Today, PaperBackSwap turns 14! Happy Birthday to us! And what is a Birthday Party without games?!
Since playing pin the tail on the donkey, or musical chairs isn’t easy to do online, we have come up with a game everyone can play.
We call it Favorites at 14.
Here is how it works:
In the comments here on the Blog, tell us one of your favorite books, title and author, from when you were 14, or thereabouts. And tell us why you liked the book.
It is that simple. On Friday, September 7, 2018, we will choose a winner at random.
The winner will receive their choice of 6 PaperBackSwap Credits, one year of Standard Membership or a one year subscription to Box-O-Books.
Contest is only open to current PBS members whose accounts are in good standing.
Good luck to everyone!
Tags: Box-O-Books, Contests, Free Credits, Milestones
Conan by Robert E. Howard. I liked the story but was also drawn by the fantastic cover paintings by Frank Frazetta!
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell. I loved Karana’s strength ability to survive.
It is hard to remember back to that age, lol. Little House on the Prairie was the first books that got me into reading but that was elementary school. I believe that was the year I had to read the Scarlet Letter, the Diary of a Young Girl and I think Little Women. I always loved history and so for me Anne Frank’s story was probably the most enjoyed reading.
The Bible. I has a Biblical Literature class where the teacher taught the Bible as stories from real life. It was totally amazing! The teacher was so short she had to stand on a stool to see the whole class but she was powerful enough to bring each story to life.
I was beginning my Jane Austen phase and started with Emma. I had never read a book that was so descriptive, was funny in the details, and just had such elegant prose. I fell in love and read every other book she wrote.
That’s about the age that I picked up “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkien. Oh my gosh! What an intricately constructed world, all built with words! Tolkien set the bar awfully high for what good fantasy should look like. I also read “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the first time at about 14. I think it hit me as hard as “Charlotte’s Web” had, half a lifetime earlier.
I read _Moon Of Three Rings_ by Andre Norton. The story was even more compelling than the Robin Jacques cover. Four decades later, I’m still a fan and active on the Andre Norton forum.
At that age I was in to the Nancy Drew books. The Secret of the Old Clock was the first in that series.
“The Dark Is Rising,” by Susan Cooper. The author created a rich world that combined the fantastic elements of Celtic mythology with the realism of modern-day Britain. Also, Will Stanton was the first protagonist I ever found myself wishing I could trade places with…
The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis. At 14 I loved the idea of being able to go into a wardrobe and finding another world where animals could talk. I liked the strength of the children, and especially Aslan (the great lion). This was my first book into the Fantasy genre, and I never looked back.
When I was 14, I was reading the Harry Potter series by J.k. Rowling. Rowling is just a brilliant story teller. The world she created is so unique and full of imagination and wonder!!!
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I absolutely loved this book. 12 Years of Scrletts life and I especially loved Rhett Butler. I loved the descriptions of hardships and the triumphs Scarlett endured.
I have read it many times since, but nothing compares to that first time. Did I say I loved Rhett Butler?
The Wolf and The Dove by Katherine Woodiwiss. As a young girl I was very imtrigued with the malice between the characters and the passionate love story that developed. I enjoyed it so much that I eventually read all of the author’s books. I liked all of them but none of them impressed me as much as The Wolf and The Dove.
As a kid I liked books about the sea and really like Moby Dick by Herman Melville. Of course, growing up on the coast, I also rooted for the whale. I still live on the coast, and still root for wildlife!
I finally got a copy of Star Wars (the very first one) by George Lucas, and could not wait to sit down and start reading!!! I was hooked from page one and loved, loved, loved it!! School was out for the summer so I could read all I wanted to. And I still have that book!!!
Watership Down by Richard Adams. The mythology of the rabbit world was amazing, it gives you a peek into a beautiful and sometimes terrible world. Yet, there are always heroes to look up to. Hazel was always my favorite, a true leader in sense of the word. Incredible book!
Because I am 84 years old it is very hard to remember what I read when I was 14. However I was pretty young when I started reading Richard Halliburton’s books. They were true adventure books and I gobbled them up. Have always loved true adventure books. Left for Dead by Beck Weathers is one of my favorites that I read a few years ago. If I was 50 years younger I might try climbing Everest.
Boy it is hard to remember exactly what books I was reading when I was 14 but I do remember I was a big fan of Madeline L’Engle and Judy Blume books.
My favorite book when I was 14 was The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. I loved the way he incorporated fantasy and religion into one book. I loved that I was taken to another land and how Lewis used different things in Narnia as metaphors for life. Aslan was Jesus and the White Witch was Satan.
The dictionary has been and will always be my favorite book. But back to around age 14, the book that stands out as memorable and that I still have is Dreams: Your Magic Mirror: With Interpretations of Edgar Cayce by Elsie Sechrist.
Gosh, I think I was starting to read the Perry Mason series by Erle Stanley Gardner. Started on those mysteries early! 🙂
I LOVED the Nancy Drew series. Loved the mysteries. I come from a family of readers and to this day I am a voracious reader.
It was probably The Hobbit. A good friend told me about it and as I had just finish reading A Winkle in Time, I thought it would be like that. Boy, was I proved wrong, but in a wonderful good way! This was my introduction to fantasy, as A Winkle was my intro to Science Fiction, and I’m still reading those genres 50 yrs later!
I cherished stories by Ray Bradbury, including Fahrenheit 451. A recent re-read makes me wonder why I liked his books so much. I still gravitate to futuristic novels.
I believe that was the year I read my first Agatha Christie mystery…..loved it and read every one I could get my hands on!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Hmmm. At age 14 I was very much into Nancy Drew or Goosebumps were my fave!
Ashley @ Oh Hey! Books.
Good grief, that was 70 years ago!! Learned to read before first grade and have never slowed down. Mama belonged to Book-of-the-Month Club, and I read everything she got from them. Had all the Nancy Drew books, but do believe that Junior Miss by Sally Benson was my all-time favorite. More of an introduction into adolescence. Oh, so much to read and so little time!!!!
I loved Greek myths in 1946. D’Aulaires Book of Greek Myths
I loved the Trixie Belden series when I was around that age. No internet back then to buy or swap books so I looked everywhere I went that had books to try to get as many of them as I could. I had most of them. When my parents downsized when I was in my early 40’s, I got rid of a lot of them but I did keep some of them. I was thrilled to find out that Denise Swanson’s Scumble River series has a Trixie in it as a tribute to the series.
That was so long ago but I think my favorite book was “Gone With the Wind” by Margaret Mitchell.
Since I grew up about 15 miles West of Atlanta, GA the book was even more interesting because so many of the locations referenced were familiar to me. The battles that were described took place not far from where I lived. Scarlett was fascinating and Rhett Butler – what can I say??? I think Prissy was my very favorite character in the book and I will never forget her comment – “I don’t know nothing about birthing babies”.
I had a teacher when I was 14 that was very much into reading and literature. She always kept books in the classroom for students to take home and read. Pretty much like Paperbackswap.com. I picked up “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest” and didn’t fully grasp it at the time, but have reread many many times and will always be one of my favorites. Happy 14th Birthday….and wishing for many more !
Jane Eyre, which I still re-read. It propelled me into Jane’s world, hiding behind a curtain to read a book. I think it was one of the first books that truly transported me to another time and place, and put me in someone else’s shoes. It is one of the novels that made me the reader I am today.
That was 1968>1969. That was 10th grade. Challenging to remember a bk one read that yr, but do know that read the Howard Pyle King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which was gripping enough to take the reader to another time, especially with the wonderful illustrations.
Robert Heinlein’s The Door Into Summer was a book I remember from my 14th year. It is particularly prominent in my mind as I found it in the newly opened branch of the public library and I was excited to find many books I’d never read before. Science fiction was a genre which I enjoyed and this book was complicated by the intriguing theme of time travel. Of course, the title and the amusing aspect of a cat’s search for the “right” door reminded me of my family’s finicky cat, Fabian. This book’s plot is one which I still ponder from time to time and my cats continue to search for that elusive door.
To Kill A Mockingbird. <3 By Harper Lee
Flowers in the Attic by VC Andrews. I was very naive at 14 and this story just blew my mind – so much drama! It prompted me to become an avid follower of this author.
On the Beach by Nevile Shute. I lived too close to Oak Ridge and had done a report on radiation. Reading this adult book made me feel very grown up and mature.
Nancy Drew Mysteries by Carolyn Keene & Trixie Belden Mysteries by Julie Campbell and Kathryn Kenny were 2 series that I loved and collected. I thought the characters were so cool. I guess I loved the mysteries and wanted to be a girl detective as well.
” Are You There God, it’s Me Margaret”
That was the year Twilight came out and I loved it. Not ashamed to admit it! It was a good book for a teenager, before the big fandom started.
I loved the Trixie Belden mystery series by Julie Campbell when I was that age- she was so spunky and clever, I wanted to be just like her. I re-read the books over and over again.
I was obsessed with Meg Cabot’s books, so most likely would have been The Princess Diaries. 🙂
I was a forever fan of the Baby-Sitters Club series by Ann M. Martin. I loved the characters, finding myself a little bit in each one and the constant reliability of the story lines.
That was a long time ago and I lived in Canada at the time. I am thinking I was reading Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Happy Hollisters and maybe even Bobbsey Twins books. I was quite a reader and my mother used to call me to set the table for supper and I never heard her because I was so into the book I was reading. Fun part is that I still have almost all of those same books.
Around the age of 14, it was Brittanica Encyclopedias or whatever was in the condensed books Mom got in the mail each month! Occasionally a “teen” magazine might make it home from the grocery store!
Congratulations on 14 years! Thank you!
The year was 1963. I had a Scholastic paperback titled “Take Care of My Little Girl” by Peggy Goodin. I cannot count how many times I read that book (even at the supper table and my mother didn’t mind, because she read at the table, too). Published in 1951, it was the skinny on college, particularly sorority life, and I ate it up and felt so sophisticated. It would take entering college in 1967 to realize how much had changed since 1951. And no, I did NOT pledge a sorority.
“Lost Horizon” by James Hilton. At 14 it wasn’t the first time I’d read this book but, that reading meant more in the tumultuous year of surviving being 14. The book ended with a promise that some day I might create my own Shangri-La. I’ve reread the book so many times I likely have it memorized. Each reading gives a different appreciation for both the story and Hilton’s superb use of language. My first copy, a cheap paperback, wore out and fell apart.
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis was one of my favorites about this time. It was before I ever read Harry Potter, which I didn’t read until a year or so later.
At 14, I would have been starting high school. We read a lot of classics at my school and I remember connecting to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I liked Scout as she was a bit of a tomboy and learning about unfairness in the world.
My grandmother had left a copy of The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom when she visited. I think I picked it up because I had run out of other books to read in the house & it was between our weekly library days. I was amazed that I was drawn to a book outside my own 14-year-old interests. That I remember a single book over 40 years ago demonstrates that it was a turning point in my life. After that, I stopped dismissing books without giving them a chance & it allowed me to become a better-rounded reader. When books were more difficult to come by I was never without something to read. And to this day while I can be more selective, at times I will still read just about anything that comes my way.