Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Bookish Memories

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Welcome back to Tuesday. As we close out November, we are talking about bookish memories. Here are my...

Top Ten Bookish Memories

Little Golden Books were the earliest books I recall in my home library. That library was extensive, since all of us loved books. Though I had the single books, my most loved one was this treasury that compiled many of my favorite stories. I read it over and again.

Trying to fake my way out of a book report - I enjoyed writing book reports (probably why I enjoy blogging and reviewing books), so this one is totally ridiculous. Assigned a book report in fifth grade, I tried to wing it as if I had read Little House on the Prairie. Looking back, it seems kind the teacher didn't fail me, because that report was not much like the book.

First book I failed a test over - Considering I am such a fan of historical fiction, this is a shock. Assigned to read Ivanhoe in what is now called World History, I just couldn't get into the book. Our teacher gave us tests to make sure we read the nightly chapters. I struggled through 20 chapters, but couldn't read more. I definitely failed tests as a result. 

Disney Ice Capades - We didn't have a ton of money growing up, so extras were rare. In the 1970s, Disney was part of Ice Capades (a show performed totally on ice skates), and our parents bought tickets for us to go. Disney has books, so I count this a bookish memory. I still own some of the Disney books, like Bambi, from when my son was little.

First series I binged on -  The Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins is the first series I read as an adult where I waited for each new book to make it to market then read it right away. The time between books seemed to last forever.

First time I provided a pre-publishing book endorsement - Having gotten to know award-winning author Kathi Macias and her non-fiction work, you couldn't imagine how stunned I felt when in 2010 she asked me to read the first book in her new fiction series, No Greater Love. 

First author endorsement of my book - Before the release of my first picture book, Little Shepherd, now sadly out of print unless you order from my website, the publisher encouraged author endorsements to help promote the book. Kathi Macias was more than kind when she agreed. She had already written 30 books by the time mine came out. 

First time one of my books broke the Amazon Top 100 in its category - The first book tends to be special, so when Little Shepherd came out and I began promoting it, I watched its Amazon rankings every day. During my virtual book tour, it broke into the Amazon Top 100 in its category and made it up to #18. 

First book I read that had sex in it - My freshman year in high school, I picked up this book from my mother's collection. By this time, my mother was too sick to monitor what I was reading and my dad worked a lot, so I could grab anything in the house. I loved history, so this fit the bill. It also happened to have sex in it. 

First dystopian novel I enjoyed - Until The Hunger Games came out, my experience with dystopian fiction was being forced to read--begrudgingly--George Orwell's 1984 and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Hated them. Though I can't remember 1984, there are still scenes from Lord of the Flies that disturb me. The Hunger Games was gifted to the Lil' Diva by a teacher, but the deal was we had to read it together. Though totally disturbing, the writing of Suzanne Collins and her characters captivated me in ways previous books of this genre did not.

Hope you've enjoyed my bookish memories. I'm sure there are dozens more, but we don't want to write a novel today. I'm looking forward to checking out your memories.