Old Favorites

Peanut and I were perusing the children's section at the library today, when I came across an old favorite of mine on audio book, Susan Cooper's "The Dark Is Rising". Ms. Cooper's is the first fantasy series that I ever read and listening to it in the car on the way home reminded me why it is only second to Harry Potter in my heart's library hall of fame.

I can still remember the first time that I discovered "TDIR". I was eleven, and digging through the school library, where I worked during my free periods and generally could be found whenever I had a free moment. Our middle school library was pretty small and having read most of the fiction section, I was trying to find something new. I pulled out this book, looked at the cover with it's foreboding dark man on a rearing horse, black crows, and a small boy cowering on the ground, and thought it might be worth the time. I took it home and read it that night. I was in love, and when I discovered that it was the middle book in a series of five, I couldn't get my hands on the others fast enough. We didn't have them at the middle school, so I borrowed two from the high school and bugged the local librarian to find the other two for me (no small feat in the days before widespread computer use and easy interlibrary loans!). Luckily, I was one of those bookish but not annoying kids that adults don't seem to mind, lol!

I can remember wishing that I was like Will Stanton. Hoping that I would just wake up one day and find out that I was someone completely different than I thought I was and that I had this important destiny to fulfill. A common childhood wish I'm sure, but none the less strong. The series was one of my favorite escapes, long after I had outgrown the wish.

I came home and found a used set of the series on eBay. Soon, I'll be running through the lanes of my childhood escape! I can't wait!

Do any of you have a favorite book or books from childhood that you still visit now and again, even though you are grown up?