What books did you love as a child and do you ever re-read them?

c68zapdsm5i1ru

My favourite childhood author was Noel Streatfeild and I have recently bought a lot of her books on Amazon and Abe Books to re-read. I have also re read some other childhood favourites and it's amazing (and lovely) how the years disappear and it brings you right back to your childhood.

Just wondering who you enjoyed reading years ago and if you ever get out your old books for a re-read?

beano345

Huckleberry Finn,still read it at least once every year.

FollatonWood

Enid Blyton and Ronald Dahl were 'it' for me, I basically thought I was one of the famous five.

Alf Veedersane

'Ann & Barry Bake A Cake'.

whiskeyman

Busy At Maths 4

whitewave

FollatonWood wrote: »

Enid Blyton and Ronald Dahl were 'it' for me, I basically thought I was one of the famous five.

We used to play the Famous Five when we were younger and, being the youngest, they always made me be Timmy (the dog) even though there were only 4 of us so I could have played a human. Only dawning on me now how lousy it was!

I adored the Narnia books, still read them from time to time.

watership down

looksee

I didn't discover the Narnia and Noel Streatfield books until I was adult, but have enjoyed them. One book I read numerous times as a child was Heidi, but a more recent attempt at it left me a bit less enthusiastic.

The Mr. Men books. I even got one this Christmas (Mr. Nobody) that I hadn't seen before. I now have all 47 of them.
I also loved the Flip & Flop books by Tony Hickey. Also enjoyed some of Don Conroy's books about owls.
Then when I was a teenager it was Harry Potter and Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, the latter of which I really must reread again at some point.

My mother has all of our childhood books on her bookshelf so they're still there if I ever feel like a nice bit of nostalgia.

Umekichi

Books by Roald Dahl, Jacqueline Wilson, Enid Blyton and the mr/ms men books were my staples along with Miffy when I was very young.

B0jangles

The Phantom Tollbooth - brilliant and funny book, especially for wordy kids.

The Dark is Rising Starts off with a fairly ordinary tale of of adventure "Over Sea, Under Stone" but gets much stronger in the later books.

The Hounds of The Morrigan - absolutely wonderful book set in Galway, both the real place and a mythic version of it.

Yeah, I've reread them all as an adult

Mince Pie

Loved Enid Blytons Land of Far Beyond, must get it again for a reread.
Also used to love The Happy Prince and other tales by Oscar Wilde. Didn't realise they were by Oscar Wilde till I was all grown up and in love with his other works. A lifelong love with him. It makes me happy.

cloud493

Roald Dahl is brilliant. I never read his two autobiography books before I turned 18

GAAman

To Kill A Mockingbird, still to this day my favourite book first read it when I was 12.

dark crystal

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was my favourite childhood book. A few years back, I bought a beautiful edition of The Chronicles of Narnia and I read a chapter to my son every night before bed.

Reading to your kids is a great excuse to relive the books you loved from your own childhood!

Wellyd

A Little Princess is my always go back to book. I bought it from my world book day voucher in 1998 and I've read it nearly every year since.

drake70

B0jangles wrote: »

The Dark is Rising

Loved this series, got it in one volume.



I cut my teeth on Enid Blyton's "The Secret Seven"

Then " The Hardy Boys"

weiland79

One of the benefits of having childers. I'm currently reading The Enchanted wood to be followed by The magic Faraway tree and then The folk of the Faraway Tree. Enid Blyton
Loved them as a child and am loving reading them again with my daughter.

Ilyana 2.0

I loved Jacqueline Wilson, she wrote about real-life themes in a way that young girls could understand.

I was constantly re-reading Harry Potter as well. Incredibly imaginative.

Enid Blyton's Mallory Towers and Terry Deary's Horrible Histories were other favourites.

Flippyfloppy

Children of Cherry Tree Farm, Far Away Tree, Famous Five all by Enid Blyton
Glinda of Oz

OU812

HHGTTG when I was 13/14. Read all the books in sequence now every year.

The originals are held together by an elastic band now, I have an illustrates copy which is too big to carry/read & another set of them that's been in circulation for the past 9 years.

Read "Catcher in the Rye" when I was 37, have re-read it annually for the past 7 years.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams and The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett.

Re-read both whenever I need to deny the existence of the real world.

'Love makes you real'

TVR

Anyone else go for the saddle club? :pac:
Went nuts for anne rice books as a kid as well, and virginia andrews
Well, not a kid kid, maybe 11-13 or so

Duggy747

Besides Dahl, i never read many books but i always read every night in bed be it random magazines, Tintin, Asterix, or the massive backlog of the brother's The Beano / The Dandy collection that went back to the early 80's.

Still have the collection and they were genuinely a lot funnier than the watered down versions they are now.

In most cases, though, the character got their commupence in the form of a battering from their parents' shoe :pac:

bluewolf

bluewolf wrote: »

Anyone else go for the saddle club? :pac:
Went nuts for anne rice books as a kid as well, and virginia andrews
Well, not a kid kid, maybe 11-13 or so

I devoured the Virginia Andrews books as a young teen, and the Rice ones as an older teen >15. I loved Interview and The Witching Hour, great easy reads. That might be through rose-tinted lenses though, as I never re-read them.

qwerty1991

I loved Enid Blytons Malory Towers books. Literally read them 10 times over. They made me wish I went to boarding school! Still hoping that they'll be made into a tv series ir movie

username123

I practically knew Alice in Wonderland by heart. I even understood the chess game in Through the Looking Glass. I read it so often that my original childhood copy fell to pieces, and I wrapped in in cling film and still re read it from time to time!!

The Chronicles of Narnia.
The Famous Five and The Secret Seven.
All of Roald Dahls books.

There was a story in these ancient encyclopedias we had about dragons, and the end of the story was basically the world was completely taken over by dragons, there was an illustration of a UK city (maybe London) with dragons on top of the spires of buildings and on roofs etc... I dont know the name of the story or the author or the encyclopedias but I sure would love to read it again.

Tokyo

Enid Blyton was a staple of my childhood too, thanks to the mobile library - Famous Five, secret Seven, Five Find Outers, etc. As I got older, all of the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels, which I still re-read today from time to time.

qwerty1991

qwerty1991 wrote: »

I loved Enid Blytons Malory Towers books. Literally read them 10 times over. They made me wish I went to boarding school! Still hoping that they'll be made into a tv series ir movie

I read the Malory Towers books, and I went to boarding school.

I preferred the books

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Duggy747 wrote: »

Besides Dahl, i never read many books but i always read every night in bed be it random magazines, Tintin, Asterix, or the massive backlog of the brother's The Beano / The Dandy collection that went back to the early 80's.

Still have the collection and they were genuinely a lot funnier than the watered down versions they are now.

In most cases, though, the character got their commupence in the form of a battering from their parents' shoe :pac:

It's a shame that apart from the Beano there's no traditional type comics for children anymore. They're all just magazines based on TV characters with the children choosing them more for the 'free' gift than anything else.
I remember dying to get my pocket money so I could get that week's edition of Bunty and catch up on the Four Marys and the various serialised stories. I also remember the special Summer 'bumper' editions of Dandy and Beezer and loads of other children's comics.

As I said in another thread I am going to re read the Walter Macken trilogy, good adventure books, nice and simple the English were the baddies and the Irish the goodies. Any one read a children book as an adult, I read under the hawthorn tree after my daughter read it as a child very sad book.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

qwerty1991 wrote: »

I loved Enid Blytons Malory Towers books. Literally read them 10 times over. They made me wish I went to boarding school! Still hoping that they'll be made into a tv series ir movie

I loved those as well.Also the St Clare books and the Chalet School series. Seemed much more exciting than my boring old national school run by the nuns.

SuperGrover

Willard Price's 'Adventure' series... Amazon Adventure, Safari Adventure, Whale Adventure, etc.

Had forgotten all about them until this thread. Had the whole lot. Sold the collection in a shop in Talbot St. ("What town? There's more than one Talbot St. you know"... "Dublin".) and only got 2 pounds something for them. A bit gutted but had outgrown them so...

Anyway, these...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willard_Price%27s_Adventure_series

Actually, looking back, there was a lot of hunting and stuff, probably not so cool now but they were cracking reads when I was a nipper.

tomboylady

Any Enid Blyton books, but especially the Famous Five. I actually re-read them all while I was at home the Christmas before last. Loved them!

I was a fan of the Babysitter's Club too. Haven't read those since I was young, was trying to collect them all at one point but eventually had to admit defeat!

cloud493

Enid Blyton made boarding school sound so much less **** than it was

SuperGrover

mariaalice wrote: »

As I said in another thread I am going to re read the Walter Macken trilogy, good adventure books, nice and simple the English were the baddies and the Irish the goodies. Any one read a children book as an adult, I read under the hawthorn tree after my daughter read it as a child very sad book.

Walter Macken was great. Great reading for kids.

c68zapdsm5i1ru

mariaalice wrote: »

As I said in another thread I am going to re read the Walter Macken trilogy, good adventure books, nice and simple the English were the baddies and the Irish the goodies. Any one read a children book as an adult, I read under the hawthorn tree after my daughter read it as a child very sad book.

I came across a children's book called The House on Northam Road by a writer called Penelope Lively in the library recently. I love her adults' books so started to read this one out of curiosity. It was absolutely brilliant and I couldn't put it down. There's not much of a story to it but the descriptions and characters and setting are absolutely beautifully written. I wish now that I'd read it as a child. I would have loved it.

whiteandlight

Enid blyton-everything!
Nancy drew
Three investigators
The Lord of the rings
Agatha Christie by around12

I basically read anything, regardless of whether it was kids or not!

cml387

I remembered reading a book when I was younger that I really enjoyed, but I had no idea what it was called.
Thanks to the magic of the internet I discovered it was The Wierdstone Of Brisingamnen, and I enjoyed it again just as much reading it agin all those years later.

SuperGrover

I read Oliver Twist when I was a only a wee lad because I liked the fim / musical.

Much, much darker. Made an impact.

When I was younger I could read for Ireland I was the kind of child that would read the back of a cereal box if I had noting else.

Musicmental85

Musicmental85 wrote: »

Agatha Christie by around12

I forgot my Agatha Christie obsession for some reason. Read everything by her in the library between 12 - 16, loved the Poirot books especially.

omg the chalet school yes!
Loved those so much

c68zapdsm5i1ru

mariaalice wrote: »

When I was younger I could read for Ireland I was the kind of child that would read the back of a cereal box if I had noting else.

I used to sit on the stairs and read the phone book if I was short of reading material!

c68zapdsm5i1ru

Candie wrote: »

I forgot my Agatha Christie obsession for some reason. Read everything by her in the library between 12 - 16, loved the Poirot books especially.

I actually transitioned from kids books to adults' books via Agatha Christie. I was absolutely hooked and still have loads of her books and often re-read them.

lukesmom

The wishing chair by Enid Blyton was my favourite, I've kept it for my children and I can't wait until my daughter is old enough so I can read it to her.

George Fierce Applesauce

George Fierce Applesauce wrote: »

I actually transitioned from kids books to adults' books via Agatha Christie. I was absolutely hooked and still have loads of her books and often re-read them.

Sames.

Love the olde worlde quality to them too, nice bit of escapism.

Grandeeod

I loved the book "Where did I come from?" by Peter Mayle. A true classic! I still read it to this day!

Akrasia

When I was really young I used to read so much. First it was Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton. I loved the far away tree and I must have read Matilda and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory 20 times

Then I moved onto books like Marita Conlan Mckenna 'Under the Hawthorn Tree' and 'The Machine Gunners' by Robert Westall. I read a few of Arthur C Clarke's sci-fi books


When I started Secondary school I had moved onto the adults section of the library and it was all Stephen King books and Michael Crichton and John Grisham

They were great for 13 year olds but I wouldn't bother with them as an adult.

When I was about 15 I read Bram Stokers Dracula. That was an eye opener, in a totally different league to the likes of King and Crichton. I read Frankenstein and some Edgar Allen Poe, and went through a bit of a gothic horror phase for a while.

Then when I was closer to leaving cert age I started to read philosophy and political books like George Orwell and Bertrand Russel

Man, I spent aaages reading when I was growing up. And still found the time to play Mario and sports and climb trees.

Work and being a parent take to too much time god damnit!

Reiketsu

I loved Roald Dahl, still do! I used to get a new book from the library every Saturday with my dad. Another one that stood out for me was Mercedes Ice by Philip Ridley. When I got older I moved on to Stephen King and Terry Pratchett. For my GCSE English we had to read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Still one of my absolute favourites and it introduced me to a great author.

D1stant

Call of the Wild by Jack London

Class!