A Pink Polka Dot POV- Reading Life Evolution

So I decided that I'm going to discuss my bookish thoughts as they come up under this new name.  I'm still doing the Reviewers' Roundtable, our discussion group, but in kind of a different way.  Me and Emily from Read Your Bookcase are going to just host the discussion and anyone who wants to can link up.  It was her idea and I think it's a lot better than trying to find reliable bloggers who actually want to do something every week.

For today I want to talk about: 

Here's a map of my reading life!!

• Books on tape- When I was a little girl I was obsessed with books.  The only thing was, I didn't know how to read yet.  My mom, dad, and other relatives/friends got so sick of me constantly asking them to read to me that my mom had the idea to get me books on tape (yes cassette tapes... and now I feel old).  So every Sunday while my mom did laundry, I would listen to book after book and try to follow along and figure out the words.  It's one of my favorite childhood memories!

• Elementary School- Once I learned how to read I was always reading.  I was into books like Charlotte's Web and anything I could con my mom into ordering me on the Troll book order forms.  I remember being really mad that my elementary school librarian forced me to read baby books til I was in 3rd grade!  He had a rule that kids in K-2 were only allowed to look at the little kid books, like Cat in the Hat and such.  I used to try to sneak over to the older kid books ALL the time.  I wanted to read The Boxcar Children SO BAD!

• BSC, Girl Talk (AKA the Flashlight Years)- As an older elementary kid I joined this Girl Talk club where they would send you a book a month.  The books were the Girl Talk series... and I loved them!  There was always a chapter that was a phone conversation between the girls, and I thought that was so cool.  Another perk of this club was I got a free book-light.  This gave me the *bright* (ha) idea to read after I was supposed to be sleeping.  I would hide under the covers with my book-light and read for as long as I could keep my eyes open.  Here are some of my favorite books from that time period:

• Matilda, Hatchet, Judy Blume- Around the end of elementary school/the beginning of middle school one of my teachers read Matilda and Hatchet to us.  I was totally obsessed with both those books and bought them so I could read them by myself like 5 more times.  These are the books I loved right before middle school got going:

• Middle School Thrillers- In 7th grade I read my first Fear Street book.  I believe it was The New Girl.  Shortly after I read The Cheerleaders trilogy and from then on I was a Fear Street junkie.  I even bought this map of Fear Street that showed where all the book characters lived and hung it on my wall.  I was also obsessed with any thriller type book in general like: Christopher Pike, Lois Duncan, and books like: Prom Dress; never got down with Goosebumps though... I must have skipped over those somehow.

• High School: The Lost Years- Yeah I didn't do a ton of reading in high school.  I was too worried about boys and friends and partying and cheerleading and dance.  So reading for fun just didn't really happen.  I did read some though.  Here's some of the books I remember reading: 

• College: The Adult Era/Chick lit- Ok so in college I thought I would look silly if I still read YA.  Plus the YA sections were small when I first went to college... not like today at all!!  So anyway I decided I had to be an adult and read adult books.  I started with Stephen King and Dean Koontz and then drifted into the world of Chick lit.  This is also when I realized how much I like to read true crime.

• HARRY POTTER- When I was almost done with college I was at Walmart one night looking for something to read.  There was NOTHING.  Then I saw Harry Potter sitting there.  It had been out for a number of years by then, but I always figured it was a kid's book, written on a kid's level.  I decided to give it a try anyway, figuring if I didn't like it I would just watch a movie.  Well 2 AM that night I was back at Walmart buying the 2nd book.  I was IN LOVE!

• Post College- After college I decided to read books that made me happy.  And screw it if people look at me weird for standing in the teen section.  I refound Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, and that completely cemented my love for YA.  I haven't looked back since.  These were the first few books that made me completely sure that Contemporary YA is my genre:

• This Blog!!- That leads me to this blog!  I was reading and reading like crazy after I had my son because I was staying home with him.  I was reading so much that it was hard to keep track of what I was reading!  So I discovered Goodreads and through that I learned of the blogging world.  I started my blog last year and I love that I have people to share all my bookish thoughts with (in real life I don't really have that).

• Now/Future- I'll probably never go back to reading adult books.  Oh every now again. I'm sure I'll throw one in (like right now I'm reading Silver Linings Playbook), but for the most part I've found my bookish true love: it's YA.  I just love reading about issues that teens go through.  There's something about reading about marriage and jobs and household stuff that is just so BLAH to me.  I want to read about girls/guys who are still learning about who they are and can change and grow and come to new understandings.  I want to read what I like and it's YA... and if I look weird standing in the YA section of B&N, so be it.

Ok guys now you tell me!  Have you liked reading your whole lives?  Or did you become a bookworm later in life??  Did you go through a time, like my "Lost Years", where you didn't read as much?  Did you go through phases where you thought you should be reading adult books??  What books did you obsess over in elementary/middle school??  I wanna hear your evolution :)