Reading has always been a form of escapism for me. I have been going on a bit of a nostalgia kick with books I read as a child. I have started collecting the books I read that I enjoyed. (With Pics)
Point Horrors – Various Authors. These books terrified the living shit out of me, but I needed more. I LOVED them. I was the kid in school who raced up the library as soon as I was able to, to see if they had the newest book in. If they did, I would check it out and spend every free minute whilst I was in school (breaks, lunch time, etc) reading. I’d have my nose stuck in the book whilst walking home. I’d fall off kerbs into the road, walk into lampposts, you name it. I did it whilst reading. (If it wasn’t raining. If it was raining, I would walk as fast as I could home to read the book!)
All 32 books
I decided a month ago, that I was going to start keeping my eye out for second hand Point Horrors and start building my collection. Being the middle of the month, the pay was wearing thin in the bank account, so I just basically spent hours trawling through eBay wishing I could buy them all.
So, on Friday, a friend of mine A sends me a message, asking if I were the one recently asking for old Point Horrors. I said yes and she said “Cool, I have some you can have.” I was bouncing! So bloody excited. When she bought them over I didn’t stop saying Thank You. My collection had begun and what a start it had!
The books on the left are the ones A gave me. The three poking out were the ones V gave me today. Added to the collection. They have been put in chronological order of release in the USA. I have SO many more to get and am currently missing the earlier books. I would read these whilst I was eating my tea, whilst my Dad was watching the news, then I would read them in bed by streetlight (that’s hard bloody work). Then freak the hell out when I had to go to the loo or something! These books had me enthralled. I loved them. I can’t wait to read these again!
This book broke my heart
Goodnight Mister Tom – Michelle Magorian [Spoiler alert for the link!]
I first read this book when I was 13 in school. It was given to the class by our English Teacher who made us one by one, read a paragraph each in Chapter 1 out loud. I didn’t stop when the lesson finished. I read it during dinner. I read it on the way home (I can remember laughing hard and some woman looking at me weird). I stayed up all night until about 3am until I finished it. I can remember sobbing my heart out into a pillow hoping my parents wouldn’t hear my heartbreaking. The morning after, because I didn’t have English the next day, I gave it to my mother to read. I convinced her to read it. She cried lots too. This book was brutal but it triumphed. I decided a few weeks ago, I needed to read it again, to see if it was as brutal as I thought it was.
WOW, like a cannon ball to the gut, it was from the off. I think the big difference is the change in perspectives as I read it. As a 13 year old, I could connect and empathise with 8/9yo William Beech. Granted my parents weren’t religious bigots, but I got more than a smack from my Dad. I knew what a belt felt like. Now as a 30 year old parent, with a 9 year old child myself, I found a new perspective whilst reading the book. I am currently reading it and haven’t finished it. I can see the love and need to care for Willie in Tom Oakley. I feel revulsion at Will’s mother for doing that do her child. I have sobbed once in every chapter, for one reason or another. I don’t know if the BPD has exaggerated that because these are feelings I normally disassociate from. I don’t know. Either way, I can’t wait to finish this one and add it to my growing book pile.
This terrified the shit out of me.
Nightmare Park – Linda Hoy (The copy I had was the same as this one)
I can’t remember truly much about this book except that it was given to me. I was about 11 when I first read this. I was in Junior school and in a bedroom by myself. I didn’t have to share with my sister. I was in the front room of the house right by a street lamp. I read the book in school, read it on the way home (my mother telling me I would walk into something, I did) and I stayed up all night reading it. I hadn’t finished the book, or had I, I can’t remember. I had to go to the bathroom. I was so terrified of something being under my bed that I jumped from my bed to the bedroom door and turned the light on. I went to the bathroom and did that thing where you run from a room that you have just turned the light out in. I closed my bedroom door and was now faced with a dilemma. Do I walk and risk getting grabbed, or do I jump… I flicked the light off and jumped as far as I could and scrambled into bed. After making sure no limbs were hanging out from under my quilt, I continued reading. Like an ass. I ended up lending the book I had to a friend, who swapped it for a Survival Guide. I was mortified. I have since developed a HUGE issue with lending books out. I don’t! this one is on my “To Be Read” pile!
I studied this for my GCSE English Lit exam. I failed the exam but loved the book.
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
I read this book several times whilst studying it and Macbeth (which bored me senseless, although I enjoyed the witches…) I could feel George’s frustrations and Lennie’s eagerness to just love something. We also had to watch the 1992 Gary Sinise and John Malkovich adaptation and compare the differences between book and film. I don’t know why but this book stuck with me. I bought this last year but haven’t read it. I plan to by the end of the year.
I am going to leave you all to it now. I will keep you updated as new Point Horror books come in. I will probably do a list of the books I have as I acquire them.
Take care
A x
RestinBitchFace 