Remember When?

I think it was 1984 when I was 16 (in the late '90s). Must've done a lot to me... I'm now sitting at a university desk in a communist country. Runner-up would probably be Huck Finn--I've read it three times since high school.

Our lecturer in our class tonight talked about 1984 ...really MUST read that someday! I never have and it comes up often.

I have heard of Rumblefish but not actually read it, I don't think .... have read The Outsiders but that was a very long time ago

Thanks for your input; it's very helpful!

When I was a teenager, 1939 to 1945, I recall loving to read Little Women by Louisa Mae Allcot, (I may not have her name spelled right) why did I like it, well it was about a family with lots of girls in it, and while it was a period piece, I could picture the costumes, so well described, and of course my favorite character in the book was Jo, because she was the strong one, maybe I equated myself with her, I was the oldest child and helped my mother out, I also read the Nancy Drew Books, but seems to me that they were earlier on perhaps before my teen years, and we had required reading in school, but Little Women stands out in my mind, does that help you? Billy is 19, he reads a lot and if you want to give me questions for him, I can ask him for you, he is up during the day now, at least has been this past week, and I know he has favorites, they might surprise you and he was born in 1988, if that helps you, this is his last teen year.

I don't know if I qualify, since I was a teenager in the 2000s... but Animal Farm- Orwell, Blackhawk Down- Bowden, We Were Soldiers Once (And Young), really had an effect on me.

And True Canadian Heroes on the Battlefield- Bishop (but that's just a large collection of citations and reports, not a story per se) is just inspiring....

But I'm an odd one... I'm the only teenager in the world who launches into large rants about other teenagers...

and just for fun I read 1984 when it first came out, I was not a teenager, but I never beleived any of it could come true, we have lived it many years ago now, but some writers know the future. Buck Rogers was a comic strip about space travel when I was in my teens I think and scoffed at the idea as being absurd, and then watched the space launches in the fifite and of course the moon landing in the 60s, life is strange ,

Jo was my favourite too Elsie..... Loved Little Women...and Anne of Green Gables...and Thornbirds

would love Billy's input, too, Elsie... will post that article tomorrow... for now tis way past my bedtime

Definitely going to have to see if our library has a copy of 1984!

Of course you qualify, David... might have more questions for you if you don't mind though

I was a teenager in the 60's. I read a lot of mysteries, popular fiction and some plays, too. I guess my favorite book then was Gone With the Wind. Scarlett was so strong and stubborn. She wasn't evil, but she was selfish. I remember the honesty of the statement that Scarlett could never tolerate a conversation in which she was not the subject. I admired her determination, but wouldn't want her for a friend.

good night Flit

I liked Animal Farm better than 1984. Four legs good; two legs bad!

Future Shock. It was a really amazing book for the first few chapters and identified for me (I wasn't very reflective and hadn't developed intellectually to any great degree yet) why I was so tormented when I moved to California where development was going on at light speed.

I liked stephen King though no one book comes to mind. I was a teen in the 80's.

Actually, the Little House on the Prairie series was my personality inspiration. I am now an amateur genealogist. LOL

I was a teen in the late 70's and the one book that stands out is "To Kill a Mockingbird". Still one of my favorite books today. I can't say it changed my behaviour any that I can think of. C):-)

I can't think of any 1 book there were so many: I loved "Of Mice and Men", Steinbeck, then there was Pride and Prejudice with the whole social class thing, and Little Women of course was also a great book, "to Kill a Mocking Bird" was also a book that made you really think. hope this helps, Oh I was a teen ager in the 70"s

You know when I was a teenager and The Stand was my all time favourite book, good and evil, put yourself in an interesting world where the world as we know it has ended, which side would you be on!
Second would be "I Am the Cheese" boy you are trying to figure out if he is crazy or not, or just if we are all crazy?
Could keep going, but I do have to work today

As a sophomore in high school we had an English teacher who made English Lit come to life. Wordsworth, Cooleridge, Shakespeare. No one character stands out, but certain ideals definitely do. Oh. There was one book, "Black Like Me" that did have a profound effect. I knew prejudice was wrong but the book broke my heart.

Paper isn't re: crazy LOL .... it's re: why reading fiction is important in adolescence

teen in the early to mid 70's. TKMB was one of my favorites and remains so have used it mor many papers on family and therapy. A later book is Ordinary People, read early in College if that counts ( the first time around!) Also Catcher in the Rye.
Books from Early teens included Meet the Austins about a family with a strong youth female character and also Mrs. Mike , a woman who lived in Alaska or perhaps upper Canada.

And these are all great answers, thanks so much .... would answer all of em individually but ~someone~ is waiting for me to get my arse off the computer and drive him to work

Reading is very important in adolescence. Reading kept me sane cause I could use it to escape. By the time I was in high school I was reading adult murder mysteries and adult fiction such as the godfather, love story, etc.

let him walk!

oops, something like let them eat cake?

I'd have to say, "Gone With the Wind". In 1967 Scarlett was my heroine. Twenty years later I read the book again and ended up with a whole new perspective on my heroine. What a little twit!!!!!

I don't know which book would be my favorite, because I have always read LOTS of books...I know my favorite English class in high school was the semester I had Science Fiction...LOL. I can tell you more which books I absolutely hated...

Let's see, what did I like...Stephen King Books: It and Pet Cemetary..those were my favorites of his... Animal Farm and 1984 by Orwell...Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein....I just love the short story Mimsy were the Borogoves by Padgett...Huck Finn by Twain...MacBeth by Shakespere...and I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed Dante's Inferno.

You'll love this Flit...one of Pher's favorite books in 4th grade was "War of the Worlds." I remember all the books he did for his book reports that year...mostly because they were all classics... (I have a photo somewhere of his WotW project...it was cool).

Huck Finn
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Around the World in 80 Days
War of the Worlds
Tom Sawyer
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

okay..so I don't remember them all...lol

Okay, I am stepping up to the plate to say that I know I am a weirdie. My dad was getting his GED when I was in first grade - he was a little of a wild child so, of course, I was watched like I was demonspawn - and he brought home his books which I loved to try to read. When he brought home his British lit book, I fell in love with the woodcuts used for the play Macbeth in the book and wanted to read it. My dad read some with me but I managed to read the entire book before I was a third grader and I read all sorts of different literature. I was a teenager in the late 60s and early 70s. My mom wanted me to read girly things as a child and I refused reading science fiction instead. I went back to read all of the girly classics in between the classic lit books recommended for the college bound crowd. Madame Bovary was the most disappointing book because she wanted to be a woman of the times but she just dissolved into a non-memorable character by the end of the book. Scarlet O'Hara was the first total b***h I ever read about and she was stunningly cool as she tried to mold the world to her concepts - I was of the ERA generation, belonged to NOW and wanted to see women overcome men in the workplace and politics but that teenage visionary is now a realist. When the struggle is to overcome it is useless. The goal should be to overcome the barriers that separate us. Men and women should work together to make a better world not hamper its existence by inward and intersexual struggles. Today's struggles are more political/religious than sexual and if we could tackle boundaries rather than each other, it would progress the goal more effectively - the goal? Survival due to cooperation and integration rather than destruction and division.

Of Mice and Men stands out. I was a teen in the early to mid 90's.

It wasn't a book that impacted me the most as a kid growing up and I was never a fan of fiction because I found most of it pretty boring and believe that truth can be stranger than fiction. I read the Letter from The Birmingham Jail written by Martin Luther King while he as behind bars in the Birmingham Jail. I was absolutely fascinated when I read this letter.

In part of the letter M.L. King states that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" and that "what effects one indirectly effects each of us indirectly. This had a great impact on my mindset.

I also enjoyed Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. I always liked talking about and facing the tough issues and still do.

Ahh, The Black Beauty books won my heart in the early 60's. :)

there was more than one, Debbie? I read a Black Beauty ...but don't remember others... I also read Diary of Anne Frank several times, Amy

so...what books, Lyla? Favourites?

Right now my daughter is 14 and her favorite books are Anne of Green Gables and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Both of those books touched her. Roll of Thunder is about a black family during the early 1900s and it shows the struggles that went on and the injustices that a black family went through in the story. I read it with her and I thought it was an awesome book.
I was a teenager in the late 80s into the early 90s and the book that I remember loving is Whitney, My Love by Judith McNaught. I seemed to relate to the girl. She had so many trials in life. I just understood what she was going through even though it's a historical book. The issues she had were similiar to mine.

My daughter also likes Helen Keller. She says Helen Keller is one of her heroes.

I didn't read well, still don't actually, didn't have favorites, only read a few books all the why through because I had to in school. they weren't favorites.

I'm going to look for a used copy of that this weekend...so many people have mentioned it

I was a teenager in the '80's and "To Kill a Mockingbird" had a huge impact on me. It was so well written and transported me to a place where a good man stood up for what was right. That did have an impact on me.

another book that seems to come up repeatedly ...I'm pretty sure I've read it but have no memory of the content ...will have to find a copy of that too, I guess

I was a teenager from 1976 to 1982 (although it seemed a lot longer to my mom, I'm sure, ha ha).

My favorite book was and always will be "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. I grew up devouring Nancy Drew books, and eventually moved on to Stephen King's novels.

However, of all books I've read "The Outsiders" by S.E. Hinton influenced me the most during those years in a couple of ways. First, in its exploration of teenage angst, it underscores the importance of friendship. I rooted for Ponyboy, the protagonist, whose values are tested by his peers and culminates in his becoming a hero. It has all the elements of drama and engaging characters that pull you into their world of gangs and violence. His character traits helped shape what I looked for in a boyfriend.

Second, I was shocked to find out that this male-dominated story was written by a woman and that she was only 18 years old when it was published. Not sure if this is true, but my teacher had told us that the author used her initials so that the world would think it was a man who had penned the story, to encourage a wider readership. In fact, after the class had read the book, my teacher took a poll to find out who thought it was written by a man. Just about everyone raised their hands.

Hope this helps!

I loved A Tale of Two Cities as a teenager. I was amazed at how someone would give his life for another...