Literary Musing

I have always been a reader. (and a writer for that matter.) I was reading books in my every waking hour at the age of 7. I read Gone with the Wind at 10.

I LOVE BOOKS.

When I was a preteen/teen, my friends and I read First Love by Silhoulette books by the dozen. Anybody out there remember those??? They debuted in the early 80's and were numbered. They were publishing new books right on through my teen years, only to disappear forever when I was in HS. I particularly loved Elaine Harper, and read EVERYTHING she wrote. This was my favorite:


I also loved the "Cheerleader" series...anyone remember these??


Caroline Cooney wrote a lot of the Cheerleader books (and some of the Silhouettes) and I loved her too. I had a whole set of them. To this day I love the name "Gemma", which was Mary Ellen's kid sister's name. (Mary Ellen being the beautiful cheerleader, who was really poor, but trying desperately to hide it from everyone until she could find a way "out".) Pres was the handsome, rich, preppy guy.

Then there was a book called "Beautiful Girl" by Elisabeth Ogilvie, and I didn't know at the time she was a long-time author of many, many adult fiction books. (She has since passed away.) This book was made into an After School Special at one point. It's on Amazon for $6.19 right now and I'm dying to have it.


How bout the "Couples" series? I LOVED these! They were quite racy for a young teen in the mid-80s ;) (You GOTTA love their 80's hair & clothing on this cover!)


I remember waiting impatiently for the next one to come out so I could see what happened to EACH person featured on the original cover art (about 8 teens...each story featured 1 or 2 of them prominently.)

What about the "Choose Your Own Adventure" Series??? You read a few chapters, then you had to pick which way to go with the story (i.e. Go right, turn to page 27; Go the other way, turn to page 41) I don't remember which of these I read, but I loved them!


There was also a series of "thriller" type books...a precursor to Goosebumps I guess, that I can't remember the name of. I think Christopher Pike wrote a few, because I loved him too (before he was a famous children's author! I guess I can say "I knew him when...", LOL.) One in particular I remember was about a group of teens traveling to Mexico (or maybe New Mexico) and there was a shaman, and maybe a crow??? Ringing any bells? Seems like there was one about the game Dungeons and Dragons too (which scared the bejeezus out of me.)

I'm a little brokenhearted tonight because most of these that I just mentioned (my collection of Cheerleader books, my favorite Silhouettes, my Couples series, etc.) were thrown out a few weeks ago by my mom. She didn't realize what a treasure they were, I guess.

Lucky for me, alot of them can still be picked up for pennies at flea markets & on Amazon & half.com, abebooks, etc. Yay! A new treasure to collect!

a.