Book meme! Day 5

(Sorry, I didn't make it on to the internet yesterday.  I spent the day lolling around downtown and then doing laundry instead.  So there are two days today, probably.)

Day 05 - A book or series you hate

Taken in isolation, I only sort of dislike A Child Called It.  But the sustained creepiness of it being the single most popular, most requested book for teens in both public libraries I worked at over the course of 3 years raises it to a status bordering on hate.
I do hate Go Ask Alice.  Mostly because it is frequently presented as a) nonfiction, and b) a real diary, even though as I understand it it is a novelization of an amalgamization of various people the author worked with. (I want to say supposedly worked with, but I have no knowledge of her professional life - I just know the book is not a real diary.)  There can be plenty of things wrong with sustained or severe drug use, but I feel this book just doesn't present them plausibly.

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Book meme! Day 6

Day 06 - Favorite book of your favorite series OR your favorite book of all time

To keep the kid's book theme running, I guess I'll go with my first favorite book.  That would be The Castle in the Attic by Elizabeth Winthrop.  Mrs. Wood gave it to me to read in the 1st grade.  It wasn't the first chapter book I read but it was the first one given to me by someone at school, and I got to sit in the back of the classroom and read it all by myself.  This was huge, and I can still remember how it felt to sit there and be given permission to lose myself in this story, just privately.  I don't think I had to write about it or give an oral report about it or draw or do a diorama or anything.  No one else in the class read it - just me.  Sometimes it's lovely to have a book you share with others, but a private book is also a great pleasure, especially when you're small and don't have many private things.

I loved the medallion that made things small.  I still think the lesson in it is a good one, and the idea that even if you love someone that doesn't mean you can hold on to them no matter what they want was a really tricky one for me to get my head around at age 6.  I never learned to do gymnastics, but somewhere in the back of my mind I was always fascinated by them because of this book.  I suspect the book may have something to do with the number of apples I eat as an adult, too.
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