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

zenith

The Little Prince changed my eight-year-old life.

John

I just remembered another one, The Indian in the Cupboard.

Board@Work

I really loved to read as a child..
Now not as much, don't know why. Maybe my imagination has been killed by television, movies and formal education...


My fav beyond everything else was Dahl. Especially The B.F.G.

LadyJ

I read Adrian Mole when I was fairly young but it's still funny even now!

Nimrod's Son

Dahl was my main man when I was a kid. Have to agree that Going Solo is probably his best book. Found my copy of The Twits the other week and read it a couple of times. Still outstanding stuff.

Megatron

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). -- Loved these books, and re-read them a few years ago , still great .. if only my cousin hadn't poxy lsot them :mad:

LOtr + hobbit -- tough going for a 12 year old, but i guess that's why these days when i start a book i do finnish it.

Dahl - read all of them always a great read.


Asimov -- I know he's considered the father of 3 laws of robotics but i've always considered him more of a dectective Writer .. and a damm good one too.(Liek someone else said, Caught my Mum getting rid of load of them including a orig "Caves of Steel" my favorite book, first printed 1952 )

peter david --- this was more mid to late teens but read just about anything i could find by him.

Autobiographys- don't ask me why but i just used to lap them up ... iv'e started doing it again.

Loads more , i could go on naming but i haven't the time ;P

boidey

Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, To kill a mockingbird, The grey goose of kilnevin, just william series.

lilmissprincess

well..
Enid blyton ruled.. I had all the Malory Towers, St. Clares and Famous 5 books...all in a loving charity shop now...
I loved a story called Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield, it was lovely.
Judy Blume- all the fudge books
Bernadette Leach,
Roald Dahl
the usual suspects.

John

LadyJ wrote:

I read Adrian Mole when I was fairly young but it's still funny even now!

I could never get into those books. I felt really left out in school, everyone else seemed to be into them.

jrey1981

Tom McCaughren
Enid Blyton
Roald Dahl
Numerous others I havent a hope of remembering

And...Richard Scarry...they were cool

Dave3x

Okay, I've read a lot of what's been mentioned so far (including every famous five and secret seven that previously belonged to my mother), but hasn't anyone else read Michael Scott's work? Wonderfully pilfered from Irish legend, his Windlord, Earthlord and Firelord were brilliant! And his October Moon.....legend......

John

Dave3x wrote:

Okay, I've read a lot of what's been mentioned so far (including every famous five and secret seven that previously belonged to my mother), but hasn't anyone else read Michael Scott's work? Wonderfully pilfered from Irish legend, his Windlord, Earthlord and Firelord were brilliant! And his October Moon.....legend......

I had completely forgotten about him. I don't think I ever read any of his ...lord books but October Moon was brilliant. Scared the **** out of me.

lilmissprincess

Did any of ye read the "Drumshee" books/ they were all historical things..I thought they rocked..

Caoimhe89

Ah! I'm the same as everybody else... when I was younger, I read and I read, and I read, and I read... I'm only 15 now, but it's completely changed. When I was 9-12 I read 4 or 5 books at a time, and finished at least 1 a week. I was always juggling books. It sorta had to slow down because of the JC, and all of secondary school, actually. Ahem. But what do I read...

Narnia - I loved CS Lewis. I still remember reading the Last Battle for the first time and crying at the end. I reread it (last week) and started crying again.

Enid Blyton - Everything. Well, except Noddy. Everything else. I just kept reading and reading and reading... the Faraway tree, the Secret Seven, the Famous Five (number 2 is still my favourite), the Five Find-Outers.

All the Classics - the Little Princess, the Secret Garden, the Railway Children, Five Children and It, etc.

Orla Melling's books...

The Heidi books,

The Katy books - Did she marry Ned Worthington? I still want to know!

Roald Dahl - The witches and Matilda and George's Marvellous Medicine were my favourites

Diane Wynne Jones - Brilliant!

Jostein Gardiner - thoroughly provoking and beautiful!

They were my basics... there were others that I can't remember... Oh, and the Babysitter's Club and Jaqualine Wilson (sp?) that I now am ashamed I read...

Caoimhe89

Oh, and lilmissprincess - yeah, I did... there was one about the french coming to Ireland... that was my favourite!

Capt'n Midnight

Can't remember the name , book with animals in it doing human things by an American who was famous for those sort of things. Well done with things like the dogs having their heads out the window on the bus.

the_only_Ali

Again, C.S. Lewis, Enid Blyton, Tom McCaughren... I used to love animals! I adored Gerald Durrell books too, though they're not exactly aimed at kids.
I read Don Conroy too, and all the classics. Did anyone else here ever read any Lucy Boston books? They were amazing, about this old house called Green Knowe and all these ghosts that lived there... but I've never found anyone who read them too.

angeldelight

I'd forgotten about those Marita Conlon Mc Kenna books. There was another trilogy by an Irish writer...... The Hiring Fair, Blaeberry Sunday and Penny Farthing Sally. I remember I took Blaeberry Sunday with me to France and it was the only book I took for 2 weeks. Knew it inside out. Still have those 3 and read them occasionally

Just googled, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne wrote them under the pseudonym Elizabeth O'Hara

JimG

The Wind in the Willows, Treasure Island, Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Uncle Tom's Cabin, ................

Did any of you ever come across a poem beginning
"When long ago the world was young,
and birds could talk and lecture,
the magpie called her feathered friends
to teach them architecture"?

That's all I remember of it.Would love to get the words again. Googling is no help.

Thanks.

theCzar

Enid Blyton and Roadl Dahl feature heavily, then some Irish Authers Cruickshank's SKUNK series, and Banville's Hennessy series were great.

Wasn't bothered really with classic childrens books, Secret Garden etc. Never even heard of Narnia until recently!

Kind of wish I was a kid now so i could grow up with books like Pullman's, though I might be a bit warped!