Sweet Valley? Those Books from the Eighties?!

Is there something you've loved since your teens that you're still passionate about? 
 

I'm an all or nothing kind of person, that's just who I am, so when I invest in something it tends to be that I'm in it for the long haul.
 

Take That?  Yep, loved them since 1992.  David Beckham?  I've been lusting after him for twenty years.  Grease: The Movie?  I can't even begin to imagine how many times I've watched it since I first saw it as a nine year old.
 

But in terms of books, the big love affair of my adolescent years was with the residents of a white, middle class, American community.  Yes, I'm talking Sweet Valley.  Sweet, sweet, Sweet Valley.
 

I've tried to remember when I first discovered these books, and it's difficult to be sure.   Possibly my first experience was a Sweet Valley Twins book back in Summer 1991, although it could easily have been before. Whenever it was, I was quickly hooked.  Jessica and Elizabeth's lives were so totally far removed from my own, but I loved their family, their friendship groups, their clothes, their hobbies - everything!  I wanted to be a member of the Unicorns.  I wanted to go to Dairy Queen.  I wanted to be a twin.

 

Over the years the Sweet Valley series made up a large chunk of the small selection of books I actually owned.  Although I've always been a voracious reader, as a child that was mainly fed through library loans.  But Sweet Valley books seemed to turn up at car boot sales, in charity shops, fetes, fairs - making them an affordable option.  And whenever I was given spending money by a family member for birthday or Christmas, my money would almost inevitably be spent in the Monmouth branch of WH Smith, to get my latest fix of the Sweet Valley gangs antics.

 

 

As I grew older I gave my Sweet Valley books away, especially when I packed up my bedroom to move permanently to Sheffield.  I hadn't read them for a long, long time and although I had excited palpitations when the Sweet Valley Confidential book came out in 2011 (what a let down that was), I'd had no pangs to reacquaint myself with the twins earlier escapades.

 

Fast forward to 2015 and I really, really regretted not keeping my collection.  I can't say what it was that made me almost crave their familiarity, but there was an overwhelming sense that I needed these books back in my life.  And that's why I'm slowly rebuilding my Sweet Valley collection and why from now on you'll spot a fair few Sweet Valley reviews here on Books with Bunny. 

 

They've not dated well in many ways and young adult fiction has moved on to somewhere totally different, somewhere more representative of the masses and far more diverse in every possible way. They're not the books I'd recommend to the majority of teens nowadays.  However, they're special to me, partly through nostalgia, but also because they satisfied my reading needs for many, many years in the early to mid 90s.  

 

As I said at the beginning, when I love something, I'm all in.  And with Sweet Valley, I'm definitely still very much all in.

2016 Reading Goals

We're already nine days into 2016 and Books with Bunny has been a bit neglected lately, truth be told.  Having welcomed the new year on holiday in America, my body's only just getting back to UK time and with a new role in the day job, reading hasn't taken a front seat over the past few weeks.  Add to that the release of four Meet Cute books (published by Harper Impulse) in the run up to Christmas and One Night in Los Angeles (published by Tirgearr) due out January 27th and I've been one busy Bunny!

However, I usually make 'reading resolutions' for the calendar year and 2016 was no different. 

1) Read less. 
That might sound strange, but I'm finding everything blurs into one when I hurtle from one book to another.  Plots, locations, characters - I just can't retain them half the time.  Authors work bloody hard, as I'm finding out.  Their books deserve to be savoured.  I want to savour what I read.

2) Read more paperback books.
I have a ridiculous amount of paperback books on my shelves waiting to be read.  If I don't start reading them, my house will be too full to be able to buy more!  And that'd be a disaster...

3) Reread more books I've enjoyed.
This won't help with making space on my shelves, but there are some books I kept with the sole aim of rereading, whether that's once, twice or regularly.  I used to be a serial rereader, and there's something truly comforting about going back to a book you've loved.  I want that feeling more in 2016.

4) Build my collection of Sweet Valley books.
Late last year I reread a few Sweet Valley books (I'll be reviewing them soon), and they gave me the aforementioned comforting buzz.  I'm trying to collect the whole lot through charity shop and online purchases - unlikely I'll get that completed in 2016, but I'd like to get a shelf full!  They brought me so much pleasure as a teen, and although they are dated compared to current YA, they hold a special place in my heart.  And that leads me on to my last resolution...

5) To read what I enjoy.
Over new year I reflected on how my reading habits have changed since starting this blog.  I get sent a lot of books to review (which is wonderful, and I'm very grateful and honoured that publishers and authors like my reviews enough to want me to write one for their book). 

Generally, I try and only accept books that I know I'll read and enjoy.  But there have been many times where I've been sent books unsolicited that fall outside the genres I'd normally read, and to be polite and openminded I read them.  Sometimes I'll review them, sometimes not.  But my book pile is getting bigger and bigger year on year, and it's currently unmanageable. 

In 2016 I'll be accepting less books for review.  This is to allow me to read the books I already have and am desperate to read (both review copies and bought).

Here's to a happy year of reading for us all in 2016!