i still go to barnes and noble and read the new ones. but i loved diary of a wimpy kid, captain underpants, dork diaries, geronimo stilton books, magic tree house, ronald dahl books, my weird school, JUNIE B JONES, little critters, amelia bedelia and much more. i still read them from time to time cause it feeds my inner child.
I remember Where the Wild Things Are and other art books the most. Reading The Hobbit when I did (9 or 10?) was pretty important to me. A good mix of adventure. I learned to use a dictionary really well because I had never seen many of the words in the book. Growing up in rural eastern Kentucky coal fields I didn't get a lot of help from the adults around me in that regard. I also still remember the feeling of tension and fear in the scenes with the ogres and Gollum having some comedic elements here and there to make being a little afraid fun.
Then I probably got into fantasy novels well above my age shortly after. lol Piers Anthony made several of his books anatomy lessons.
as a young child: Magic Treehouse, The Secrets of Droon, The Boxcar Children (used to tear off the corners of pages and let them dissolve in my mouth, donβt ask me to explain why idk I was a weird kid, but all the boxcar books at my dads house are full of lil nibbles) middle school: Leviathan series by Scott Westerfled, Leven Thumps, Maximum Ride, Bone graphic novels, various superhero novels used to read a ton growing up but kind of stopped reading for fun in high school and through college. had a book club for a few years as an adult but been struggling to get back into causal reading regularly
