Over at Critical Mass, there's a discussion of reading lists for teenagers going on. (The controversy is over the fact that a book of poetry by Jewel, and another by Tupac Shakur, are included on the summer reading list of some school or other. About that, I will say, I was enough of a literary snob as a teen that I wouldn't have read either. And I did let out a little snobbish snort of derision upon seeing Jewel's book in the "poetry" section at the Hastings. One of the not-very-pretty things about me is that I am somewhat of a literary snob - won't read Danielle Steele, won't read romance novels, won't read most bestsellers).

So I'm trying to think: what did I read as a young teen? And it's hard for me to remember. I do remember going through a phase, around 13 or so, of not reading much - partly because I was leaving behind the children's lit that I loved and was comfortable with for the YA books - of which, my library did not have a good selection, it was one small corner of the Youth/Children's area, about 1/8 or so of what was available to the under-13s.

I read a lot of non-fiction. I think I read part of William Manchester's History of America (I think it was Manchester; I can picture the books, a two-volume hardcover set, white dustjackets with symbols like the NRA blue eagle on the front. I had a set, when I was an undergrad, but a leak in the storage unit one summer spoiled them forever and I threw them out). I liked non-fiction; it was fairly "safe" (I had had a bad experience with a novel from the adult section - lots of very icky graphic sex scenes that I most definitely was not ready for at 12).

I do remember reading a couple books in that series - and I don't remember the name now - where teenagers were fitted by these space aliens with metal caps, and the mesh caps were a form of thought control, but there were two or three "uncapped" boys roaming the countryside, trying to plan a revolt and revolution. I think it was a trilogy of books.

I tried to read the Lloyd Alexander quintet and just couldn't get into it.

I read Watership Down. Liked it, but don't count it among my favorite books or books that had a big impact on me.

I read "Cheaper by the Dozen", which I liked.

I read "Jane Eyre," which I also liked (and might have liked even better had I read it earlier; I think I was perhaps 15 when I read it. There's something about the put-upon protagonist that goes through many trials that appealed - and still appeals - deeply to me. I would have LOVED, loved, LOVED the "Series of Unfortunate Events" books as a 12 year old. I love them as an adult).

I think I read some of the Pern novels, the ones with the dragonriders and the mycorrhizoid spore (which is supposed to be evil in the books, so I can't bring myself to read them now; my experience with mycorrhizae is that they are GOOD, not evil.)

I read some Pinkwater, weird but likeable, as I remember.

I read a lot of what are called "problem novels" - that was the bulk of the YA section - you know, the book where the main character has scoliosis or warts or has lost a parent or a sibling or something has gone bad and you have the feeling that the book was tailor-written for a very small segment of the population, so they could "relate" to it because the protagonist has the same problem as they do. I felt that I was being manipulated emotionally, and I disliked many of them.

"The Summer of my German Soldier" - about captured German POWs being sent to a camp in Alabama or Texas or somewhere like that. I think a teenaged girl (a local) fell in love with one of them or something, and he died? And then there was a sequel, where she went to Germany to try to find his family?

"My Brother Sam is Dead" - didn't particularly love it, as I remember.

"A Separate Peace" and "Peace Breaks Out" - set at boarding schools, and I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to say both involve death.

I think 13 or so was when I "discovered" T.S. Eliot and fell in love with the fact that his poems were long and difficult to understand and sometimes contained snippets of other languages. (I was a bit of a poseur as a teen; I liked the idea of appearing deep and intellectual and "above" the other kids with their top-40 and their designer jeans and their contempt of me because my father was a professor instead of an executive or businessman, and my family had less money than theirs. Actually, my intellectual poseurdom may have contributed considerably to their contempt of me, I realize now, but I couldn't see that at the time). I also tried to read Ezra Pound but found him too opaque.

Oddly, I don't remember reading any mystery novels, other than a few Conan Doyle short stories. And now, mysteries are my comfort-reading (along with the children's books I thought I had to leave behind when I was 13). I dearly wish someone would have introduced me to Ngaio Marsh or P.D. James or Rex Stout or Josephine Tey when I was 13. (as for Christie, I have to admit I don't like Christie as much as the others; I just read her novels (and then only certain ones) because I have a thing for Hercule Poirot).