Ooohhh, reading questions this week! This is right up my alley!

1. What were your favorite childhood stories?

The story I remember the most from my childhood wasn't from a book. It was a story my grandpa made up, titled "The Green Pig" (it was about a green pig [duh!] born in a family of black pigs, and how he tried to become black too). I insisted he tell me that story every day. Another one I remember was "The Hoarse Lion", created by my dad. At one point he wrote it and made it into a little book for us. I found it a few weeks ago while cleaning my closet.

After I learned to read, I read everything and anything. Lots of Enid Blyton and other boarding-school books, every book ever published in the Robin Hood collection ("classics" translated to Spanish), Emilio Salgari's adventure books, Louisa May Alcott, and many others, which I'll probably remember as soon as I post this.

2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children?

If I ever have nephews or nieces, I'd love for them to read a couple of Emilio Salgari books, especially the "Captain Storm" series, which has a Venetian noblewoman disguised as a man and fighting in the siege of Damascus. She and the "Lion of Damascus" end up falling in love... *sigh* :-) I always liked my books to have some kind of love story, which explains my present taste in books.

3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?

Not too many of them, actually, and I don't remember many surprises.

4. How old were you when you first learned to read?

Almost 4, and I soon started on "thick" books.

5. Do you remember the first 'grown-up' book you read? How old were you?

I've no idea. There was never a separation between "children's" and "grown-up" books in my house or at my school library. I always grabbed whatever caught my fancy from the shelves, and nobody ever said anything to me. I was reading what might be considered age-inappropriate books, but it doesn't appear to have done much damage ;-)

I admit sometimes what I read made me a little uncomfortable, so I'd just leave the book and go back to it after a few months. I remember doing that with # 2 in Phillipa Carr's family series, The Lion Triumphant. Oh, and I remember reading # 9 in that series, The Adulteress one day at the beach, when I was about 12, and a friend of my grandmother's asking me what I was reading. Boy, did she look scandalized when I told her!