Same here re Thomas Hardy - especially like Tess of the D’Urbervilles
I have always enjoyed reading. The Kindle is one of the best modern inventions, imo.
I liked the Enid Blyton books, in particular, when very young.
Black Beauty Little Women and What Katie Did
Alan Garner’s “The Weirdstone of Brisingamen” and “The Moon of Gomrath” are impossible to beat, in my estimation.
Noddy, Rupert, Toby Twirl (handed down from my much older siblings) Enid Blyton, Charles Dickens (loved his books) The Water Babies, Grimms Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Anderson’s.
Gill’s Gymkhana, Anne McCaffery’s dragon books, then all the spooky stuff by Dennis Wheatley!
When I was very young I had lots of Enid Blyton books, Amelia Jane, Noddy, Bimbo and Topsy… then the Mallory towers and St Clares series.
Also the Bancroft Classics books, like Little Women, Three Musketeers, Tom Sawyer etc.
One book that did make a lasting impression on me was an Enid Blyton book, The Land of far beyond. A simpler version of Pilgrim’s Progress. My copy eventually fell apart. But I just bought a reprint edition recently, it is still an endearing story.
Biggles
I too read Enid Blyton when I was a youngster. I liked her adventure books.
When I was older I loved the Bulldog Drummond books, and also books by John Buchan.
As an older teen I remember going through a phase of reading awful romance novels.
In the school holidays, l would spend a whole day in the library reading Enid Blyton magazines! Then l would take out the Famous Five and Secret Seven books to read at home! Later, l liked to read Nancy Drew books, ‘Heidi’ and ’ What Katie Did’ books
My mother used to buy me a book every so often, my favourite book of all time was Little Women. She also bought me Alice in Wonderland and Black Beauty, plus other classics.
At school the teacher read The Railway Children to us, which l loved! Other books read to the class were, The Circus is Coming and Moonfleet, l remember John Trenchard was in it!
I was a real bookworm in those days!
Treasure Island
I had book with a strip cartoon version of Robinson Crusoe
Another strip cartoon book was of Fudge and Speck; no-one seems to mention them or have heard of them now
Swallows and Amazons, and others by Arthur Ransome; I learned to recognise the distinctive patterned & coloured covers in the children’s section of my local library.
Do you remember how proud we felt when the teacher said we were ready to move onto the next book?
I devoured every book that came my way, from Enid Blyton, Dickens, Dumas, Robert Louis Stevenson, plus of course Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and their sequels. I loved The Scarlet Pimpernel, Robinson Crusoe, Kidnapped etc. I also read all of my deceased Dad’s Saint books by Leslie Charteris, he had the whole lot. Then I moved on to Dennis Wheatley, The Devil Rides Out and To the Devil a Daughter.
I still read at least two books a week. I prefer real books, but also have a huge selection on Kindle. I rarely read a book twice, except for To Kill a Mockingbird (my favourite), which I have read several times.
When I was a nipper one book that I read time and time again was called “King of the Golden River”.
Every Christmas at Sunday school we were all given books. I had “Robinson Crusoe” “Swiss Family Robinson” “Roving Traders” and several more the names of which I have forgotten.
As a young teenager it was ‘Fanny Hill’ all the way for quite a few years.
Those are the same ones I had. All gone now though. But I have been pondering with the idea of downloading them in audio books, just to revisit a carefree happy, (mostly) time when I could lose myself in a book world.
I loved the famous five and secret seven books, I went to our local library every saturday and got them, now I buy them for my grandchildren.
I wallowed in Enid Blyton’s Far Away Tree series of books! Very imaginative and a tad scary at the time.
Dame Slap’s School for example.:shock:
It’s amazing what you might find at the top of a ladder.
I am 64 yrs old so I guess my first real brush with the written word happened around 54 yrs ago!!!..at one of our regular village ‘Jumble’ sales I bought a box of mixed items, one of which was a copy of Emil and the Detectives, I clearly remember picking this book up during a rainy school holiday and being captivated by it…set in and around Berlin, a 11yr old boy sent to live with his Grandmother, his spending money gets stolen and a mystery ensures…could not put it down…I have not been without a book by my side since.
I must have been about 14 when my English teacher took me to the school library and told me I had to start reading some fiction other than The Victor and The Eagle in order to improve my vocabulary. He chose a couple of books that he thought might interest me (Ngaio Marsh was one author I remember) and I was instantly stuck. Until then reading wasn’t a big part of my life at all. These days I can demolish a book in a couple of weeks - thank God for charity shops and Asda for discounted paperbacks - and, yes, thank you Mr McAlistair, my vocabulary did improve by leaps and bounds.