Smiting my forehead

So I've been on Goodreads.com for over a year now, and I just now added the Louis Sachar Wayside School series books to my "Read" shelf.

This is not because I just now read them for the first time.

Nor is this because I just recently started listing books I read during childhood to my Goodreads account.

No, instead, somehow I just blanked on these until now. Not to use a cliche term, but I am shocked and appalled at myself for this. I loved those books. Still do. And they were some of my faves, not just up there with some other books, say a top 40. The Baby-sitters Club books were definitely near the top of my fave childhood reading list, so perhaps I was distracted by that when developing my Goodreads shelves. But the Wayside tales were on certainly on par with Ms. Martin's accounts of fictional New England child care workers.

I mean, to this day when I hear a reference to Stonybrook College, you better believe that I think immediately of Stoneybrook, Connecticut. Duh. But mention the number 13 and, maybe not every time, but oftentimes I think of the nonexistent 13th floor of Wayside School and the teacher and the students who did not reside there yet were mentioned in every 13th chapter of every book.

My apologies, Mr. Sachar. Perhaps this was a case of "save the best for last." Your books were definitely an enjoyment for me as a kid--I remember highlighting some of the insults in one of the books with a yellow highlighter, on a family vacation to D.C., if memory serves. That may have been the first time I marked in a book, beyond a time or two I might have mussied up a book with some crayons before I understood that not all paper was for scribbling abstractly on. That's pretty significant, when you think about it. Do you remember the first book you marked in? I mean, I think the next ones for me might have been when I was in college. So the fact that 7- or 8-year-old Bailey was marking in a Wayside book is saying something. Seriously.

So again. Mr. Sachar, my apologies. And thank you, for the childhood entertainment.

Oh you have got to be kidding me, I hadn't added Holes either. Ridiculous. Bailey Kathleen.