


Now we move onto the slightly older child. Around 11 and 12 when my reading got slightly more sophisticated. By sophisticated I mean, I was obsessed with Jacqueline Wilson. Fun fact, I knew a girl who shared the name. I still have her books cluttered around my house. This was a huge point for me as a reader. I read her books religiously. I cried at Vicky Angel. I laughed
at Tracy Beaker. They were usually very dark, like Vicky Angel and the Cat Mummy and Love Lessons and My Sister Jodie. I liked it though, I liked the more serious adult themes. I liked the scandal of a girl trying to get with her teacher and I was interested in the more morbid reads. The Cat Mummy will stick with me for a long time, I remember reading it when my cat was very old, she was about 20. I think it was a couple weeks before she died actually and my whole family were on edge because we were just waiting for it to happen. The girl in Cat Mummy found her cat who passed of old age and who the family believed to be missing, curled up in her cupboard passed which I can't imagine how horrible. So the girl who was obviously not coping and who was also learning about mummies at the time, made a mummy out of her cat. I cried so much throughout this because I hate the idea of losing pets, it is so painful to me. I've lost three cats and two dogs and they all brought unimaginable grief. So that's probably one of the first reads that really stuck with me. They're the most monumental books for me because I really got connected with it all, I joined forums and used the site all the time.
After this stage and when I was becoming a teenager, I stopped reading a lot. Everyone at big and scary high school made fun of reading and I was desperate to fit in. I read a couple of books I loved which were Heidi and Pride and Prejudice. I loved Heidi which I picked out hastily from the library to read in English so when I finished that my English teacher recommended me Pride and Prejudice and I developed an interest in Classics which I didn't actually act upon until I was about 14. I still wasn't very much into reading like I had been, I was more interested in my new friends and the new boys. That Christmas I was making a list and I couldn't think what to ask for seeing as my whole list was already CDs so I was looking up good books and I found the Hunger Games so without really checking it out I chucked them on my list thinking I probably wasn't going to read them or like them. Never the less, my Nan and Pop gifted me the whole series on Christmas Day and I wasn't thrilled but still on Boxing Day, with nothing to do, I started to read. I loved it from the first page, I could not put it down, the next three days I spent in the armchair reading until I'd finished. I was so engrossed in it. Since then I've been hooked. My Christmas lists are now just a collection of books. My Nan and Pop have no idea what they started, or maybe they do since they keep giving me books. And, now I'm here a few years on. I've read so, so many books and I keep reading more. I'm writing a blog and I'm more involved with the reading world than I've ever been and honestly I couldn't be happier.
I'd love to hear about your reading journeys and I hope you enjoyed reading about mine!


I'd love to hear about your reading journeys and I hope you enjoyed reading about mine!
Ahhh I remember loving all these books. We have such similar reading journeys haha. I started reading novels with the Rainbow Magic and Go Girl series (the amount of these books I collected was ridiculous)!! I stopped reading when I started high school too and it was The Hunger Games that brought me back into reading. Loved hearing about your reading journey Brooklyn :D
ReplyDeleteHow funny!
Delete