What was I reading when I was a teenager?

In preparing for my first interview with a teenager for next week's "interview teenagers about what they're reading and how they feel about it" project, I thought it would be a good idea to try and remember what I was reading when I was a teenager. Stumbling through the mists of time, I was able to remember some things that I read and that made a difference to me (in no particular order):

Poetry -- I found Carl Sandburg in 8th grade, and was mesmerized by everything he wrote. In fact, I started keeping quote books right before high school started, and snippets of Sandburg were the first things I wrote down. I found Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Coney Island of the Mind in a box of giveaway books, and my world cracked open. I found a beat-up copy of one of e. e. cummings' books, and my world opened up a little more. I started only using lowercase "i"s when referring to myself in letters. Just a small tip of the hat to Mr. Cummings. When I stumbled upon Richard Brautigan, it was all over. I also loved Langston Hughes and was electrified by Ntozake Shange's For Colored Girls...

Fantasy -- I loved anything King Arthur-related. I devoured Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy, as well as both books about Arthur and Merlin by T. H. White. No hobbits for me! I loved anything by Patricia A. McKillip, and would later devour anything that Margaret Mahy wrote. I was also a huge Susan Cooper fan, and still am.

Reincarnation -- I was totally into reincarnation, but was only able to find one book (Green Darkness by Anya Seton), and one movie (The Reincarnation of Peter Proud) about it at that point.

Books about black kids -- I read anything I could about my "other half", from novels to slave narratives. I remember liking To Be A Slave and A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich. I also read some of Mildred Taylor's books.

Other stuff: I remember loving The World According to Garp, and would years later, inhale A Prayer for Owen Meany and be haunted by A Widow for One Year. I still remember reading and loving A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle of The Last Unicorn fame, and yes, I was into unicorns then. It was the 1970's after all!! I loved The Prince of Central Park, which they later made into a movie...

Many books made me who I am, and there are many books and movies that nudged me to live in this great land of Oz I've been living in since I graduated from college...