(no subject)

[bobcatmoran]

My dad brought over the remainder of my book collection (i.e. enough to quadruple what I previously had here, easily), and I'm re-reading some of my favorites from middle school that I've held onto. Catherine Called Birdy is just as good as I remembered, if not better now that I can roll my eyes over what a teenager Catherine is, despite her living in the 13th century. L. Frank Baum's Oz series also has held up well over time. I don't know how I missed that John Christopher's "Tripods" trilogy has absolutely no female characters except for the one who ends up dead and preserved in the alien equivalent of a museum diorama. Considering it's 1960s science fiction, this really shouldn't surprise me, but it was a disappointing note to an otherwise well-written series that was my gateway into hard SF.

And then there's my alarmingly large collection of "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. I just randomly grabbed the first five books off the pile and came up with, The Antimatter Universe, Tattoo of Death, You Are an Alien, Space Vampire, and By Balloon to the Sahara. Just the titles alone are golden (well, except for that last one, which I think was renamed Danger in the Desertlater on. Don't ask me how I retained that bit of information). I may have put together a box of books to donate/sell (goodbye, Bleach manga!), but I think I'm keeping these.