The Books of My Childhood
If there's one thing I like more than reading, it's playing video games (especially role-playing games), and that's what I spent most of my leisure time doing as a child. Of course, my parents, especially my mother, didn't want me glued to the PC monitor or TV screen all day, so she encouraged me to read books.
She gave me all The Chronicles of Narnia novels by C.S. Lewis, of which I have only read Prince Caspian and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, to this day. She also bought me several of Roald Dahl novels of which I remember reading Esio Trot, The BFG, and James and the Giant Peach. There were others, like Matilda and The Witches, which have lain dormant on my bookshelf form more than a decade.
I also remember reading several Hardy Boys and combined Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mysteries, with encouragement from my mother. My uncle gave me the first three X-Files novels, which I thought was really cool. Goosebumps a novels were also fun to read, especially the choose your own adventure kinds.
However, the book from my childhood which I enjoyed the most was Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. It was a yellow book that was quite thick, but I loved the stories of Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and all the others. I also liked the cartoons, which I watched repeatedly on Betamax.
I no longer read children's books today, but looking at my list, the books my mom gave me aren't really children's books, but books for young adults--and YA literature is something I read a lot of today. John Green's The Fault in Our Stars is one good example of this. However, I hope to one day read and re-read all the books my mother gave me as a child.
Books I'd Read if Only I Could Turn Back Time
If I were to give younger self a book to read it would definitely be a classic. One of my biggest regrets as a reader and as a writer is that I didn't grow up reading the classics, which would have given me a much stronger literary foundation. Still, the fact that I find the classics quite boring now, means I probably wound't have read it as a child even if encouraged by my mother.
Just some examples: I found Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling very boring. However, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë were more exciting, for me.
If I had reading buddies as a child through, things might have been different. When I have children of my own, I will definitely encourage them to read the classics and introduce them to other children who enjoy reading as well.
If there's one thing I like more than reading, it's playing video games (especially role-playing games), and that's what I spent most of my leisure time doing as a child. Of course, my parents, especially my mother, didn't want me glued to the PC monitor or TV screen all day, so she encouraged me to read books.
She gave me all The Chronicles of Narnia novels by C.S. Lewis, of which I have only read Prince Caspian and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, to this day. She also bought me several of Roald Dahl novels of which I remember reading Esio Trot, The BFG, and James and the Giant Peach. There were others, like Matilda and The Witches, which have lain dormant on my bookshelf form more than a decade.
I also remember reading several Hardy Boys and combined Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew mysteries, with encouragement from my mother. My uncle gave me the first three X-Files novels, which I thought was really cool. Goosebumps a novels were also fun to read, especially the choose your own adventure kinds.
However, the book from my childhood which I enjoyed the most was Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. It was a yellow book that was quite thick, but I loved the stories of Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and all the others. I also liked the cartoons, which I watched repeatedly on Betamax.
I no longer read children's books today, but looking at my list, the books my mom gave me aren't really children's books, but books for young adults--and YA literature is something I read a lot of today. John Green's The Fault in Our Stars is one good example of this. However, I hope to one day read and re-read all the books my mother gave me as a child.
Books I'd Read if Only I Could Turn Back Time
If I were to give younger self a book to read it would definitely be a classic. One of my biggest regrets as a reader and as a writer is that I didn't grow up reading the classics, which would have given me a much stronger literary foundation. Still, the fact that I find the classics quite boring now, means I probably wound't have read it as a child even if encouraged by my mother.
Just some examples: I found Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling very boring. However, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë were more exciting, for me.
If I had reading buddies as a child through, things might have been different. When I have children of my own, I will definitely encourage them to read the classics and introduce them to other children who enjoy reading as well.
We read Jungle Book in school for my Language class when I was in second grade. I don't know how I was able to finish it hehe. I've got mixed feelings about classics too, but I definitely will want to encourage kids to try reading them. :D
ReplyDeleteI agree. The classics are a wonderful introduction to the world of reading. :)
Delete