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Do you remember the books you read as a kid?

I bet you do. At the very least, a couple of titles must jump to mind. Maybe a beloved series you plowed through one summer vacation, or a particular picture book that never left your bedside table.

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Maybe the author and title are etched in your mind forever. Or maybe your memories are vaguer, and therefore harder to pin down, even in the age of Google — a purple cover? Certain pictures always on the right-hand page? Something about a team of kid skateboarders doing kick flips over earthquake rubble? (One of these examples may or may not come from real life.)

No matter your answer to that initial question, Margaret Mackey can do you one better. In her new book, One Child Reading(U of A Press), the professor in the University of Alberta’s School of Library and Information Studies retraces her childhood reading diet in what may well be the greatest level of detail ever attempted. She itemizes, analyses, re-buys, and re-reads almost literally everything she read from ages two to 13, as a kid growing up in St. John’s, Newfoundland.