Amazingly, I read 232 books in 2002. I’m sure it’s the highest number of books I’ve read in any year.
2002 was a turning point in my reading as I was still focusing on children’s books and YA (in about equal measures) but beginning to add books for adults to my diet. Those I read that year – all of them for the first time, as far as the record goes – were The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, Animal Farm, The Lord of the Rings, Brave New World, The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Lovecraft’s The Colour Out of Space and Other Stories, Bradbury’s The Silver Locusts, four of John Wyndham’s books, The Earthsea Quartet and Metamorphosis and Other Stories. As you can see, science fiction and fantasy were my favourite genres. I think they are more accessible for adolescents than other adult genre fiction is.
I read a lot of series that year – Point Horror, the Edge Chronicles, Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, Babysitters Club, the Anne books, the Saga of Darren Shan, His Dark Materials, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Alex Rider and Diamond Brothers.
It’s striking that I’ve re-read a number of books since my first reading in 2002 – including Junk by Melvin Burgess, The Starlight Crystal and Magic Fire by Christopher Pike, Plague by Jean Ure, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and most of the adult books mentioned above. I also read some children’s classics that year, such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, Charlotte’s Web, The Children of the New Forest and Five Children and It.
Some random titles from the list:
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by Chris Wooding, The Highest Form of Killing by Malcolm Rose, The Dare Game by Jacqueline Wilson, Stone Cold by Robert Swindells, Greg by Dirk Walbrecker, Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson, The Other Side of Truth by Beverley Naidoo, The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis, The Pistachio Prescription by Paula Danziger, Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Count Karlstein by Philip Pullman.
Do you remember what you were reading 20 years ago? What were the first ‘adult’ books you read?
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