From the Blogging Librarian: what books got you into the reading habit as a child?
For me I’d have to say Enid Blyton all the way. (I was really surprised when Stephen Abram said he’d never heard of her. Surely she is not only a British/colonies cultural icon?)
- The Famous Five series
- The school series: Malory Towers and St Clare’s
- The Five Find Outers (I loved Fatty’s antics with Mr Clear-Orf Goon)
- The Adventure series
- The Magic Faraway Tree
(And then I enjoyed reading Enid Blyton in Malay translation and comparing them with the originals. But I’m sure that’s just me.)
What books did you love as a child?
8 Comments
Oh yeah – old Enid Blyton (for all her detractors) was popular in our house 😉 I must have read the Famous 5 series over and over. Also like Trixie Belden’s, 3 Investigators, Willard Price, L.M. Montgomery, Billabong series, Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, The Borrowers … oh and how can I forget – Laura Ingalls Wilder. Still like reading them.
Ooh, Penny’s comment has reminded me of how much i loved The Three Investigators. I’d quite like to read that series again!
Hmmm of that list, I echo 1 and 4 and shame on you for neglecting the Secret Seven. Of Penny’s list I also echo Trixie Belden, 3 Investigators, Willard Price (oh how could I forget the Bring ’em Back Alive ethos!!!). And I’ll add Biggles and The Hardy Boys (or Nancy Drew, probably same writers). Hmmm I think I have the basics for a post of my own
I came to reading later than everyone who has commented so far I suspect. My first author I really got into was in the middle of high school and got into the series by David Eddings, and later David and Leigh Eddings.
Now I read a number of authors predominantly around fantasy fiction, crime, spy, or suspense books.
I loved Enid Blyton, but also Eleanor Spence, the Chalet School stories by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer, and odds and sods like The Ordinary Princess by M M Kaye and the Macdonald Hall books by Canadian writer Gordon Korman. And of course LM Montgomery, the Anne of Green Gables books. My favourite thing was the once every month or so when the Book Club catalogue came to the school, and my parents would let me chose a number of books described in it. We lived in the far west, so bookstores were pretty limited. Does anyone else have memories of the Book Clubs?
I don’t know if that’s as far back as you wanted, but the truth is that I don’t remember a time when I couldn’t read (although I remember being in kindergarten and learning to read silently), and as far back as I could read I was an obsessive reader, pretty much.