House of Stairs! Both DH and I have read that book and talked about it.

I remember being frustrated at not being able to read, and then I remember being way ahead of my class when we started reading dick and Jane. But nothing in between

I remember Go, Dog. Go! and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish from when I was five.

One Fish, Two Fish was the first book I could read on my own. I was taught to read by Buddy Newbury, Sgt. Newbury's wife who lived across the street on the base. He was away on TDY and she'd come over and read dinosaur books to me.

I think of her when I watch Mad Men. I went to her house once. The curtains were drawn in the afternoon. It was so dark. The ashtrays overflowed. She was obviously so trapped and depressed in that life. But I remember her smile, and her lipstick and her cat's eye glasses. And that she talked my mom into joining the Dr. Seuss book-of-the-month club for me.

My mother says I was born reading. I was what is called a "spontaneous reader." Sometime between 3 and 4, I put what my mother was reading and the marks on the page together. I think the first book I owned was The How and Why Wonderbook of Dinosaurs.

My mother read to us an hour a day and now she wonders why I have all these books.

The kid books that really stuck with me seem to be ones noone know. Island of the Skink. The Meanest Squirrel I Ever Met. (Both of which I still have. Also Wet Albert about a kid with a raincloud that followed him around. Which I do not still have, and which can't be google searched without a strong stomach.)

Go Dog Go! rocks though.

Go Dog Go! rocks though.

That party in the tree at the end is still my ideal party, narrowly beating out the party in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

I just bought Go Dog Go for my toddler niece, along with Are You My Mother?. It was fun to pass on the love.

... isn't it about time for Mockingjay to be out?

Megan, you should also be reading Scott Westerfeld for YA: his Uglies series is just excellent. I hear Leviathan is also good but it's for a younger audience. Also Graceling by Kristin Cashore was a big hit with my teenage niece.

And I really enjoyed Kenneth Oppel's two steampunky boys-own adventure novels, Airborn and Skybreaker. ... oh, neat, according to Amazon, he wrote a third! Excellent!

Megan, you should also be reading Scott Westerfeld for YA: his Uglies series is just excellent.

Yes. Also because my niece likes them. I'm so glad she's on Goodreads so I know what she likes and what she's already read.

Mockingjay is out next week I think.

BTW, Consuela, thanks for the TWTWB recommendation way back when. Very fun.

I am allowing myself to be enthusiastic about the Tomorrow movie that's about to be released in Australia, although I doubt a movie could match Marsden for excitement. He really writes the best action scenes.

How many books are in that series? Is there a drop off? Are they all worth it?