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.
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 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.
