Top Ten Tuesday: My 10 Pre-Blogging Faves

I've only been blogging since January 2011, so this week's Top Ten Tuesday should have been relatively easy. But I decided to make it harder on myself and do pre-Goodreads too, which was Jan 2008. And then...I made it too difficult. I couldn't remember very many lol. So I went to my pictures, where I found this one of my bookshelf from 2004, which was a few months before my sister & I moved into our apt together. And that helped quite a bit, but some of these might be in general terms (if I can't remember details) or maybe not quite my favorites, but ones I just wanted to highlight. Yeah, that sounds right. ;)

(go here to view it extra large in all its messy glory!)

1. Why Girls Are Weird by Pamela Ribbon --I remember having a "this is me" moment while reading this book. Like I felt connected to the author.

2. Stone Garden by Molly Moynahan --this is obviously a little-known book, because Goodreads doesn't even have the cover I have listed. I think I might still have this one. I know it made me cry.

3. Jane Green & Marian Keyes --I was waaaay into Pink Books (chicklit generally had pink covers for a long time, so my dad coined them "Pink Books") for a long time. I still have all of these two authors, along with Sophie Kinsella, but I haven't read any of them in a loooong time. I gave extra bonus points if the book was set in England.

4. The Cheerleader by Jill McCorkle --I was assigned this book in a psychology class in college. The girl is super popular and successful in high school and then goes off to college and everything falls apart. I can see now why the teacher assigned it, but at the time, I was like "OMG how did she know??!". I read several more of her books too and remember liking them. Maybe I should pick one up again...

5. House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewski --the best book I never finished lol. Seriously, this book is so big and confusing, it's kind of like 1Q84. I read it for like 3 years and would think I was totally getting it and was completely astounded and then I'd read one of those odd footnotes and I'd just have to give up and beat my head against the wall for a while. If you've read it, you will understand. If you haven't, don't pick it up. Yeah, it's that odd.

6. Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford --my mom gave me her paperback copy to read when I was a teenager. What do you think she was trying to say? Lol...I don't care if it was "fake" or not, it's still a crazy good story.

7. Anita Shreve --I was very into those tear-jerker stories for awhile. I devoured all of her books.

8. A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer --this was another one for a pysch class (I took about 4 different ones). The whole series is very interesting and I felt very "grown-up" reading these. Like I had moved beyond those silly Pink Books and was super intellectual now lol.

9. Bad Boys To Go by Lori Foster & Others --haha just kidding, not intellectual at all! :) There are several of these "Bad Boys" compilations and they were always good for a quick, dirty read. I actually want to find some again soon for our cruise next year. :)

10.Dean Koontz & Mary Higgins Clark --I looooved both of these authors for so long, it seems funny that I never, ever read them anymore. I still have a few of Koontz's, including the first 4 Odd Thomas (I haven't read #4 yet though and really, there are 6 now??!). They are both so good at writing truly disturbing books.