On Reading

Re-reading my collection of Nancy Drew mysteries got me thinking about books I read in my childhood and teen years. I never read the Narnia or Oz books, or Anne of Green Gables. I seemed to graduate from Dr. Seuss to Nancy Drew. 

I read Nancy Drew from The Secret of the Old Clock through The Phantom of Pine Hill. The latter book was published in 1965 when I was 10. I read other mysteries too: Trixie Belden, Judy Bolton, and the Dana Girls. 

Then there were the teenage girl books: Diane's New Love and Toujours Diane by Betty Cavanna, Wedding in the Family and One of the Crowd by Rosamund du Jardin, Fifteen by Beverly Cleary, Seventeenth Summer by Maureen Daly, The Silver Pencil by Alice Dalgliesh.  

I also read Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell, Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor, Jassy by Norah Lofts, The Concubine by Norah Lofts (my first Anne Boleyn book) all the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and of course, I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith, which remains my favorite book.

As I write this, I remember other books. I don't intend to make a list of every book I've ever made. For one thing, my memory isn't that good. I had to goggle the teenage girls books. 

Some of these books are still important to me. I Capture the Castle, Jassy, and The Concubine remain favorites. I learned some history from The Concubine, Gone With The Wind, and Forever Amber. Last year I was thrilled to read a "lost" story of Sherlock Holmes in Preston & Child's White Fire. 

Reading is a way of life. I can't imagine not reading.