DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
Borrowers was a good un as I recall
Whats the best books you read before you were 10?
- Thread starter badlands
- Start date
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
It's great, DotCommunist, but I didn't read The Borrowers till I had children of my own.
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
my sister had that but i never read it.
this thread has made me puzzled about why i didn't read more books. i mean i read constantly, but the same books over and over because i didn't have many. but i had big sisters - so why ddn't i get their hand me downs, i wonder? i got all my aunt's enid blytons... they had weird brown weevils and instilled in me a romantic misapprehension that being captured by burly rough men might be exciting... but i digress...
as i recall, books were very much owned and used only by their owners when we were kids - in a way that nothing else was... hmm...
i shall ask my sisters about this later.
also - my mum took us to the library twice a week as tots - i was reading proper books like the velveteen rabbit when i was three - precocious brat - but seemed to trail off on the library visits as we got older. oh - and she started work. i guess that figures. but i remember erith library really well - and we moved from there when i was two and a half. bexleyheath library: not so much.
[/mindless ramblings and musings]
spanglechick
High Empress of Dressing Up
Good night was it Spangles?!
just overtired now, i fear.
the night is long gone - and i could not sleep at the appropriate time - and now, uncharacteristically, i don't feel like sleep is on the agenda. although maybe when monkeygrinder gets up and i can have the bed to myself...
Juice and a paracetamol>> Bed! 
Clair De Lune
Apocalypse cocktails
One that sticks in my mind was a book called stray, life from a cats perspective sorta thing. I loved that book.
All my mates loved Enid blyton but she didn't float my boat, I preffered books about nature.
All my mates loved Enid blyton but she didn't float my boat, I preffered books about nature.
DaveCinzano
WATCH OUT, GEORGE, HE'S GOT A SCREWDRIVER!
The Fib And Other Stories by George Layton
The Goalkeeper's Revenge And Other Stories by Bill Naughton
Emil And The Detectives by Erich Kästner
The Turbulent Term Of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp
The Otterbury Incident by C Day Lewis
Scatty Ricky by M Kruuse
The Battle Of Saint Street by Roy Brown
The Machine-Gunners by Robert Westall
Fathom Five by Robert Westall
A Game Of Soldiers by Jan Needle
Plus various William and Jennings and lots of James Herbert.
Googolplex and four dimensional cubes-within-cubes FTW.
The Goalkeeper's Revenge And Other Stories by Bill Naughton
Emil And The Detectives by Erich Kästner
The Turbulent Term Of Tyke Tiler by Gene Kemp
The Otterbury Incident by C Day Lewis
Scatty Ricky by M Kruuse
The Battle Of Saint Street by Roy Brown
The Machine-Gunners by Robert Westall
Fathom Five by Robert Westall
A Game Of Soldiers by Jan Needle
Plus various William and Jennings and lots of James Herbert.
Googolplex and four dimensional cubes-within-cubes FTW.
crypto-racism in a book
i just like squirrels and mice and the idea of them carrying spears is cool
Meltingpot
Living in our pools we soon forget about the sea
Enid Blyton's "The Land of Far Beyond" (loosely based on "A Pilgrim's Progress").
AFAIK it was the only book of hers I ever read.
AFAIK it was the only book of hers I ever read.
felixthecat
are we there yet?
I was a precocious brat who was reading all sorts of stuff before I got to secondary school, but my favourites were the Alan Gardner books - the Owl Service, the Weirdstone Of Brisingamen, Moon of Gomrath etc.
FridgeMagnet
Administrator
All the Dahl books, Colour Of Magic, HHG. I'm trying to remember when I read Wizard Of Earthsea but I think it was slightly past ten. I also read a lot of my dad's old sci-fi, a lot of Larry Niven, but I'm not going to claim that they were the best books ever.
edit: oh yeah, and the Hobbit. LOTR bored me, I only read that when I was a student.
edit: oh yeah, and the Hobbit. LOTR bored me, I only read that when I was a student.
DotCommunist
So many particulars. So many questions.
toblerone3
Grrrrr
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis (and all of the other Narnia books)
The Box of Delights by John Masefield
The Hobbit
We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by JR Ransome (plus virtually everything else he wrote)
The Box of Delights by John Masefield
The Hobbit
We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea by JR Ransome (plus virtually everything else he wrote)
Paul Russell
Psychogeographer
Like everyone else -- Just William, Jennings, "A la recherche du temps perdu", and I Am a Bunny.
Still got the last one -- fantastic drawings.
Oh, yeah, and the Fatty and the Five Find-Outers bollocks.
Still got the last one -- fantastic drawings.
Oh, yeah, and the Fatty and the Five Find-Outers bollocks.
Mrs Magpie
On a bit of break...
Ooooh! I forgot about that. Brilliant book, great illustrations.
Vintage Paw
dead stare and computer glare
Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever.
It taught me the word 'Gnu', which is one of my favourite words ever, and handy when you don't want the boring monotony of playing 'gun' in Scrabble.
It taught me the word 'Gnu', which is one of my favourite words ever, and handy when you don't want the boring monotony of playing 'gun' in Scrabble.
_angel_
.
The Changeover was good as well, although I was definitely over ten.
Elidor was good but I would have been 11/12 then as well. Charlotte Sometimes as well.
Maybe I read Danny Champion of the World by the time I was ten.
And lots of Enid Blyton.
little edge
Nigella meets Lisa Loeb
hmmmm, I was an only child, and geeky kid, so I read lots but my favourites were:
Charlotte's web
The magic faraway tree
My naughty little sister series
I remember enjoying lots of Roald Dahl and Paul Jennings
ooh, does any one else remember those 'choose your own adventure books'?
Charlotte's web
The magic faraway tree
My naughty little sister series
I remember enjoying lots of Roald Dahl and Paul Jennings
ooh, does any one else remember those 'choose your own adventure books'?
There was a brilliant series of books about the greek myths which just made them easy to understand but didn't dumb them down. I can't remember who wrote them but I do remember reading Odysseus every day for about a year. I was so disappointed when I read the 'contemporary' translation which was that American guy from the 19th Century slagging them off for not believing in Christianity the whole time
Oh and I'm surprised noone has mentioned Joan Aitken or Terry Jones books, they were both really popular when I was a kid
Oh and I'm surprised noone has mentioned Joan Aitken or Terry Jones books, they were both really popular when I was a kid
scifisam
deleted
I was the proud owner of every single Enid Blyton book. Looking back, I really did have all of them, mostly from charity shops.
This Time of Darkness, by HM Hoover.
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass (and other, increasingly drug-influenced stories by Lewis Carol). The Headmistress of my infant school drew me aside one Christmas, when things were bad in my family, and gave me a talk about how I could do well if I chose to, despite everything. She also gave me this book as a private present. It was her own old copy, threading about the binding. Bloody great stories, too.
The Ennead.
Asimov's collections of sci-fi stories for children. They weren't actually written by him, but I only remember the stories, not the authors.
Er, novelisations of Dempsey and Makepeace episodes.
The Dark is Rising and the sequels.
Agatha Christie novels! Well, there were lots of them in the charity shops. I've just recently started re-reading them, again bought from charity shops. I also read my first Mills and Boon novels at that age, and was horrified by the thought that this was what conventional relationships were supposed to be like. Perhaps Mills and Boon were my 'root.'
Jean Ure and Judy Blume. I didn't quite understand some of them till I read them a couple of years later.
Bernard Ashley books.
Roald Dahl, of course.
The Secret Garden. Bolded because I loved it so, so much. The Little Princess wasn't bad either.
Tom's Midnight Garden.
I was late to Pratchett and Douglas Adams.
Didn't discover them till I was in my teens.
My teacher hid this book from me and had specifically chosen it because it wasn't in the local library, and I hadn't read it before, so could only read it in classes and never guessed the twist at the end. I know, I should have guessed, but I didn't.
She had a few other great books too (though she was one of the many authors that I didn't know was female back then - I thought Enid was the only one). I'm sure one of them was televised.
This Time of Darkness, by HM Hoover.
Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass (and other, increasingly drug-influenced stories by Lewis Carol). The Headmistress of my infant school drew me aside one Christmas, when things were bad in my family, and gave me a talk about how I could do well if I chose to, despite everything. She also gave me this book as a private present. It was her own old copy, threading about the binding. Bloody great stories, too.
The Ennead.
Asimov's collections of sci-fi stories for children. They weren't actually written by him, but I only remember the stories, not the authors.
Er, novelisations of Dempsey and Makepeace episodes.
The Dark is Rising and the sequels.
Agatha Christie novels! Well, there were lots of them in the charity shops. I've just recently started re-reading them, again bought from charity shops. I also read my first Mills and Boon novels at that age, and was horrified by the thought that this was what conventional relationships were supposed to be like. Perhaps Mills and Boon were my 'root.'
Jean Ure and Judy Blume. I didn't quite understand some of them till I read them a couple of years later.
Bernard Ashley books.
Roald Dahl, of course.
The Secret Garden. Bolded because I loved it so, so much. The Little Princess wasn't bad either.
Tom's Midnight Garden.
I was late to Pratchett and Douglas Adams.
Didn't discover them till I was in my teens. My teacher hid this book from me and had specifically chosen it because it wasn't in the local library, and I hadn't read it before, so could only read it in classes and never guessed the twist at the end. I know, I should have guessed, but I didn't.
She had a few other great books too (though she was one of the many authors that I didn't know was female back then - I thought Enid was the only one). I'm sure one of them was televised.
miniGMgoit
OverWeightUnderAchiever
Not sure what it was called but it had a guy in it called rodger who may have ahad a red hat.
I think there was a ball in it too.
I think there was a ball in it too.
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