Today I Read.

It's a rare day when I don't read something.   Actually, I can't remember any day that I haven't read.  It's who I am!  I read articles online, books by the stacks, blogs, the newspaper, magazines, catalogs and cereal boxes.  I see words and I read them.

Day 23 of the 30 Day Challenge:  A picture of your favorite book.

You should have seen how big my eyes got when I read that I was supposed to have a favorite book.  I didn't actually see how large my eyes got, but I felt how dry they got.  Then it was **blink blinkity blink**  I don't have ONE favorite book.  I don't think I have a favorite anything.  There are too many wonderful things to enjoy in this world!  Why pick just one?  I can't even get the same thing at a restaurant just because it was wonderful.  I have to keep trying new things!  Even if there is the chance that I'll get some real duds.  I can always come back to the best occasionally, but the quest for another favorite must go on!!!

So - in order of when they popped into my head:  SOME of my favorite books -

(Little Women by Lousia May Alcott.  source)

(Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery.  source)

(ANYTHING my Madeline L'Engle. source)

(The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.  source)

(Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. source)

(Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  source)

(The Dark Is Rising series by Susan Cooper.  source)

The Golden Compass Trilogy (controversial, I know!), more commonly referred to as His Dark Materials trilogy.  source)

(The Magic Circle by Donna Jo Napoli.  source)

(The Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene.  source)

(The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mar Twain.  source)

(The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.  source)

(The Meet Samantha series; Meet Kirsten series; Meet Molly series; and Meet Felicity series (I'm an original four sorta gal and they totally lost me when they strayed from the historical girls and started doing dolls of today.  puh-leeez.  source)

(Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith.  source)

(Ronia, the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren.  source)

(Any fairy tale illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.  source)

(Dragon's Milk trilogy by Susan Fletcher.  source)

(The Ancient One by T.A. Barron.  source)

(The Adventures of Tintin books!!!!  I think I read all of them.  source)

(Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.  Pretty sure that if my parents had read this first, there is no WAY they would have let me read it at 12, but they didn't and I did and I read it at least 4 or 5 times.  source)

(The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. source)

Do you think it's sad that all my favorites are the ones I read while I was growing up?  Seriously, nothing I've read in the past decade has been better (though I did enjoy Harry Potter, all things Shannon Hale, and Aviva Jill Romm, who writes non-fiction).  Are books just getting worse or were stories simply more magical back then?

I seriously need to re-read all of these books.  I wonder if they will stay favorites the second (or third) time around.