Shelf Discovery

I have been wondering for about year what, if anything, would bring me out of my blogging hiatus. What did it: the Shelf Discovery challenge.

I have been seeing blog posts about Shelf Discovery for a few months and have been wanting to get this book. My aunt used to tease me and say that she didn't know what my face looked like from the nose down because I always had my face in a book. Shelf Discovery reflects on the books that many of us read when we were kids, and the many that we have returned to again and again.

Booking Mama's challenge will run for 6 months and the challenge is to blog 6 book reports about any selections mentioned in the book. I am having a hard time narrowing it down to only 6 so I will likely read more than that in the next six months, but here are my 6 official selections and why:

1. Chapter 1: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle- one of my all time favorite books. I reread it so many times as a kid because I so often felt like the smart, outsider just like Meg.
2. Chapter 2: Are You There God, It's Me Margaret? by Judy Blume- Do I even need to write why I chose this one? Wasn't this every girl's go to book on a day you were home sick or a rainy Saturday? The part when Margaret discovers that her friend lied about getting her period is so vivid in my mind. I can just picture that restaurant bathroom.
3. Chapter 3: Summer of Fear OR Chapter 7: Stranger with my Face by Lois Duncan- I used to read and reread these books but I don't remember why. I am eager to rediscover what was so intriguing about these books. I think I have them both jumbled together in my memory.
4. Chapter 5: Deenie by Judy Blume- another favorite. When she goes to the party in the new outfit that covers the back brace-- oh, I could just feel the brace rubbing sores on my own torso. Poor Deenie!
5. Chapter 8: Fifteen by Beverly Cleary- besides Little Women, this may be my favorite book of all time. My mother also loved this book when she was a teenager. I can just imagine the weight of the ID bracelet on my wrist, the humiliation of riding in the doggie meat truck, the embarrassment of not knowing how to order in a Chinese food restaurant. I want to run out and buy a back scratcher just thinking about that book!
6. Chapter 10: Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews- I've never read it. I know! I can't believe it. 

I think these books will be great reads for the next six months. Right now, I am using the archives of Infinite Summer as I read Infinite Jest on my Kindle. I am planning on reading along when that blog community reads 2666 in January and February. The Shelf Discovery challenge should be relief reading next to those other two whoppers.

Comments

[kathleen]

awesome book choices. i loved them all too. except, omg, confession time, a wrinkle in time. I should try it again.

[Julie P.]

Fabulous choices and I agree that it is extremely hard to choose! Thanks for joining us!

[Julie P.]

Hey! I might be missing it, but did you sign up on my original post - http://bookingmama.blogspot.com/2009/10/announcing-shelf-discovery-challenge.html

Thanks!

[Kathy R (Bermudaonion)]

I'm glad you're doing it. I really enjoyed the first book I read for it.