Happy Birthday to Me! Book A

In honor of my (Nicole's) July 10th birthday:

A. Read a book by a writer who is a Cancer (June 21-July 22)
AND
B. Read a book that has a NOUN in the title. This noun MUST appear on page 31 of your Part A book (I am turning 31 this summer).

First off. It's not my birthday. Mine is a good 5 months away (also so is Christmas. fyi get your shopping done early!) It was the designer of this challenge's birthday. And thus our Cancer challenge.

(Side note about Cancers. My roommate in college is a Cancer and she was always so mad she couldn't get the panties that had your astrological sign on them. She thought it would just be asking for trouble.)

Anyway book A was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The Outsider's is a classic coming of age tale. I read this as a 7th grader and was enthralled. I loved everyone from Ponyboy to Dally. I wanted Sodapop to be my brother or maybe my boyfriend... I was a seventh grade girl.

I remember loving this book so much that a few months later I got the book out from the library and read the entire thing out loud to my younger sister, who also really enjoyed it.

Now, I reread it, hoping to feel that magic again. But it didn't happen for me. I found myself reading it more as a look back into a time where they used words like "tuff" and "heaters." In a side note though, when I read that in 7th grade I thought they were literally talking about heaters. You know, the small portable kind. Taking heaters to a rumble always seemed kind of strange to me.

Why was I not captivated again? Did I love it the first go round because I was in love with the '50s decade? Did I relate to it more as a preteen? Probably a little of both. I enjoyed it this time, but i enjoy the memory of it more. The next time I read this, if ever, it will be to someone who can show me it again through the eyes of a 12 year old.

I still give it four stars though, if only for the memory of what once was 5.

I also remember seeing the movie of this with all those young stars (like Tom Cruise) and being utterly disappointed. "Way to ruin a good book", I thought. I henceforth ignored its existence.

Has that ever happened to you? The movie ruin the book? Which ones? I am sure I have more that this applies to, but it's just when I think of this book that memory of my dislike for the movie is there as well.