sweet dreams

When I was a teenage girl I used to collect Sweet Dreams books.

They were a series of books of over 230 numbered stand alone romance novels for teens.

I had collected numbers 1 - 100 straight and scattered numbers up to 150. I absolutely loved these books.

When Mum or Dad would go to the newsagent to get the papers or lotto at the Mirrabooka Shops, we would walk in and they would go to the left and I would go to the right. To the right was where the swivel stand was with all the Sweet Dreams books sitting on it.

I would look at each book and say in my head, "got it, got it, got it, don't have it, got it, don't have it, got it, got it, don't have....." you get the picture.

Then I would get all the books I didn't have (I would usually narrow this number down to 3 top choices) and line them up side by side and then pick the prettiest girl. Back then, you did judge a book by it's cover.

I had a bedhead on my single bed and it had a shelf on it. I would line up my books from 1 to 100 and I would dust them and straighten them everyday.

Then I became a 17 year old and these books were suddenly daggy and embarrassing, so I sold them at the local secondhand bookstore for $25.

When I started to get older, I would think back about my books and I cursed the day that I sold them. I just treasured them.

I have started collecting them again for Audrey. I have 39 so far and keep them on my special bookshelf that is just for Audrey for when she is a young lady. I have a list of every sweet dreams book ever written and I cross the numbers off as I find one. I will hope to have every number by the time she gets to read them, and these will never ever be sold.