Ok – I took everyone’s advice and ignored the yarn for this week’s Sneak Up and am reading Harry instead. 🙂 I’m actually almost done with the book. I will admit that I have stopped to do one thing or another (I’m not ignoring your orders – just the new yarn) but I will finish the book today. It’s good and I’m anxious to see how it all turns out. I have enjoyed the author’s creativity in these HP books. (And there are some inventions in there that I think would be darned handy to have around.)
So, since we still need a contest for July, I thought I’d see what everyone’s favorite book is. I love to read and while I can’t necessarily come up with one favorite book (although I will say I loved all of the Chronicles of Narnia), I thought I’d share my favorite childhood books with you. It’s funny to read them now, because I’m not sure why these became my favorites out of all the ones I had. But they did. The Lonely Doll is not a book I ever owned, but I remember checking it out from the library multiple times because I loved it so much. I majored in Elementary Education in college, with a minor in Reading, and somehow during one of my Children’s Lit courses, I rediscovered this book. (I always remembered it – just couldn’t remember the name or author.) I was so happy to find it available to order and now I have my own copy. It’s about a doll and two teddy bears who live in a house (no adults) and get into all kinds of adventures. I think there might’ve been a sequel or two, but this was the one I liked.
My other two favorites were Bunny Blue and Mr. Snitzel’s Cookies. This is my original copy of Bunny Blue from when I was young, but I found Mr. Snitzel on ebay a few years ago. (Is there anything you CAN’T find on ebay?) Now I have these books displayed in a cupboard and I like having them there. Every so often I have to go back and read them. So what about you? Are there books from your childhood or adulthood that you’d call a favorite? I know that a lot of knitters are also book lovers, so it’ll be fun to get some new suggestions for good books. Leave your favorite book here in the blog comments by next Wednesday, August 1st, and I’ll do a random drawing for our monthly Loopy Gift Certificate! I’m also going to do the August blog contest very soon, in celebration of our one year anniversary – so keep an eye out here for that as well. There is a great grand prize for that contest!
Ok – back to Harry………..
Sheri um,no,mySockapaloozaPal’ssocksaren’tdoneyet.Harryisgettinginthewayofeverything.
I am a bibliophile and I have reads thousands and thousands of books. And I actually have a favorite. MAIA by Richard Adams, before I discovered Maia, my favorite book was The Island of the Blue Dolphins. I have re-read both books many times and always enjoy each reading.
My favorite childhood book would have to be Little Women; I think my favorite now would have to be anything Jane Austen!!!
Favorite childhood books?
* Island of the Blue Dolphins
* A Wrinkle in Time
* The Secret Garden
* anything Nancy Drew
* anything Cherry Ames
* anything Mrs. Piggle Wiggle
* sci-fi by Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov
* The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat — I read this as an adult but I think kids would like it (if you like cats, that is):
Childhood books
Black Beauty by Anna Seweel
Favorite adult books?
* anything Jane Austen
* Chronicles of Narnia
* Clan of the Cave Bear series
* Mitford series
My favorite book was “The Trupmet of the Sawn” by E.B. White. I remember reading it in 3rd grade. I also read a lot of the Beverly Cleary books and in middle school I read Goosebumps.
Now my favorite author handsdown is Nicholas Sparks.
great contest, brought back good memories.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is great, as is To Kill a Mockingbird, but my all time favorite would be I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Highly recommend it!
Have fun with Harry! My favorite book has already been mentioned EAST OF EDEN-by Steinbeck.I read it as a teenager and recently re-read it- still loved it but for very different reasons. Time gave me a new perspective I guess. also The Education of Little Tree was a wonderful book as are any written by Wendel Berry.
Only ONE favorite kids’ book? Wow, I don’t know. I think for younger ones, I love The Sneetches, and The Lorax. Also one I found more recently for my own kids, called Old Turtle and the Broken Truth. They love that book. Then I loved the Tolkein trilogy and The Hobbit. And, a Wrinkle in Time. And, without a doubt, one of my all time favorites was The Phantom Tollbooth. And Little Women and Little Men. Ummm… let’s see. The Susan Cooper books were ones I read tons of times. Also, The Young Unicorns. Oh! and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Awesome book. I kept copies for all of these for my girls, and my older daughter is working her way through them (in between reading HP; she finished it Saturday after it was released and I read it Sunday — enjoy!).
I read non stop when I was growing up. I remember loving Harriet the Spy then it was Agatha Christie mysteries, The Far Pavillions by MM Kaye and Green Darkness by Anya Seton.
I could never get my 9 yo to read any of the Harry Potter books until about the second week in May. I suggested she try the first one since it wasn’t that long. She was through the first six in 5 weeks-and yes she already done w/ #7. It is great to see children so excited about reading.
BTW-do you have an idea of when you are getting more Perchance to Knit & Chewy Spaghetti sock weight??? Not that I NEED any yarn…
Oh my gosh, how could you ever choose a single favorite? 🙂 But when I was REALLY little, back when my mom used to read to me, my favorites were “If I Ran the Circus” by Dr. Seuss and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle stories (and a book about paleontologists who found dinosaur bones in the Gobi Desert. I really wanted to go to the Gobi Desert and dig up dinosaur bones!). And the first chapter book I ever read was “Little House in the Big Woods”–I loved those Laura Ingalls Wilder stories!
Now, if I had to choose an absolute favorite, it would probably be The Hobbit…but there are an awful lot of books I really love. 🙂
My favorite book as a child was Little Bunny Follows his Nose. It is a scratch and sniff book and the bunny goes around the countryside visiting places and friends following his nose. So he gets to smell evergreen, strawberry jam, roses and other things. I wore that book out scratching and sniffing. My mother happened upon a new copy at a bookstore a few years ago and bought me a copy. So I can scratch and sniff any time I please! And I don’t have to share it with my sister either!
My other favorite book was a craft book. I can’t remember what is was called, but it featured needlearts and other craft ideas. Anyway, it was the book that I used to teach myself how to knit. I tried to learn how to crochet from that book, but that wasn’t as successful, but I do know how to crochet now. 🙂
I’d have to say Grimm’s Fairy Tales. I still read them over and over and get excited when I can read one of them to my daughter.
My favorite book is The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. It is reputed to be the first novel ever written and it was written by a woman!
I don’t have a favorite book but I do have a favoite author, Barbara Taylor Bradford. I have everyone of her books. I read alot and read everything from trashy romance to self-help type books.
This is a tough one for sure and I think the answers differ depending on what time in my childhood. As a really little kid, my mother had a vintage set of Child Craft books from the 40’s and I was obsessed with Little Black Sambo. At that age I had no idea what the significance of the story actually was other than the fact I liked the little boy holding the tiger’s tail. As an older child it would definitely be Anne of Green Gables, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and James and the Giant Peach. My mom would read those books to me in bed when there was a power outage in the winter.
My favorite book is Green Dolphin street–I read it at least once a year, every year!
I also love the Nancy Drew series, and I read them over and over as well!
Picking *a* fave book is hard. I have tons that I read for different reasons. One of my favorite childhood books is The Blue Sword by Robin Mckinley. Every time I read the first sentence, I feel like I’m pulling a cozy blanket around my shoulders and settling in for a great time.
I think I checked out every book in the library by Joseph Lippencott when I was in elementary school, maybe 3 or 4 grade. They were about stories of animal adventures and lifes from the animal’s viewpoint. The deer was being shot at by hunters and trying to survive, etc. I may have the author name wrong coz I have never found any books lately.
i don’t know if i can choose one favorite book, but when i was growing up, it was definitely ‘bridge to terabithia.’ love that book! i still try to read it every year or so. 🙂
Childhood favorite: Twas the Night Before Christmas — you know, the one with the ‘really’ good pictures that Mom gave away. :>)
Grown up favorite: Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
HP is among my favs though. Finished The Deathly Hallows in 1.5 days… 500 pages in one sitting. It is a doozy!!
My favorite books from childhood were the Gus the Friendly Ghost books, about the ghost and the mouse in the house alone, and the Disney books because they were so colorful. Oh, and I bought copies on ebay last year.
This is a tough one! As far as number of times re-read my favorite would have to be The Count of Monte Cristo. Although as far as the most anticipated it is a tie between the Harry Potter series and the Sword of Truth series.
I love the Story of Ping. It was always my favorite. I think my older sister knew it by heart. The Yangzee River looked so pretty in the illustrations and Ping was such a cute duck. I also loved the boat with the eyes.
Back to Harry Potter. I am a very slow reader.
My favorite “adult” book is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. But my favorite from childhood has to be The Secret Garden. I went through 2 copies because I read it so often. I think I really need to read that again. It’s been a while.
Tough question and impossible to pick just one. Some of the books that I’ve read and reread… Favorite classic is Pride and Prejudice; I can read it over and over and recite the words with the movie. Then there’s Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchey. I just get so wrapped up in the story and the characters. Every time I read it I want it to turn out differently. And the book I fell in love with when I was younger and enjoyed just as much when I reread it recently is Summer of My German Soldier. It’s about a German POW camp in the US (Alabama I think) and a young Jewish girl hides an escaped prisoner in her tree house. Sounds random I know, but it’s so unexpected and wonderful. I remember reading it when I was younger and crying my eyes out.
There are two stand-out favorites that I can remember from my “young adult” stage:
The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien
The White Dragon – Anne McCaffrey
For those slightly younger, I’ve got two more:
The Dark is Rising – Susan Cooper
A Wrinkle in Time – Madeline L’Engle
(off to go dig them out for my upcoming camping trip …)
I knew I liked you! The Lonely Doll was a favorite of mine too. The biography that someone mentioned early on in the comments is The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll: The Search for Dare Wright and it is a fascinating read. Sad, but a fabulous story. I never knew that she grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, OH very near to where I lived as a child.
Wow – so many great books are list, a lot of which sparked great memories. As a kid, I was a huge bookworm, so there is no way to narrow it down to just one.
I really liked the Trixie Belden series – think Nancy Drew for a less sophisticated tween, and all of the Wrinkle in Time books.
I nearly wore out my set of the Chronicals of Narnia. Laura Ingalls Wilder was great as well because I grew up near where she did, so I was familiar with some of the places in the books (Lake Pepin? not really a lake, but a wide portion of the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota.)
But one of my all time favorites was a series by a Scottish vet named James Harriot. There were 4 books in the series and in them he retold stories from his life starting when he was finishing up his schooling up until the very end. To this day, re-reading them is like slipping into a favorite sweatshirt, all soft and familiar.
Oh, I have so many favorite books from when I was a kid. Now that all my friends are having children, whenever I buy a book for a gift I buy one for myself too. I read them whenever I need a smile.
One of my favorites, which I had to track down on ebay, is “I can’t said the ant” – it’s full of tons of great (terrible) rhymes and puns. My other favorite is “Alexander’s terrible, horrible ,no good, very bad day” – I recommend it to get over your own bad day!
My favorite book is “Straight Man” by Richard Russo, hilarious!
I can’t say The Lonely Doll was my favorite book as a child, but it is the one I really remember from my youngest years. It always gave me a very unsettled, insecure feeling. Still, I read the copy I owned inumerable times. My mother would tell you it was my favorite book.
It’s as hard to pick a favorite book as it is a movie! But probably Mary Stewart’s Hollow Hills and Crystal Cave (they go together – I’m not cheating). And it’s only been a year???Wow. Great year, lady!
Almost impossible for me to pick one book, but maybe Pride and Prejudice. Or, actually, Persuasion, which I appreciate more and more the older I get. 🙂
Easy- Anne of Green Gables. And I just went, after asking for nearly 30 years! So I’m rereading the whole series! She rocks! And I also liked Jane Eyre a whole lot, although it was scary!
Enjoy Harry!
Easy- Anne of Green Gables. And I just went, after asking for nearly 30 years! So I’m rereading the whole series! She rocks! And I also liked Jane Eyre a whole lot, although it was scary!
Enjoy Harry!
And I read an article in- Vanity Fair?- last year about the author of the Lonely Doll books. She had a wild life. Julian Schnabel’s doing a movie about her.
I love reading, it’s one of my other favorite things to do besides knitting.
I have so many favorite books, but one that I have loved reading, and have loved reading to my children is “The Giving Tree.” They’ve also enjoyed “Good Night Moon”
Some of my favorite adult books are:
“Pride and Prejudice”
The Mitford Series
Rosamunde Pilcher Novels, especially “Coming Home”
I just read a neat book from the library called “The Ewe Lamb” by Margaret Bacon.
I also loved the “Secret Life of Bees”, and am currently reading and enjoying “The Mermaid Chair”
This is a hard question. I guess Uncle Wigley was my all time favorite as a kid, my father use to read it to me. He sometimes skipped pages and I always caught him. I knew every word of it. Later Nancy Drew series. Now I have several favorites. Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, by Alexandra Fuller.A memoir. Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver. Dreams From My Father and Audacity of Hope , Barack Obama. And anything by Daniel Siva. Gabriel Allon series. Oh I could go on and on. The Secret Garden is also a long time favorite.
Sorry that was supposed to be Daniel Silva.
When I was a kid, it was the Narnia series. I kept hiding in and under things, trying to get to Narnia. I had lion pictures all over my room. I wrote C.S.Lewis a letter, not realizing he had passed on several years earlier.
As an adult, it’s hard to choose! But I’ve loved The Forgotten Beasts of Eld by Patricia McKillip for many years. She keeps writing, and it’s almost as if she’s been writing one long book, just for me, since I was a teenager.
I love Go Dog Go.
As a child I loved a little book called “My Toys”. My mom found me a copy on ebay last year! And anything Seuss. As I teen I loved S.E. Hinton – “The Outsiders” most of all which I think I read about five times! Aside from HP, my favorite book right now is “The Blind Assasin”. I love Atwood! Thanks for asking! I love reading everyone’s comments! Oh…and “To Kill a Mockingbird”
I’m a first time poster and just found your blog. Let’s see childhood favorites- Heidi was one. A series of books with one called Return to the Mushroom planet – don’t remember the author but it was about kids building a spaceship and going to a mushroom planet. I loved the narnia books and also the space trilogy by CS Lewis. A book called Time and Again by Jack Finney. I liked Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. I even liked the Bobbsey Twins books when I was in third grade. I may go through this list and read some of those I’ve not yet read. As a teen I also liked Jane Austin books – read all of them in one weekend and later much more slowly. Plus Jane Eyre. And I’ve always liked historical biographies.
One of my favorite books as a kid was called Good Old Archibald. It was actually my brother’s book, but I declared that it was mine.
My fave book…hmmm. i have several, but the one that I can pull to the forefront of my brain right now is ” Wild Steps to Heaven” by Victor Villasenor. A wonderful historical fiction piece. Makes me want to read it again! I ‘ve read it 3x already!
Great idea for a contest!
My favorite childhood books were “A Wrinkle in Time” and “James and Giant Peach” I could read them again and again.
I know that there are many books that I love. But for some reason, the first and only one that jumps into my mind is “The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver. I haven’t even thought of this book in so long that I am amazed that it is what I thought of ( but not really, as it was such an incredibly good book!!).
I love reading all the other comments to get good ideas for other books to read.
My favorite book from childhood is The Secret Garden by Frances Burnett. I read my copy so many times that the cover fell. When the pages started falling out, Mom bought me another copy. I adored the idea of finding a secret place of my own, where I could take my books and get away from my annoying little brother. I also loved the book Mandy by Julie Andrews Edwards.
It’s impossible for me to pick my favorite now as an adult as there are so many that I love.
My favourite book is The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats
by Paul Gallico. I am really a dog person but…we have had cats for most of my life . I borrowed this from the library on a whim and have borrowed and read it many times ver the years – it always brings chuckle. If you have the opportunity give it a glance.
As a child one of my favorites was “Where the Red Fern Grows” I read it many times and always cried! One of my favorite books lately was “The Thirteenth Tale” by Diane Setterfield. It was very different from what I normally read but I loved it!