Books from your childhood

Kevin_rc_ie

Well seeing as it's the week that it is; I was just wondering if anyone had any series of books from their childhood that they particularly loved?

The next generation I’m sure will remember HP fondly.
Enid Blyton fans?
CS Lewis?
Remember the velvet rabbit books, peter rabbit books?
Mr Men and Little miss books?

Yesterday I sourced the Chronicles of Narnia from my attic. I remember vividly beginning the series, spilling water on all 7 books and then hiding the books behind the radiator and never reading them again. Well now I’m reading them and I’m very content with them.

Tar.Aldarion

ya i read all the mentioned ones and things like hardyboys,lotr,nancy drew,secret seve and loads of william wallace books,oh those were the days!

Dagnir Glaurung

I never got into Narnia beyond Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Can't remember a thing about the others. I read a shedload of Blyton(and never figured out they were the same plot ), LotR, Just William, Dahl. And P.G Wodehouse' school stories were the best. Very funny stuff.

Tar.Aldarion

no this one is about smugglers 'the pirates of smugglers cove' hehe

MCH

I really liked those Ann and Barry books, anybody know where i could find one theses days?

Sleepy

Hmm, I was quite the voracious reader as a child, worked my way through:

Most of Enid Blyton's books, starting with the Noddy books as a small child, through the secret seven, the famous five, the five find-outters, my sisters St. Clares and Mallory Towers, The Naughtiest Girl series, The Children of Cherry Tree Farm, The Mystery That Never Was, etc. etc. etc. (She was phenomenaly prolific when you think about it!)

Some of the Roald Dahl books but tbh my favourites were always his own autobiography's 'Boy' and 'Going Solo'.

Never got into the Chronicles of Narnia at all.

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew series (both written by the Stratemeyer Syndicate under the pen names Carolyn Keene and Franklin W. Dixon.

I remember reading some Tom McCaughren novel about an Oil Sheikh's daughter, Gary Paulsen's Hatchet and a few others that stick out but I know I read hundreds more before progressing onto Arthur Hailey and James Clavell novels which were my first real introduction to "Adults" books.

lacuna

I read everything I could get my hands on as a child. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis (reread the Chronicles of Narnia about a year ago-excellent books). I spent ages in book shops rooting out any books on the celtic underworld and faery lore. I loved that stuff. Once I finished with those I went straight to adult books. I by-passed the teenager stuff. I think it's a tricky area and I found a lot of the books for that age-group boring.

LadyJ

Peter Rabbit was a favourite of mine.
Squirrel Nutkin too...Anything by Beatrix Potter

Vokes

Dahl, have all of them, favourite is Going Solo.

Blyton, have lots of these.

Hardy boys (fantastic stuff)

James Budd series of books.

Race against Time books.

Have a few Doctor Who books from the 80s.


I still have all of these books. Most of them are in good nick too.

Kevin_rc_ie

lacuna wrote:

I read everything I could get my hands on as a child. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis (reread the Chronicles of Narnia about a year ago-excellent books). I spent ages in book shops rooting out any books on the celtic underworld and faery lore. I loved that stuff. Once I finished with those I went straight to adult books. I by-passed the teenager stuff. I think it's a tricky area and I found a lot of the books for that age-group boring.

quite similar experience for me.

*Angel*

I read a lot of Blyton and Dahl.

Branoic

The Chronicles of Narnia were definitely the most influential series on me as a child.

I also read Roald Dahl quite a bit.

Oh and does anyone remember those books by an irish guy about talking foxes? I can't remember his name, Tim Cochran or something like that. They were good.

John

Branoic wrote:

Oh and does anyone remember those books by an irish guy about talking foxes? I can't remember his name, Tim Cochran or something like that. They were good.

Run To Earth was the name of one of them. I really liked them.

Roald Dahl was another favourite. I still read his books, wonderful stuff.

Kevin_rc_ie

only finished the chronicles of narnia series today. very happy with them.

supersheep

Most of the books I read in my childhood are ones I'd still read today - Chronicles of Narnia (I think I missed the whole Aslan is Jesus bit... Or ignored it), Lord of the Rings, Roald Dahl, and so on. I read the Hardy Boys too, but I wouldn't now... I hardly read any of the classic children's books - like Tom Sawyer or The Lost World - except in simplified versions. I really should get around to that some day...

angeldelight

During primary school I loved famous five, secret seven, st clares, mallory towers, trebizon, nancy drew, babysitters club(!), roald dahl particularly loved the witches, nearly all the ladybird stories like the ugly duckling, the princess and the pea, and anything I could get my hands on. Read loads in school that I don't remember cos I always used to finish the readers before christmas and ten got to read all the school library.

Secondary school for me is mainly harry potter, i read the first one while in first year

Manchegan

Moomins were just plain spooky. Always felt a bit queasy after reading them.

Originally posted by lacuna
I by-passed the teenager stuff. I think it's a tricky area and I found a lot of the books for that age-group boring.

Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series was riveting at the time and Robert Cormier was de rigeur for teenage angst.

supersheep

Manchegan wrote:

Moomins were just plain spooky. Always felt a bit queasy after reading them.

I never even knew there were Moomin books! The cartoons were freaky enough as it is...

The Lopper

Those William books by Richmal Crompton were my favourites. I have tonnes of them at home somewhere

Oral Slang

I loved most of what was mentioned above - Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis and so on.. I used to love doing the readathon every year & reading them all again!

The books that I really adored though were the Faraway Tree series of books by Enid Blyton - I must have read them about 10 times.
I read one of the them about 2 years ago again and they are just so magical..

inflight

All the usuals:
Enid Blyton- my parents gave a whole bookcasefull of my childhood hoard of Blyton books back to the charity shops this year and I nearly died, all the years I spent collecting first editions.. And new books Never smell as good as well thumbed, 60 year old ones with the binding coming undone.. Sigh!
C. S. Lewis, I loved all the Chronicles so much, never was partial to Turkish Delight though I must say,
Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland,
All of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women series,
Everything Philip Pullman! Genius.
Carolyn Keene/Franklin W. Dixon, oh the mysteries they unraveled!
Dahl, especially Danny Champion of the World and Matilda (My record, 13 times) Actually Everything by Dahl.
Just William, whoever they were by again,
the classics i.e. Secret Garden, Little Princess, and the L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables etc series,
Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children!!
And all those Little House on the Prairie books, I loved them.

Most of my childhood was spent reading everything I could, and then re-reading. And my mother wonders why I was never one of those sports inclined kids..

Dizzyblabla

I used to read Enid Blyton (from the Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair to The Five Findouters and the Secret Seven, I didn't like the Famous Five though),
Judy Blume, I remember thinking "Forever" was like the dirtiest book ever!,
Paula Danzigger, I even met her in the Library when she was plugging her books!
Bernadette Leach, met her too!
Nancy Drew, Mallory Towers(that was Enid Blyton too, no?),
Roald Dahl from his kids books to his Twilight Zone stuff...
Tom McCaughren is that guy who did the foxes books, read most of these too (Run with the Wind, Run to Earth, Run Swift Run Free, Run to the Ark, Run to the Wild Wood and Run for Cover) Run to the Ark was the last one I read...
I remember reading the Hounds of the Morrigan too, I think is was Séan Ó Shé who wrote that..
Anne Rice, ALL her Vampire books, and some of her other ones too
now I'm reading a stoopid MCP in XP book... *sigh* how things change!!
I remember when I was a kid I made a list of all the books I'd read, I wonder if I could find it?

Misticles

well, Hansel and Gretel, The Babysitters Club, The Lion King, Heidi, and a few Enid Blytons

Dizzyblabla

inflight wrote:

the classics i.e. Secret Garden, Little Princess, and the L.M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables etc series,
Edith Nesbit's The Railway Children!!

ooh my God! I forgot about those ones, Anne of Green Gables!! wow, and Pippi Longstocking!
Jane Eyre, Tess of the d'Urbervilles ( we did that for our Junior Cert and I loved it!, and you can read it here: http://pages.ripco.net/~mws/etexts.html)
Helen Forrester, you know, all the Two pence to cross the Mersey books...
ahh, the memories...

Larianne

Had a big book of Fairytales that I would read and re-read. Also Roald Dahl's books, Mr.Men and Little Miss, The Shamrogues!!! Those Foxes books, Tom Caughren, yeah? And those books set in the famine times can't remember for the life of me what they were and then going onto Point Horror books when hitting me teenage years!! lol

Dizzyblabla

ooh the famine ones, I remember them emm... Under the Hawthorn Tree (one sec, I'll google it...)
Under the Hawthorn Tree (1990)
Wildflower Girl (1991)
Fields of Home (1996)
written by, Marita Conlon-McKenna!

Kevin_rc_ie

Hans Christain Anderson

Larianne

Dizzyblabla wrote:

ooh the famine ones, I remember them emm... Under the Hawthorn Tree (one sec, I'll google it...)
Under the Hawthorn Tree (1990)
Wildflower Girl (1991)
Fields of Home (1996)
written by, Marita Conlon-McKenna!

Yep, that's it!! Read Under The Hawthorn Tree and Wildflower Girl.

monkeyfudge

I used to love the Bottersnikes and Gumbles books by S.A Wakefield.

The Bottersnikes were big lizardy type creatures who were really crumpy and ate old matresses. And Gumbles were good natured squishy creatures who the Bottersnikes would capture to use as slaves. I found them immensely enjoyable.

There was a series of fantasy books called The Cenotaph Road, by Robert Vardeman, that I used to read as well. They were very good and I really liked Krek the giant talking spider who abandoned his mate as he didn't want to be eaten.

For science fiction I liked Frederik Pohl's Gateway Saga.... although it did get a bit silly towards the end of the saga... I really wish science fictions authors would just leave things alone and let their be mystery as to the intentions of ancient advanced alien civilisations.

RainyDay

Was anyone else a fan of The Cherrys series by UK author Will Scott? They were another line of adventure-solving kids in the mode of Famous Five. I was a huge fan, though the only detail I can remember now was that the main character was pretty geeky looking.

Franky Boy

Holes - Louis Sachar