Memory Lane Revisited

Mr Bookworm and I were out and about yesterday and as we always seem to, we ended up in a secondhand bookshop.
Once more I have a huge pile of books to read, and some of it is more complicated than normal as I am busy researching a special topic for an event at work - more details soon, so I wasn't really going to buy anything.

Then I saw the shelf full of books by Paula Danziger. I read everything I could by her as a teenager, I guess that she was the Jacqueline Wilson of my youth. Her books featured teenagers that were nothing like me, or my friends, but I think it was the exotic (New York, and New York State) that really appealed to me.

The books weren't threatening, and unlike Judy Blume didn't have to be hidden from grown ups!

I treated myself to 6 of the books yesterday and unlike many re-reads they didn't disappoint me. Yes they are hideously dated, and each book took me less than an hour to read but they were fun. The characters were real teenagers - they had problems that seem huge when you are 13 but as an adult really are nothing much and they had ideals that they were willing to fight for but that in the grand scheme of things aren't that important.

I'm glad that I'm not still a teenager but it was fun to read the books that I loved as a teen. I think that Remember Me to Harold Square is still my favourite - and when I get to visit NYC I will take the book to help act as a guidebook, although the chapter on visiting the World Trade Center feels horribly poignant now.

Today I shall grow up and read some more of my more academic tomes, or maybe I shall find myself sidetracked by the pile of recipe books I have from the library...