100 Things - #7

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I haven't done a 100 Things post in aaaages, and if I don't get a move on, it will take me years to finish. Remember - you can ask me questions! It can be personal (within reason), fannish, hypothetical, political, philosophical, silly, whatever.

(Questions I still have to answer: "Name a book or film or show or play (or whatever) that made you question your most deeply held beliefs." from fuelforflight - OMG HARD! Still thinking. Also "If you were a superhero, what would your superhero name and special power be? What would you costume look like?" from snickfic. I haven't forgotten!)

Today I'm going to go to the prompt generator: Between the ages of 5 and 10, what was your favorite activity?

I was an extremely active child, lol. During that time span, I took dance classes (ages 4-6) and piano lessons (started at age 6), and I think I started basketball around age 9? But my favorite thing to do was to read. I was that kid who would sneak a book into bed so that I could stay up way past my bedtime reading. (Come to think of it, maybe my terrible eyesight comes from all that reading in the dark?) I remember that my school used to have a book sale thing every year, and I'd exasperate my mother because she'd let me choose three, but I wanted ALL THE BOOKS and kept saying, "Please, Mommy? Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

Some of my favorites were the Little House series, the Narnia series, Bunnicula (which was also a series, as I recall), Tuck Everlasting, Bridge to Terabithia, and Island of the Blue Dolphins. I am fuzzy on which age I read what, but I was always a pretty advanced reader for my age. I do recall that I was reading Lord of the Rings and Les Miserables by middle school, so...

What were your favorite books as a child? And what was your favorite childhood activity?

Comments

[goldenusagi]

My favorite childhood activity was definitely swimming. I could swim every day in the summer all day long if they'd let me.

[next_to_normal]

Oh yeah, I was a big swimmer, too! We belonged to a swim club when I was growing up.

[alexeia_drae]

I LOVED the Little House books. I read them over and over. I read all of the time. As an adult I've met so many other people who loved them, but growing up I was the only one, or at least the only one who would admit to it. I liked a lot of the R.L. Stine Fear Street books. And the Orphan Train novels were awesome. Then there were the classics. Louisa May Alcott, the Bronte Sisters, and fairy tales.

Reading was probably my favorite activity.

[next_to_normal]

I forgot about the Fear Street books! I don't know how old I was, but I know I skipped over the Goosebumps series because Fear Street was more "grown up." And then I had lots of nightmares, lol.

[alexeia_drae]

I skipped over Goosebumps, too! For the same reason! I'm pretty sure I was in elementary school when I read them because I was till playing with Barbie dolls (shh!) And yes, they definitely creeped me out!

[fuelforflight]

Don't sweat it! I wasn't my intention to give you a headache.

By the way, I've often wondered the same thing about my own terrible eyesight. Reading by the light of an alarm clack was bound to have some sort of negative effect on my sight, I guess.

And Little House! I loved (LOVED) those books as a kid. Which was your favorite?

[next_to_normal]

No, it's a great question, but it's very ~deep and requires introspection, lol.

Oh man, I don't know if I could pick a favorite Little House book. I do love Laura's teaching job and the courtship between Laura and Almanzo, although I think that's something I focused on more as I got older along with Laura? Prairie and Plum Creek were my favorites when I was a kid, I think, although they kind of blur together with the TV show...

[rahirah]

The Narnia books, the Mushroom Planet series, any kind of animal book, particularly horses (so Black Beauty, the Black Stallion, Brighty of the Grand Canyon, etc) The Hobbit (didn't get into LoTR till later, as I was peeved that it wasn't about Bilbo) almost anything by Zilpha Keatly Snyder, the Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek and anything else with dinosaurs in it...

When I got a little older, James Blish's Star Trek adaptions and anything by Andre Norton.

[next_to_normal]

Heh, you can tell we are of different generations, because I've only heard of maybe half of those!

[rahirah]

I think a number of them weren't Eternal Children's Classics (speaking of which, I should have mentioned The House at Pooh Corner and the Jungle Books, too), just books I happened to find at the library. Most of them are probably out of print.

ETA: Eeee! No they're not, I just checked Amazon. Must...battle...urge...to... re-stock entire library of childhood...