Books, Books, Books

Books have always played a big part in my life. As a child, that was how I got to travel and soar and escape. My mom told me that I would hide out in the library when things get bad in school and she'd know that I'd be amongst the books when she picks me up, as requested by the guidance counselor. And because Heather McDougal is my idol when it comes to blogging.


Compton's Young Children's Encyclopedia - I remember reading the set when I was in Nursery (?) rushing home from school after mastering the alphabet and trying to put together the letters to form words and trying to read the colorful volumes of the set. I fell instantly in love with books then, reading the volumes over and over. Several years later, I moved on to:

Compton's Encyclopedia - the grown up version of Young Children's Encyclopedia. This one was hard-core and text heavy. The images were real photos, not the colorful painted ones in the junior version. I felt so grown-up reading the volumes at early grade school, reading about cells, outer space, classic paintings and history way before anyone else. Of course, everything I read about we didn't take up in school until late grade school. I remember surprising my grade 4 substitute science teacher with my knowledge on cells, which we were just being introduced to, which I read about years before.

Nancy Drew series - everyone was reading Nancy Drew when I was in grade school and that was when I came out of my shell and established friendships with my peers. My friends and I would exchange Nancy Drew books and read them over recess and lunch, sitting on the ledge of the cafeteria, waiting for the bell to ring. Other people were reading the Bobsey Twins and Hardy Boys, but I never really got into them. For me, Nancy Drew was tops.

Sweet Valley Twins - grades 4-6 were filled with Sweet Valley High books chronicling the lives of Elizabeth and Jessica. My friends and I had a club called "Peanuts Club" prior to the SWT boom and promptly changed the name to "Unicorn Club" (which was Jessica's club in the book) as a tribute to SWT.

Sweet Dreams and Sweet Valley High - these were THE books to read back in late gradeschool and early high school. I cried when I read P.S. I Love You and when a Sweet Valley High character died. I craved potato chips and ketchup when the character in Ghost of A Chance snuck some in her crotchety aunt's island house. It also signalled puberty, as well as our growing interest in boys.

Children's Sherlock Holmes - I don't remember the exact name of the book, but it was a simplified version of the grown-up Sherlock Holmes stories. The series had several volume with 3-4 stories each. I was so amazed with Holmes that I aspired to become a detective, practicing my observation and deduction skills. This is probably why I love House and Psych -- House and Shawn are clones of Sherlock Holmes. I still like playing detective and I don't think I'll ever tire of it. I wish I could find the exact books we had but alas, I can't find them anymore. I have the 3-volume annotated collection, but I miss the old children's paperbacks.

Reader's Digest Great Stories of Mystery and Suspense - reading Sherlock Holmes opened my eyes to my dad's bookcase (my dad's a big fan of mystery and suspense books) and came across this 2-volume collection. It caught my attention because the spines, when put side by side, formed a silhouette of a man in a trench coat and hat, wielding a gun. I read the Maltese Falcon, Cask of Amontillado and Masque of the Red Death here and found out that gumshoe is another name for a detective.

Perfume - my sister bought this at a used bookstore when she was in college and I read this in high school and am still amazed by this book. I never thought words could evoke the sense of smell but this book totally changed my mind. Each chapter is wonderfully constructed in such a way that I was transported to stinky old Paris and to the French countryside with its numerous perfumeries. I loved the perfume-making process described in the book and I still marvel at the instruments and bottles and alembics (I like that word). I still have that old battered paperback copy that my sister bought more than a decade ago.