers Anthony, and followed the Wrinkle in Time series by Madeleine L'Engle. But I think my favorite book was the Odyssey by Homer.
Harry Potter. I was even the Ravenclaw Prefect of our Harry Potter Club my senior year. Yes, we sorted new members and everything.
Maria Gripe's Beetles Fly at Dusl.
Hairstyle: a female version of mullet. It was gross.
Looking for Alaska by John Green really defined my teen reading, I think...I read it for the first time when I was 14 and I've recommended it to everyone since then.
And for your consideration:
http://i242.photobucket.com/albums/ff306/hannahShady/n675190299_129674_3448.jpg
I think that's about three years old.
Hey!
I just read a great marketing interview you did on www.faeriality.blogspot.com.
Great advice!
Beauty by Robin Mckinley was and still is one of my favorites!
Anything by Stephen King or Clive Barker. It's amazing how reading tastes can change as you get older. I still love horror/thriller movies, but not a favorite book genre anymore.
Can't link to pictures, but I actually used to wear pants suits to high school and rocked the high wave bangs.
One is One Picard. Oddly enough.
So many to choose from, eeeek....
As a younger teen, I loved A Wrinkle in Time and A Little Princess.
In high school, my fave was probably: Fletch by Gregory McDonald.
As a teen, my favs were:
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, Franny & Zooey by JD Salinger and A Separate Peace by John Knowles.
I couldn't pick then and can't pick now, so here's three.
The Stand was one of my favorites as was A Ring of Endless Light (L'Engle) and A Wrinkle in Time.
LOL, my favorite was Jane Eyre. First read it at 15 and fell in love with it.
It's still my favorite :)
Worst outfit--probably one of the shirts that I had that I wore secretly that showed my midriff. Thankfully that phase lasted only part of the summer I was 14, after gaining too much unwanted attention from it.
Thankfully I have no pictures of that--if I did, my parents would've never let me out of the house again.
Honestly anything by Leonard Goldberg. His series with Joanna Blalock always fascinated me.
I read the Lord of the Rings every year I was a teenager.
In seventh grade my two girlfriends and I decided to dress all in one color. One all in black, one all in white and somehow I got purple; purple shirt purple pants. Why did I think that was cool?
ummm...I read Agatha Christie in high school, just about non-stop.
I'm not sure if this will allow everyone to view it or not, but any outfit I wore in high school/jr high was horrific - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile=1&id=100000093483787#/photo.php?pid=70065&id=100000093483787
Argh, okay, I tweeted the link to my picture. http://twitter.com/hannahmosk/status/7446496410
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (really, all the books in the series). Still some of my favorites. :)
I think I'm older than most folks here...I was in college or older when Ender's Game came out. (Loved it.) I remember reading Shogun by James Clavell--brand new release, when I was a senior in college. It was in two volumes in the library, and I had to FORCE myself not to get the second volume until after I took my French final, because I had to study.
But as a teen... I think my favorite book may have been Exodus by Leon Uris. Or maybe--Hmm. I read Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, but wasn't too impressed. I really liked the Lord of the Rings books (except the Tom Bombadil scene--thought it was useless then, and still do)... Dang, that was a LONG time ago.
Oh Lord, HARRY POTTER defined my teen years. I read the first book when I was 12, the last when I was 22.
After that, JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte really stuck with me and is one of my favourite books of all time. As is HIS DARK MATERIALS by Philip Pullman, which I first read when I was 11 (and waited YEARS for THE AMBER SPYGLASS to be published--my teen years seem to be defined by WAITING for a book to come out...).
Dating myself...but
"Forever" by Judy Blume
PLJ
I'm going to have to say either Harry Potter or Gone with the Wind. Basically because I wanted to be both Harry and Scarlett at the same time, although I'm not sure how that would've worked out....
I may be dating myself to admit it, but in my (woefully inexperienced) youth I would have to go with Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress."
Among his many many books, that one and of course "Stranger in a Strange Land" are in my opinion the only two really worthwhile books he wrote. Many of the others were fun, but those are the only two that, these many years later, have stuck with me and that I could still tell you anything about the plot or the characters.
If staying power is any measure of quality, read those but let the rest of his repertoire go by the wayside.
I didn't really have a favorite book. I just liked to read.
Anything by VC Andrews. Flowers in The Attic was my first one then I was hooked on the rest. These books were considered racey when I was in high school so sneaking them around to read made them that much better!
Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert. It is, hands down, the most amazing book out there. <3
Though THE SECRET YEAR is also one of my favorites. (I was lucky enough to read it already)
SUMMER OF '42 by Herman Raucher. I read it every summer during HS. Also brings back memories of the song "Summer (The First Time)" by Bobby Goldsboro. They go hand in hand for me.
And THE STAND (by the God of Writing) - still one of my all-time faves. ;-)
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
For about a year there, everything I wore was topped off with a Flock of Seagulls style haircut, so you can imagine the clothes.
Wow, I'm amazed to see that a lot of people share the same answer as me...The Stand, Stephen King.
Early-mid teenage period? A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, and Weaveworld by Clive Barker, as far as I can remember. Oh, and there was The Neverending Story by Ende. Yes, these three, I guess. (If I had to pick only one of these, it would be Le Guin's work.)
I'm probably dating myself even more than others here...I don't there was much "YA" per se when I was growing up (Catcher in the Rye excepted), so mainly I read adult fiction. But I absolutely loved Mary Stolz, and I think many of hers would be classified as YA today. Ready or Not was my favorite
As a teen, I read anything by Christopher Pike voraciously. I still have most of his books in a box somewhere.
Worst hair was the Mall Bangs I sported all through junior high and high school. For clothes it was definitely the baggy jeans that were pegged (pinched and rolled tighly so they clung to the ankle) at the bottom! What was I thinking??
Sadly, I never got to enjoy a juicy book like this one as a teen. I was fairly traditional and enjoyed To Kill a Mockingbird more than pretty much anything back then.
I wish I had a photo of my hideous days of the high sideways ponytail and the Flashdance/off the shoulder grey sweatshirt with neon pink tank top underneath, matched with tight leggings. Oh..and jellies for shoes. 8th grade was not my best looking year! I think I wore more makeup that year than any other year in my life as well. Bleh.
Ringworld by Larry Niven.
I wore sweatpants with my flannel and Sun-In-streaked mall-wall-banged hairdo.
I couldn't choose one, so I have two. HARRY POTTER :D My early teen years I spent stuck to THE GIVER. I must have read it a million times.
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.
I totally forgot the bonus question!
My worst outfit in HS probably involved the pegged jeans. Other than that, my clothing style hasn't changed much since age 15.
My worst outfits lived in middle school where I had a Mrs. Brady hair style for 2 years, braces, and home made fluorescent clothes. (All pictures are still in hard copy. Thank God.)
Lolita- Nabokov. Funny, beautiful,dirty. Awesome.
I loved JANE EYRE. I remember my mother driving me to McDonalds and I wouldn't get out of the car because I had to finish the book. In school, I read PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and loved it. I'm still in love with Mr. Darcy.
I also loved lots of pseudo-profound books--but I'm too embarrassed to reveal the titles!
I wore--yes, FLANNEL SHIRTS! With painters pants. I also wore Mexican peasant blouses with silver turquoise jewelry or Osh Kosh overalls with my hair in braids (you know, the country girl from Long Island look).
The Talisman, King & Straub.
I just read Black House (the sequel) last year. Must have been 20 years since I read The Talisman.
The Flowers in the Attic series by V.C. Andrews. That, and Forever by Judy Blume.
My worse outfit? Everything I wore in the late eighties and possibly early nineties would qualify. Perhaps the scariest was a black jean dress that was two sizes two small and I may have cracked a rib zipping up. I'm just sayin'.
The Lord of the Rings - I read it about a dozen times before I left my teen years.
There's a great shot in my Sr. High year book for "Student of the Month." I'm standing next to a girl who normally wouldn't give me the time of day. I can tell I was trying be cool, but looking back I was just a dork. I had gray parachute pants with the zippers all the way down the sides (unzipped to puff them out more and reveal the contrasting black color underneath). I also had a red striped shirt with a skinny (3/4 inch maybe), red, leather tie, and my hair was permed. Man oh man it is wonder I ever found someone blind enough to marry me.
Louisa May Alcott's Little Women - I think I read it more than a hundred times.
I ignored homework, TV, playing outdoors, or anything else to lay on the couch in the living room and read Tad Williams' Memory, Sorry, and Thorn trilogy (The Dragonbone Chair, Stone of Farewell, and To Green Angel Tower). If ever there was a book that had an impact at a seminal time in my life, it was that trilogy.
My favorite books then (and still are) My Side of the Mountain and The Little Prince. Other than that I read a lot of Robert Bloch and Stephen King as a teen.
I wore my hair the same way then as I do now, only now I have less of it.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is one. I always had my nose in a book, still do to this day. The Guide hit my sci-fi button but I also liked to read Louis L'amour and my favorite of his was Jubal Sackett.
jamie-
Ha - I just re-read THE LITTLE PRINCE over the holiday. That book is so charming and strange. I love it.
The Lord of the Rings, Catch 22,, Slaughterhouse 5, Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game), The Brothers Karamazov, anything by Dorothy Sayers. Depends on the year.
D'oh! Worst outfit. I was the really smart kid from the messed up family, so imagine Eric from Head of the Class. Jeans, chains, bandana, leather gloves (with the fingers cut off), Metallica t-shirt, sitting in my AP Calculus study session after school.
Nathan, you have good taste. Would you like to read a partial? ;)Just kidding. My MG manuscript isn't quite right for you from what I have seen. Have a good one.
Grapes of Wrath
Nathan/ Jamie - did you know that there is now a Little Prince pop up book? (I too love Little Prince and reread it yearly.)
Selecting a favorite book is like being at a buffet of foods you love and having to choose only one thing to eat.
The "Anne of Green Gables" series and "Emily of New Moon" series by L.M. Montgomery were high on my list for most of my formative years. As a freshman in high school, however, I was assigned to read "Dandelion Wine," by Ray Bradbury, and loved it.
Hairstyles as a teen......remember big hair in the 80's and early 90's? Those styles were achieved by holding the hair out sideways, dousing it with enough hairspray to become a fire hazard, and then drying it with a hair dryer to infuse it with gravity-defying powers for the duration of the day.
Yes, sadly, I participated in this ozone-depleting phenomenon. I doubt I have pictures.....*lights match*.......anymore. >.>
Stranger in a Strange Land and the poems of Herman Hesse. Even my Peggy Lipton of Mod Squad/Joni Michell hair couldn't hide the nerd deep inside.
That Was Then, This Is Now by SE Hinton
The Great Equalizer by Rick Borsten.
Nobody ever knows what I'm talking about.
Oh, and Stan Lee's "Draw Comics the Marvel Way"
My favorite book was NINE STORIES, by J.D. Salinger. There was a time when I would reread that thing once a WEEK. I still have my old paperback copy. Even if it's been stuffed into its spot on my "classics" shelf for months, when I take it out it still falls open to my favorite short story, "DeDaumier-Smith's Blue Period."
As for outfits, the stuff that makes me cringe about my fashion past has actually come back into style! I would often wear a flared skirt with leggings and a pair of slouchy suede boots... and today I can walk into Forever 21 and buy exactly that! Yikes.
The Outsiders by SE HInton
A Wizard of Earthsea (LeGuin) and the Hobbit (Tolkien)
and for romance, any of the regency novels by Georgette- for her characters, dialogue and tight plots.
Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin. Yeah, I was weird, even then.
I was a teen before photography was invented, thankfully. Who are these whippersnappers who were teens when HP came out?? Seriously, I was, like, a total Valley Girl, so I'm thinking I had some sparkle boots and really tall hair. I can't exactly remember.
word verification: scescin - I am so scescin talking like a Val.
Am I the first to say my favorites were "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding and "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier???
Oh dear.
Everyone sounds like prodigies here, and I'm really impressed. Does that mean you all had someone wise giving you ideas on what to read? Inspiring English teachers?
I read a crazy number of books, probably one every two days, and my young adult favorites were literary classics, especially Dickens and Jane Austen, but as a teenager I read silly love stories (rated PG). So lame, but I was a teenager.
Hearts in Atlantis - Stephen King. It's still a favourite. And I did the Jeans and t-shirt thing, with my hair tied back in a ponytail. You'd do it too if you were a fuzz head that didn't know how to care for her curls. :P
Lord of the Rings
The Keeping Days by Norma Johnston
"Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood
The hair...oh, the horrors of high school hair. Not sure which was worse--when I shaved only one side of my head or when I got the 'fro perm and cut it into a perfect triangle.
All photos have been burned. Or, so I hope!
I'm not a teenager, but that's not stopping me from wanting to read THE SECRET YEAR.
My favorite book as a young teen was THE GODS THEMSELVES by Isaac Asimov, then later SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut. They're both still on my favorites list ten years later.
I don't have any photos, and my hair was pretty boring. I used to wear clothes a couple sizes too big, though. Not on purpose, just because I hadn't yet figured out how to dress. It wasn't flattering.
Book? A Ring of Endless Light, Madeleine L'Engle:
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780374362997-17
Hair? No laughing:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3091/2597065263_e32b718c83_o.jpg
LOL I forgot about Flowers in the Attic! Much of my junior high experience featured my friends and I reading all the "V.C. Andrews" books and trying to determine just what exactly was going on. (We didn't get much sex ed in junior high, lol) Now I can't believe those books are considered YA.
We also wore double pairs of socks in different colors over the bottoms of our pegged jeans. Oh my!
Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, and A Ring of Endless Light.
My tastes haven't noticeably changed. My clothes then: torn jeans, a flannel over a t-shirt (Pearl Jam), and the back half of my head shaved, top half long, worn in a ponytail. And Docs.
Now: jeans, a hoodie over a t-shirt (Social D), and Docs. At least my hair looks better.
For all of you who sported the big hair, I'm jealous. Hairspray and my hair are still bitter enemies and I never was able to master that look.
INFINITE JEST, by the late great David Foster Wallace.
And all you King folks... how can you all pick THE STAND (whose first half was so brilliant and whose second half was so, well, rubbishy) when you could pick IT? Come on, now, get it together. :) I mean, how can you not like a book called IT. There's a clown and everything.
As for fashion... well, there was a hell of a lot of flannel, yes. And below the flannel either Gazelles, Chuck Taylors or Docs. And on top some truly gnarly, long-ass hair. I would have made a great NARC, as everytime I went out strangers asked me if I could hook them up. I was like Pavlov's bell for drug users.
I had too many to name one as a favorite. A stand out is "Katie", which is out of print and difficult to Google, so I always forget the author.
"Fifteen" by Beverly Cleary stands out. "The Princess Bride." And believe it or not, a collection of Cicero's orations. I was a nerd (this should also answer the appearance question).
The entire Belgariad series by David Eddings. I remember waiting for each book to come out, then every year I would reread the entire series. It's still one of my favorites!
Richard Adam's WATERSHIP DOWN
T. H. White's THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING
Anne of Green Gables(and all the sequels)- Lucy Maud Montgomery
Had short hair similar to the lead singer of Spandau Ballet. Then resorted to the Big (permed)'80s hair. And, of course, acid wash jeans.
I read The Outsiders until my copy completely fell apart. This was around the same time that I decided that my brown hair would be much prettier if it was blonde. I used Sun-In and quickly discovered that brown is better than day-glo orange.
It was already an older book by the time I was a teenager.
THAT WAS THEN, THIS IS NOW, by SE Hinton.
A Princess Of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs
In middle school, I adored anything SE Hinton - still do, actually.
By high school, I read a lot of classics and adult fiction - I was also heavy into fantasy.
Someone mentioned the big hair... that was actually the best thing about being a teen in the late 80's and early 90's - I have thick really wavy hair. I didn't have to do a thing, it was big all on it's own... not so much fun now that I have to spend an hour just to straighten it :-)
Probably my worst fad was the headbanger chic look, I wore bandanas everywhere (though I'd be perfectly happy if I could still wear one as a belt).
The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore
I loved all three books as a kid. It's hard to look at them individually.
I was a Jane Eyre fan. I also liked The Shining by Stephen King.
I distinctly remember holding my bangs up in the air with a brush and spraying it for about 5 minutes straight so it would make a nice huge curl on the top of my head.
Duncton Wood, William Horwood.
Bane,
That almost makes up for you being a Lakers fan. Almost.
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
I also used to love the books set in the 18th century that were aimed at teens. They all were titled by name Casey; Danielle, etc.
I'll always love Jane Austen books. How many women wish for a Mr. Darcy? I'll probable end up with a Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights is a fav of mine). Next, I loved most of Steven King books (The Stand is my fav). Last but not least, Lord of the Rings has a special place in my heart. They would show us the cartoon version every year in Elem school. I admired, Looking for Alaska by John Green. I hoping to enjoy The Secret Year. I'm coming out the closet to say......I liked "Twilight".
The best book I read is MY BOOK. I've read my book at least forty times for my pleasure. I just have to put it down look enough to type a query letter.
Nathan....have you had the chance to glance at the diary entries? I'm sure we're all curious to know your thoughts on the entries so far. I did enter, but judging by what I've read so far, my chances don't look so good.
Thanks
Anita Mann
ahem...
Adams'
I keep doing that lately....
Thanks for the contest fun, Nathan. Here's wishing with THE SECRET YEAR a stellar year.
Bryan, I wasn't going to mention that KB shot that sank the Kings the other night, but I was definitely thinking of certain unnamed Laker haters when I witnessed the greatness of 24. (I know, all good will is gone now. At least you can revel in Cleveland's regular season triumph, eh? :)
Different Seasons, The Stand, The Talisman, all Stephen King
Worst outfit - Denim jacket with white leather fringe and fake knee high white leather boots. I wore them for my senior pictures.
Take that high school!
My absolute favorite book as a teenagers was When the Legend Dies by Hal Borland. We read My Side of the Mountain in fifth grade and I loved that book too. It's one I passed on to my daughter.
The Stand by Stephen King. And I'm eager to read the new graphic novel version that's just been released.
Oh, Ink, you're right. IT by Stephen King should be on the list. That was the one I couldn't remember.
The Stand, by Stephen King. It seems to be the consensus among us 80's children. I still love it today. But, I would also include The Hobbit, as it was my introduction into fantasy.
BofA-
Offensive foul!!!
Though perhaps the strategy of guarding Kobe with Sergio Rodriguez on the last play of the game was just A TAD misguided.
Scott O'Dell's ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS, fo' shizzle. It was the only book I read twice as a teen.
Forever, by Judy Blume.
You couldn't tell me anything. I thought I was grown. You would've thought I was reading Zane. lol
Bane and Nathan,
C'mon guys, we all know the Toronto Raptors are going to take the title this year, right? Right?
Harry Potter was my first love and it has lasted ever since, but The Island of Dr. Moreau fascinates me. I'm a little torn now.
Ooh I don't think I ever had a 'favourite' book. Loved His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (set me on track to a Theology degree!) and I have adored both Les Miserables and The Count of Monte Cristo ever since I first read them and they led me to the whole wide world of classical literature.
Although, on a slightly less highbrow level, I also adored The Little Prince and The Indian in the Cupboard series.
ink-
The Raptors will just be lucky if Chris Bosh is still on the team by the start of next season.
Nathan,
Why would he want to leave the World Champions? :)
Jeff - I'm reading The Stand in comic form. I'm not a huge fan of the artwork, but they're doing a great job of pacing out the story.
They're also doing The Talisman currently for those folks who loved The Talisman.
Definitely the "Flowers in the Attic" series by V.C. Andrews and "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
I also remember sneak reading "The Rose" and hiding it under my mattress so my mom wouldn't find it.
Outfit: I was a Belinda Carlisle wannabe but usually wore either acid wash jeans or stirrup pants, shaker sweaters from "The Gap" and either lace-up granny boots or Nike sneakers.
I'm actually quite impressed by Sactown's effort this year. In some ways they remind me of The Rockets. A few high skill players and lots of guys that just bring it every night.
Nathan, I feel bad for Canada, too. The only guy who wanted to play there (Hey, Portland, glad you got jilted by Hedo now, I bet) turns out to be a Scud of a dud and yet another all-star's going to be leaving them for Florida. After they win their championship, of course.
The Sea Wolf, by Jack London. I remember it as being the first assigned reading that I actually enjoyed.
I'm currently a teenager. Before, my favorite book was The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, but now I've changed it to My Most Excellent Year by Steven Kluger. I mean, I still love The Truth About Forever, but this book just rocks my socks off. I'm currently rereading it and if I do that, then you know I love the book. I mean, the subtitle on the cover says (A novel of love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park) I mean, who wouldn't want to read -that-? IMO.
All the Raptors need to do, you know, is learn to play defense. That's it! Then the title's totally ours. Easy.
And as soon as Jose Calderon gets back from injury our defense will... okay, I admit, it looks like Jose spent too much time as a youngster watching the matadors wave the red cape.
But it's a group effort! Yeah, a group effort. We're gonna go all zone from now on. Euro-style!
This was tough. I read a lot of fantasy as a teen, so The Wheel of Time and Lord of the Rings took up a lot of my time. But I'm going to have to cast my vote for:
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card.
ink-
Jamario Moon to Hedo wasn't exactly a defensive upgrade either. And can't believe Colangelo of all people didn't draft Omri Casspi! Luckily they have Canadian magic to carry them to the title.
I am a little red faced to admit that I LOVED Sweet Valley High. I read every book I could get my hands on.
Thankfully when I was fifteen my mother gave me 'Bluebirds' by Margaret Mayhew and Elizabeth and Jessica were left behind for greater things :)
I had a spiral perm bob. That's just wrong. Add in braces and you've got me hiding my teen photos from the general public :)
A Wrinkle in Time
These are some tough questions! I'm answering favorite book as a teenager by genre, because I can't really pick just one. They all have their strengths and times for reading!
Favorite...
Classic - Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Dystopian - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Sci-fi - Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Fantasy - tie between the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling available back then and The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny
Non-classic lit - Timeline by Michael Crichton
Non-fiction - Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
I've reread all those books multiple times and bought them for friends to encourage their reading too!
As for bad hairdos... I would put my hair in pigtails, make several braids from each pigtail, and then pin them in place to resemble the Princess Leia hairdo from A New Hope. To be honest, I still like it, but I got called a dork a lot for it, :)
And for looks... The worst I remember is when I got bored with how many old pairs of shoes I had and decided to start painting them. I recall wearing a pair that was bright pink and purple and a pair that was yellow with smiley faces all over it to school repeatedly on separate occasions.
It's the nice part of not caring what anyone thinks of you in high school: You're free to have fun!
Early pre-teen/early teen:
Cold Sassy Tree
Mid-teen until now (36 years of age!):
Pride and Prejudice
Wasn't a whole lot of YA, or I didn't know where to find it. I'd have to say Little Women.
A toss up between The Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen R Donaldson and Life, The Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams.
Lord of the Rings. Almost 40 years later, as good as it was the first time I read it.
I had several, but some that stand out in my mind are:
"The Besty-Tacy" books by Maud Hart Lovelace
"Fifteen" by Beverely Cleary
"Don't Die My Love" by Lurlene MacDaniel
Favorite book: Was, is, and always will be THE BLUE SWORD by Robin McKinley.
Worst outfit: Forest green jeans and a teal blue sweater. (I swear it looked all right in the dim light of my bedroom!)
Nathan,
I love that kid Casspi, from what I've seen of him. He's got some skills, but what I like is that he seems to have a lot of grit, a lot of intangibles. He's got some fire, too. I think that's one of the reasons the Kings are better. You add guys like Evans, Casspi, Nocioni, Brockman... got some toughness. Guys willing to stick their noses in there. And I like the talent of Greene, Hawes and Thompson, too. They got a future, those Kings.
Though I like DeRozan. They didn't pick him for now. He's nineteen and not fully ready yet. But he shows these flashes... just some jaw-dropping stuff. And he's a good kid who's willing to work. Good teammate. In a few years he could be something special. Of course then he'll probably leave for Florida or something (it's a national pastime up here, you know. What would Florida do without us?)
A Wrinkle in Time, and the Prydain Chronicles. No contest.
I'm happy to say that there are no pictures of me in my yellow gingham hiphugger jeans with the yellow turtleneck.
Unfortunately I have to jump on the V.C. Andrews bandwagon. I read pretty much everything by her in the 80's. The outfit was a hot pink and white striped oversized shirt that had Velcro instead of buttons. I wore it belted over the acid washed jeans and accessorized with earrings that looked a lot like dangling hot pink rotini pasta.
S.E. Hinton's The Outsideres and That Was Then This Is Now
Song of the Lioness Quartet -- Tamora Pierce
I've had a lot of favorite books, but some of my most favorite are:
Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery,
A Rose in Bloom by Lousia May Alcott,
Persuasion by Jane Austen,
Kilmeny of the Orchard by L.M. Montgomery
And Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington
I know, I have weird tastes...
Favorite book as a teenager? Well, I was a geek and listened to a lot of sad pop music, so it would have to be "The Perks of Being a Wallflower."
Worst outfit? God, where do I start? Baggy jeans. What was I thinking?
I read "Jaws" in fifth grade. I had to read it during school, because I would sneak it out of the house in the morning, and put it back on the shelf after school. "Bless the Beasts and Children" made a huge impression on me as well
Pride and Prejudice.
Twenty years and some things never change. Except those parachute pants. Oooh, those definitely had to change.
The Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling - it's the series that inspired me to write.
And also, MAGICIAN'S WARD by Patricia C. Wrede and THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King.
Fave books as a teen" Toss-up between The Stand and Salem's Lot by Stephen King.
High school fashion: I recall lots of hair, faded jeans and flannel shirts.
(I still love jeans and flannel shirts; like my hair MUCH shorter).
I was very fond of "Speak" by Larie Halse Anderson. Which was strange because back then I didn't really like anything that didn't have a secondary world setting. A very good teen novel.
A Ring of Endless Light and A Small Rain by Madeleine L'Engle. Oh and let's not forget Wuthering Heights.
Worst fashion statement of my teens... a HUGE over-sized sweater that looked like oatmeal pressed together and fell to mid-thigh. UGH!
The Book of Three series was always my favorite. I wanted to BE Elionwy of the red-gold hair. Loved L'Engle, too, V.C. Andrews, Paul Zindel, and especially Isabel Allende.
And I must have read Auel's The Valley of Horses like a dozen times before I turned twenty. Much more informative than sex-ed, lol.
Lord of the Rings, hands down, with anything by Jane Austen a close second.
As for fashion, it was the nineties, I was obscenely tall for my age, wore t-shirts much too large for me, thick straight bangs, and big round metal-framed glasses. Not my finest hour.
Graceling by Kristin Cashore. SO good. :)
Livia - YES! I was waiting for someone to say Tamora Pierce!
anything by Tamora Pierce, but especially The Song of the Lioness Quartet; anything by Diana Wynne Jones (I'm a Brit, by the way!); The Dark is Rising quartet by Susan Cooper; The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula le Guinn.
I love Ender's Game, but didn't discover it until more recently, think it wasn't such a hyped thing in the UK. My earliest sci-fi was probably the Animorphs!
Madeleine L'Engle was awesome too. And Laura Ingalls Wilder, of course!
I loved Annie Dillard in high school--my favorite book was the collection of essays, Teaching a Stone to Talk.
No one favorite, but here are several highly influential reads:
THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
THE TALISMAN by Stephen King
SKINNY LEGS AND ALL by Tom Robbins
Worst outfit- Guess jeans, tight-rolled at the ankles; Zodiac shoes with the loudest socks I could find; a polo-style shirt; long-ish hair (NOTE: I used to have hair. Really, I did).
So many choices, so little time. Off the top:
Then, couldn't get enough of Jay McInerney but I think he's determined to write about drugs and infidelity for the rest of his life. To this day, I'm impressed that he nailed (sorry) Alison's POV in Story Of My Life as a guy. Will's parallel life to Elvis in Brightness Falls should fall flat, but McInerney makes Will's penchant for cement mixers the cherry on top of a whole list of usual suspects that I root for despite their I'm-not-that-bad-ness.
Jane Smiley. Hands Down As The Enduring Favorite. I was horse-crazy as a teenager and Barn Blind blew my doors off. The battered paperback I read again and again was really intense and very weird so it was perfect. When A 1000 Acres and Moo came out, I was hooked for good. Chairman X is one of my all-time favorite characters. He's so simultaneously likeable and unlikeable that I feel like I should know his birthday, but not feel bad when I forget to send him a card.
Starship Troopers (still my favorite book, so it has endured more successfully than the other stuff I read at the time)
Illusions by Richard Bach.
I sported some sweet Corey Hart hair back in high school. He was the first person I ever saw in concert. Never Surrender, baby!
Favorite non-school book was The Chosen. Favorite school read was Catch-22. 1984 was way up on the list too.
O.R Melling's The Hunter's Moon and of course Harry Potter :P
"The House of the Seven Gables" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
I got to see the house in Salem, that inspired the novel, soon after I read it. It's supposed to be haunted. But then all the old New England houses are.
Everything Margaret Peterson Haddix. I read her "Shadow Children" series, and it was the first time I'd ever read any teen-sf that acted halfway serious. I loved it. Devoured everything she wrote. It's probably her fault I'm writing SF and not horse stores, haha :)
-Mandy
As a teen I loved anything by LJ Smith (it amuses me to no end that she's had a major resurgence in popularity recently) and VC Andrews.
I don't read VC Andrews anymore, because the tone and stories have changed since she died (and it's weird to read new books written by her estate's ghostwriters), but I still re-read my original LJ Smith series, and I still love them just as much.
Sabriel, by Garth Nix. I must have read that book like eight thousand times. I think it still holds up, too--a great read.
I also read a TON of Lurlene McDaniel books but let's not go into that now....goodness, that was a much different time.
Whoops - the outfit/hair bonus:
The completely unecessary perm on my already out-of-control hair and my checkered tam ala Mary Tyler Moore that couldn't cover it. And that's only my head.
I would never have survived the digital age.
One book that greatly influenced me was Go Ask Alice. Other than that, I loved V.C. Andrews and Stephen King.
Outfit/hair? Well, let's just say I was in the Bon Jovi fanclub in high school -- this is confidential right? -- and wore my Jersey girl-style bangs/permed/ blond-streaked hair with leopard skin pants and a lace tank top to their concert. No money in the world could get me to cough up a picture from those days. Oh, all with electric blue mascara and eyeliner. I was so cool!
Have Spacesuit Will Travel. Loved the Heinlein YA books. (And the not so YA)
I loved Petals on the Wind by V.C. Andrews, and Flowers in the Attic as well. Then, there was Lord of the Rings, To Kill A Mockingbird, and so many other books. Oh, wait, The Stand by Stephen King. One piece of advice - never, when in impressionable teenage years, ever read The Stand when you have the cold and/or flu like symptoms. I swore, I just knew I had the same disease by the time I was part way through the first chapter.
Wow..some of you were into some heavy stuff as teenagers! I read teenage stuff, and the one that jumped out when I read the question was just about anything by SE Hinton.
I read The Complete Works of Shakespeare in 7th grade but it certainly wasn't a favourite!
I also discovered Victoria Holt in my teen years. I read my first Stephen King book in University and he quickly became a favourite then but I was an older teen by that time, 18.
All I know is that my teen years passed in a blur of words!
Breeze
My favorite book was easily The Chronicles of Amber, by Roger Zelazny. I still love that series enough that I unlurked for the first time ever just to say so.
Worst I ever wore were the two-layer t-shirt and button-up shirt, with the latter untucked and unbuttoned. That was in the nineties.
Favorite book as a teenager: Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.
I read in all the age categories as a teen, so I've listed one favourite per age group.
Adult: I, Robot - Issac Asimov
Young Adult: A Tale of Time City - Diana Wynne Jones
Children's: The Last of the Dragons and Some Others - E. Nesbit
Young Children's: The Lorax - Dr. Seuss
Anything Nancy Drew and also there was a bunch of books out back then that were YA girl's names... Cassie, Rachel, Laura,... and they were by different authors. All were historical romances. The nice thing about them was that they weren't cheesey. I can't find them in print in stores so if anyone knows what on earth I'm talking about email me.
My favorite books in high school were "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith (more like middle school), and "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
Bad high school hair? They called me Dorito-head. Curly hair just should never be shorter than shoulder length. And curly bangs should have been illegal.
Does anyone else remember those t-shirt buckles we used to thread out long t-shirts through? And rhinestones and puffy paint. And those big fat scrunchy tie-died socks? uhhgg.
A Separate Peace, John Knowles.
Crimped hair and star-shaped enamel earrings a la Gem and the Holograms.
I'm afraid I fell in love with Mr. Darcy my sophomore year, and he ruined me for other men. (Thankfully, the six inch bangs disappeared...but not the love.)
On a side note, my sister posted this cartoon on her blog this morning, and it made me laugh. SO MUCH ANGST floating around on the internet right now:
http://thereignofellen.blogspot.com/2010/01/cartoon-wednesday.html
I borrowed The Lord of the Rings from a friend's father and it opened a whole world of fantasy for me. (and the most memorable outfit was crushed blue velvet bell bottoms that had a purple tapastry waistband and seat. I still have them but, alas, they no longer fit)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
I borrowed The Lord of the Rings from a friend's father and it opened a whole world of fantasy for me. (and the most memorable outfit was crushed blue velvet bell bottoms that had a purple tapastry waistband and seat. I still have them but, alas, they no longer fit)
GO ASK ALICE - So good I felt like I should hide it from my mother.
Tolkien. Definite favorite.
Although alot of folks have mentioned other fantasty books I loved - at the time Madeline L'Engle, Anne McCaffery, Marion Zimmer Bradley, others. Not all of them held up, but at the time, they were magical.
Oh L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, oh so many.
I think books helped to form who I became. I became inspired reading books about PCs making heroic and moral decisions.
Favorite Book--A Separate Peace!!! Practically had it memorized I read it so many times. Saved me in AP English, I could tie any theme back to A Separate Peace no matter what the assignment was.
Worst Outfit--tight-rolled jeans. Ugh! I shudder to remember.
Pride and Prejudice by jane Austen, definitely!
Karen L. Reese said...
Hairstyles as a teen......remember big hair in the 80's and early 90's? Those styles were achieved by holding the hair out sideways, dousing it with enough hairspray to become a fire hazard, and then drying it with a hair dryer to infuse it with gravity-defying powers for the duration of the day.
Yes, sadly, I participated in this ozone-depleting phenomenon. I doubt I have pictures.....*lights match*.......anymore. >.>
January 6, 2010 9:46 AM
Karen: I remember that. I think it was called "splowing"
Alright... here's the link to my picture. It's a classic formal shot. My first Valentine's Dance!
http://www.jenniferjbennett.com/2010/01/teen-torture.html
I still remember how impacted I felt reading Gone With the Wind when I was in high school. Just reread it last year and loved it again.
I want to say something other that Harry Potter because OMG MAINSTREEEEAAAM, but... it was Harry Potter. Prisoner of Azkaban, to be precise. Though I did have serious love for Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass," as well.
My worst outfit proooobably involved my gray snakeskin-print polyester pants.
Stalky & Co by Kipling.
Please don't laugh.
Helped me survive high school.
Catcher in the Rye
The Drifters by James Michener
A NICE GIRL LIKE YOU, by Norma Johnston (and yes, it's been a few years since I was a teen -- why do you ask?)
Oh and Lord of the Rings.
Okay, so I'm I'm feeling extremely old and geeky right now, but in my early teen years, I owned every book from R.L Stine's Fearstreet series (teen horror), I also loved Judy Bloom. Later on, The Stand by Steven King, and Harry Potter were favorites
Hair? Don't get me started! Let's just say hairspray was NOT my friend... and the fave shoes were a pair grass green Nike hiking boots.. yeah. uh huh.
I loved so many books already named- Little Women, Hitchhikers guide, Lord of the Rings, The Outsiders, Handmaids Tale. So many others, but your diverse readers have covered it.
I had a pair of palazzo (wrap around) pants- bright green silk with a bamboo print (originally my mom's). The pants were so amazing that I can't even remember what shirt I wore with them. They would open on the sides when I walked and I was thin enough to feel confident about that. And I had a bandana shirt that I wore like a poncho with a tank underneath. Not cool for the mid-to-late 90s, but I liked to wear perfectly normal clothes sprinkled with "What the heck?" outfits.
Tiger Eyes by Judy Blume
Yes. I'm old.
The Kin of Ata are Waiting for You, by Dorothy Bryant
I must have read it 30 times.
Another one is Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart.
Here's not only the worst haircut I had but the one I kept through most of my teens. Oh who am I kidding. I STILL have this haircut.
http://blog.nancycoffelt.com/2009/11/christmas-day-1960-or-70-something.html
I was actually a huge fan of the non-fiction diary "Go Ask Alice." I enjoy those types of books. They take me on adventures I'll never experience.
Yet another vote for 'The Stand' by Stephen King.
My favorite book as a teenager was A Wrinkle in Time. I loved it. I soon got engrossed in Star Wars novels, and found that Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy is better than the entire prequel trilogy and much deserved to be made into a film.
My favorite books when I was a teenager: anything by John Steinbeck (both his popular and lesser known novels), THE GLASS BEAD GAME (MAGISTER LUDI) by Hermann Hesse, MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL by T.S. Eliot and the play script for THE GLASS MENAGERIE by Tennessee Williams. I also discovered the poetry of T.S. Eliot, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Byron, Keats and Shelley which made me forever fall in love with writing.
Gerald's Game - Stephen King
I'd like to say "The Stand" was my favorite book as a teenager. Unfortuately, I wasn't a teenager when it came out!
I'd have to say "Gone With the Wind" was my favorite because it was the first book I read as a teenager that I couldn't put down.
Bonus question - Worst hairstyle I wore was the shag. At the time I loved the fact it was long, but out of my face. Should have just worn a ponytail.
A Farewell To Arm by Ernest Hemingway. It had everything: scenery love, war, death, desertion, angst, and best yet, a past, present and future. And, as a teenage I wanted all of it.
Favorite books: Lord of the Rings. My sister and I would sit on the screened porch in the summer and read them out loud.
Icky hairstyle: When I was 12, I wanted to be a blonde, so I'd pour hydrogen peroxide on my fingers, run them through my hair, walk around outside, and look innocent at the dinner table. "Is your hair getting lighter?" my mother would say. "I don't think so," I would lie. Then to make our hair straight, my sister and I would iron it on the family ironing board... jesuschristandholymarymotherofgod...
Okay, this dates me.
I love a lot of the books mentioned, but they came in college years or later.
As a teenager, I loved THE PROPHET by Kahil Gibran and THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST by Tom Wolfe.
(I also read The little Prince over and over when I discovered it in college.)
typo: I meant to write Kahlil
The Lord of the Rings books were collectively my favorite. I think the same was true of half the kids in my small town. We lived and breathed them.
As for you who's parents were teenagers in the sixties...
Your fashion choices became very influenced by our rebellion against our extremely limited fashion choices in our teens. It resulted in a fashion industry boom for teens that continues.
(We had to make our own fashion statements. And rebelling from 50's parents, that meant anything loud, wild, colorful, scary, flamboyant, tie-dyed, patched, bell-bottomed,or made of alternative materials–think plastic, paper, food substances– etc. And for hair: it was longer the better, if it was curly, we ironed it, if it was straight we puffed it out. We were us some wild and crazy kids.)
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