A Walk Down Memory Lane

Many of my fondest childhood memories surround books. I have been a bookworm since I first learned how to read, something my parents both encouraged and nurtured and for which I will be eternall grateful to them. Reading has become such a source of joy in my life that I can't possibly fathom what it's like for people who don't love it like I do. (This is something that is, apparently, contagious. Tim is not what one would consider "a reader". He likes to read now and then, but he is not continuously toting around at least one volume of something or other as I am. When we were first married this was a continual source of confusion for me, so I started throwing books his way - and while he's still not as voracious as I am, he's holding his own these days. Like all young newlyweds, we had no cash. Our solution to wanting to go out involved of a lot of evenings out that consisted of a shared value meal at Taco Bell (cinnamon crisps if we were feeling flush) and then as many hours as we could at Barnes and Noble. I think it was this that got him more on board with the greatness behind reading. In fact...we would often choose a book and then sit in their comfy chairs and just read for a while together. Then write down the page number, reshelve the book, and go home, picking up the story right where we left off the next Friday.)

Anyway, one of my best friends in elementary school was our school librarian. Mrs. Williamson always had a recommendation of a fantastic book that I should try (if I didn't already have a list from mom, who has a degree in Children's Lit.) She introduced me to Hildy & The Cuckoo Clock, Go to the Room of the Eyes, The Return of the Twelves, The Mummy Market, The City Under the Back Steps, and The Boxcar Children Mysteries - among many others. Periodically I browse around looking for an affordable ex-library copy of these sadly out of print books. So far I've captured the Twelves and The Room of the Eyes. I can't quite bring myself to pay the $110 they're asking for Hildy...though it's terribly tempting as the cheapest I've seen to date is over $200.

However, the other day at Amazon I chanced across The Boxcar Children...which it seems have been recently reissued. I found volumes 1 - 4 and 5 - 8 packaged up as box sets and happily snapped them up. Of course, there were 19 written in total, so I need to sort through the titles and see if all have been reissued and complete my set, but there's time. As soon as they arrived I pulled out the first one and sat down to read. It was a lovely little jaunt back in time - the story certainly holds up well and it doesn't seem that they've abridged or edited the books at all in the reprint. I imagine I'll be zipping through the remainder of the 8 very shortly (they're for ages 9-12, so they don't take long to read.)

So it begs the question...are there books you grew up with that you remember fondly? Have you found and read them again as an adult? How'd they hold up?