Monday 4 April 2011

Favourite Books (2)

The revenge of MS meant that I spent most of today asleep, so I haven't seen much of the world.

Another dose of my favourite books then. Last time I was listing my favourites from when I was very young - the books that your parents read to you from.

Next are the books when I was still quite young.

Enid Blyton was a big favourite, whether the Famous Five solving their mysteries or the at school with the girls at Malory Towers or St Clare's.

Little Women and the sequels, What Katy Did and the sequels; all inherited from my mother also big favourites.



My reading fare at this point was very traditional. Were people writing children's books then? If they were I wasn't reading them!

School libraries introduced me to Anne of Green Gables, Little House on the Prairie and the Chalet School Stories. Noel Streatfield was another favourite, also inherited from my mother whose family had lived 'down the road' (in countryside terms) from the Streatfields. Frances Hodgson Burnett, Peter Pan and the Water Babies. Good solid books with good solid values. I still have copies of many of them and still read them on occasion like 'comfort food' when I'm not feeling well.

I did sometimes read totally age inappropriate books found on the shelves in my parents spare room. I remember using a paragraph from "Gone with the Wind" for a handwriting exercise at Primary School when asked to use a book that we were currently reading (it was the lovely bit at the beginning when Scarlett is on the porch with the two boys talking about the upcoming party). James Bond also found his way into my appetite at this point; as did Agatha Christie. Lucky they weren't very big bookshelves.

Favourite Books (3) coming soon will move into the teenage years!