When i was younger i did a lot of reading. My favorite book series were the mystery books with the character Nancy Drew in them. I liked those mystery books!! Another favorite series was the 'Fear Street' series! I still read some of the books from the Fear street saga.

Encyclopeida Brown! Yes! I loved those books.

How about: Little House on the Prarie Series, The Golden Compass series, any of the Johnny and Prof. Childermass books by John Bellairs, (anything by John Bellairs), the Arthur books (always loved those in kindergarden), the Berinstien (still can't spell it) Bears, the Doctor Who series-new or old adventures, Harry Potter (of course! )

Yay Encyclopedia Brown!

I remember the Bear books as well (I'm not even gonna try to spell it!! )

And just to take that embarrasment one step further, I also have a significant number of the "Mr Men" & "Little Miss" books!

Funny some of those series never "took" with me and others I loved.
The Berenstain Bears were sacred while raising my kids as they had a book for every contingency in child rearing! Too much Tv, Too much stress, too much this or that. My little ones loved them so.
And I decided against a rather posh school just because the lady made a nasty remark about how crass they were and how they didn't allow them in the school!
That was the clincher for me!
I finally appreciated the Narnia books much later while watching the films.
I held out a long time for Harry Potter then went for it and no one saw me rise from the bed where I was reading for three days.
I don't find it simplistic in the least though, I'm kind of surprised some people do. I really didn't want to read them though, I'll admit!

I don't care that much for the Terry Pratchett series myself.

I like Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover books, loved Anne McCaffrey's dragon books because frankly they started the dragon trend.
I read just about ever science fiction series imaginable, I often prefer women writers. Mercedes Lackey wrote some good ones.

Encyclopedia Brown was great, I still recall the futuristic house one, or am I confusing him with Danny Brown? The only creepy thing is that boys got to have all the fun in those books!

I read the Bert and Ernie Sesame Street books to my kids about other problems that arise in life.
Sylvie found the cashier's desk to tell the lady she was lost because of Ernie getting lost in the one book. Thank God!

I don't know why there are some series I'll read and others never take off the ground.
Like most of the people growing up in the seventies, I read Tolkien, even put some of the songs to music, and yet, I never really worshipped it. And now I couldn't go past the first ten pages.

Wonder if anyone read the Gormenghast Trilogy? It was really popular there for a while.

I am also a big fan of "The Dragon Riders of Pern" series by Anne McCafferty, also the companion books about the Bards and the Holds. Truly took my imagination to hieghts never before achieved! Loved the telepathy with the dragons!!!

As for children's books, I love Dr. Suess!! My grandchildren, Ryan jr. and Serena, get their Gramma to recite Green Eggs & Ham, over and over and over and, yes, I do so know it off by heart!

I like the Alice books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and the Anastasia Krupnik books by Lois Lowry. I have read all the Anastasia books except for Anastasia on Her Own and Anastasia At Your Service.

[ 03-25-2002, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: LilSpikey ]

companion books?

I don't think so...
those were some of the very first sci-fi/fantasy books I ever read.

It's called the Harper Hall Trilogy.
Dragonsong
Dragonsinger
Dragondrums

I love them and I own them
These were actually written before 'The White Dragon'.
and they are much shorter, geared towards the young adult market...which I thought I was at the time.
I was like 12 when I first read this trilogy
good memories...I reread them at least twice a year.

Anne McCaffrey has a ton of Pern books out there.
I've read and loved them all...

Sorry, Lord Andry. I know how touchy you Dragon Riders are...It's just that I am bad with titles and companion books sounded enough like I knew what I was talking about!

LA, I loved those books with a passion! Anne McCaffrey was the first person to write so movingly about dragons and give you the feeling of symbiosis between human and beast.
I had to take ceramics as part of my art training, and I made these tiles of her dragons, they were cool.

I always thought it would be so wonderful to have a little firedragon companion.
What McCaffrey did was include all of the trades in those books and somehow include dragons. She was a fine craftswoman.
I read a collaboration recently I managed to find, it wasn't that good at all though. Can't recall the title, it was set in space.

No library's SF section held any secrets for me after about a week.
I had most of the MZB collection then gave it to someone when I left. How stupid!

ach...gag

Bruyere...how dare you??

It's 'fire lizard'. oh my god...
I can't believe you got that wrong.
oh my stars...what's the world coming to.

peeps say they love Anne McCaffrey and can't even get things right?

I may not be the world's expert on McCaffrey.
but I've practically memorized like everything she has ever done.

check out the Powers line of books
or Killashandra
or Damia

enough ranting and raving.
I love Anne way too much.

sorry Bruyere...just needed to let it all go and let it all hang out there.

now, does anyone have any questions about where I stand on my favorite dragon lady?

Absolutely love the Dragon Riders of Pern series by Ann McCaffrey. If your into fantasy and have not checked these out, I strongly suggest them. It's good to see I'm not alone in my adoration of these books.

[ 04-15-2002, 08:36 PM: Message edited by: wrdfrwrd ]

Unfortunately, I have never been able to get into fantasy for some reason. The Mama Jason series of short stories by Janet Kagan is probably the closest to fantasy I've been able to really enjoy. Originally published in Asimov Magazine, they were later collected into a single book. The stories are lighthearted, fun and feature lots of fantastic creatures.

Allienellie, I'm so glad you mentioned Jeffery Deaver's Lincoln Rhyme series! Can that guy crank out a great suspense story or what? I have read them all and am looking forward to latest, "The Stone Monkey". Right now, I'm reading one of his non-Lincoln Rhyme books: The Blue Nowhere. What can I say? It's another can't-put-it-down spellbinder!

I also like Robert Crais's Elvis Cole detective series, Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mysteries and Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak seres.

As a kid I enjoyed Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden and Encyclopedia Brown. I've also read the Chronicles of Narnia and the Lord of the Rings series (Yes, I know they're fantasies but my tastes have changed along the way.)

[ 04-20-2002, 04:36 PM: Message edited by: Tikkimouse ]

I love the Jedi Apprentice series by Jude Watson. I tried reading the Lord of the Rings but couldn't get into it.
From The Fellowship of the Ring
"All that is gold, does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost.
The old that is young does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring.
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king."

My fav series included:
The Baby-Sitters' Club by Ann M. Martin
The Alice books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
Sweet Valley Twins by Francine Pascal
Encyclopedia Brown by Donald Sobol
Harry Potter
P.S. I think the Sweet Valley Twins book Lady Caitroina mentioned is called "Magic Christmas", where Elizabeth and Jessica were given twin dolls by their grandparents, and then those dolls came alive and took them to some weird fantasy land.

Favorite from childhood:

(1) C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia
(2) Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle In Time series
(3) Nancy Drew (the old ones; though I read the new version too)

I read many other series, but those were my favorite.

As a teengager through adult, my favorites were:

(1) Hithchiker's Guide - Adams
(2) Dark Tower - Stephen King
(3) C.S. Lewi's Sci-fi trilogy

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice (especially Memnoch the Devil)
A Close Second: The Chronicles of Narnia

I am not much of a reader (which is quite an major cause of my parents' worry, they feel my language and vocabulary isn't developing fast enough), and when I DO read, it's mainly either non-fiction, comics (especially Asterix ones, my family believes they are one of the more major sources of the information I know ), or newspapers and magazines.

However, out of actual literary works, my favourite series would definitely be the William books by Richmal Crompton. I doubt many people have heard of them, and I don't know the level of their popularity outside India, but I would highly reccommend them.

Oh yes, Harish I adored (and still do) the William books! I was given one every birthday and Christmas for years! There are many sites devoted to just William. Try this one
Typing 'Just William'into Google gives you lots more . I used to love to listen to them on the radio when I was small. He is a hilarious character. There are not many true Brits who don't love him, I think.
My husband was born in Bombay (oops sorry, Mumbai) and had them read to him at Boarding school (near Panchgani), and always loved them too.
I would highly recommend them too!

His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. They're all really good teen books.

Also the Indian Trilogies are nice to read...I think I've read three, but I cant remember the names of them. I think 2 are about wars and one is about a ghost that I remember fairly well...could someone who lives in India tell me what the names of those books are?

Perhaps you should be asking Harish.

Ramayana

Story of Ram - war is between Ram and Ravana (India Vs Sri Lanka)

Mahabharata

A long story........


By the way, the above two book are religious ones.....

18 Day war


Vikramaditya and Bethal

Aka the mischievous Ghost...

Kindly note that this has no religious signifiance. You may make it to a Music Video if you so like.



Here I am presuming that you intended about these three books.

there are NOT a trilogy (though the first two are related)

The third is based on the life of a certain Gupta Empire king (Sorry, he wasn't the ghost)

MY favourite series:


The adventures of Tintin and Snowy

Asterix and Obelix


(Okay, the above two are comics; so...?)


The Adventures of a certain gentleman who called himself Holmes

Any Tolkien

Any 'Perry Mason' Book (I always liked lawyers, honestly....)

Ace_Sodium, those are the book(s) my friend let me read.

I thought that Vikramaditya and Bethal was a kind of trilogy.

I personally enjoyed Ramayana the most.

Harry Potter
Series Of Unfortunate Events
Narnia

Madeline L'Engle
Peg Kehret