Childhood memories

[Patricia]

What was your favourite book as a child?

Mine was anything from The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton (amazing woman).

When my kids were little they loved a book called "The Rainbow Fish".

How about you and your littlies?

[zen]

i remember lots of my favourite books from my childhood, i still have some of them.. any book that dealt with Robin Hood for starters.. lots of Enid Blyton - Famous Five, Adventure series, St Clares and the Mysteries too, The Abbey Girls series by Elsie J Oxenham (i'd pay money for any of these books, i only have 3 now), LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series and some others by her too, Emily Climbs is one.. the Little Women books, through to Jo's Boys and Little Men.. Heidi. Alice in Wonderland. Pollyanna. Black Beauty. Peter Pan. any and all fairy tales....

sorry.. i got carried away.. you only asked for one favourite? :D

[lucyloo]

I loved Enid Blyton. I also loved the book called The Secret Garden. Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Anything to do with horses, like Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, I loved Little Women.

My kiddies like all sorts of books, mostly fairy tales, unfortunately none of them are avid readers like I am :(

[Coffeebean]

I loved mystery novels as a child..... such as Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden (sorry if my spelling is incorrect)
I also loved reading My Side of the Mountain...

[sandydee]

I remember reading lots of Enid Blyton books and Trixie Belden:yes:lots of others too but these were my favs:yes:I loved reading and still do:D
DS fav would have been Thomas the tank :yes:

[Cherie]

Books like Little Women and Good Wives..Heidi even read my brothers book of Biggles. :hehe: Yes all the oldies :D
One of my daughtes has almost all of Brian Frouds fairy books. She has paid a pretty penny for a couple of them too.:D

[jillybeanz]

Oh yeah, all those wonderful Enid Byton books - Famous Five, secret Seven, St Clare's, Mallory Towers - The Faraway Tree ...

The Bobbsey Twins, Narnia ... and anything starring a horse :o)

[Heather]

The only books I remember as a youngster was "Anne of Green Gables" that my mother's friend sent over from USA.....eventually I was a whole slew of them.......Oh and Pollyanna after I saw the movie.

The TT liked reading Goosebump books.....hard copy and audio tape as well as Videos.

[Juxtapose]

If memory serves me correctly, I think I was obsessed with The Baby-sitters Club series and the Goosebumps series. I'd always beg mum to let me order them from the book catalogue that came round every month in school.

[Coffeebean]

Ohhh yes, I also loved the Secret Seven series too....
My sister loved the Babysitters Club and Sweet Dreams books

[Coffeebean]

I remember the book club at school too, where you could order a book/s
Fortunately my mother loved books and we were able to order a book or two....

[zen]

and the Beatrix Potter books when i was tiny.. wonder what happened to those... i also had a huge collection of Little Golden Books.. Dad would buy me one every payday.. :) he taught me to read before i went to school with those.

[Coffeebean]

I have bought DD a whole heap of the Little Golden Books for when she is a bit older... she is now 18 months old and is into tearing up magazines etc....
She has some wonderful board books.... and loves to read.

[zen]

it's a fine thing to encourage.. i always thanked my dad for helping me find my love of reading.. i don't see any of my neices and nephews with that reading bug, despite all the books i bought for them all when they were young.. :)

[Coffeebean]

When I was growing up, we had bookcases full of books....
My house is the same.... hoping some of that will rub off on my DD
I think it has already.....
I love browsing in bookshops, etc.... such a treat, isn't it?

[jaideii]

When I was growing up, we had bookcases full of books....
*deleted some* I love browsing in bookshops, etc.... such a treat, isn't it?

Oh, me too Coffeebean :-)

Books are my passion and my life! I absolutely love reading them, buying them, collecting them, and like you, browsing in new and second hand bookstores as well as whiling away hours inside my local library.

I also love to write them! I literally have thousands of books from every genre..from children's books, to adult fact and fiction to old - very old books, to hundreds of first edition books. My penchant is local authors. I have, in my collection, most of the first hard cover editions of local Australian authors.

I had 40 boxes of books that we had to store last year when we went away!!!! God help us if we had a fire - our house would literally take off!!!

I have this quirkly little pet hate as well - i hate lending them out!!!

I'd so much rather buy people the books they want to borrow..I love my books so much, i want them here, and 99% of the time, if i do lend them out, i just don't get them back!!!

Now, instead of having them all out in bookcases, (some are) i now have them inside 4 massive cupboards that span the whole length of my games room! And this games room is large! LOL

It is my one obsessive addiction :-) Some people are "foodie's" but me - i'm definitely a"bookie!" :nana:

Thank god i don't collect anything else!

[Coffeebean]

I have lent out books over the years only to be so disappointed with how others treat my books or they don't bother to return them (and of course you lose touch with these ppl too)
I treasure my books....
I have some books packed away and have given some to the Op Shop over the years.... But have 2 full bookcases full.... I want more bookcases!
DD has played with some of my books and I loath it, cause she is rough with them being only 18 mths old, but I don't want to yell at her all the time for touching them cause I want her to love books and not be discouraged from touching them....
I have 2 boxes of books set aside for DD as well.....
Buying her a bookcase in the next few weeks....

[zen]

oh yes.. me too.. i have a whole room, the second spare bedroom, devoted to my books, they are stacked in between bookcases, double stacked in the bookcases, stacked on top, just plain stacked on the floor! lol.. still i buy more books.. love book sales! i've even started with ebooks to make storage easier, except i don't like paying full price for an ebook, if they want to charge me the same as a paperback, i'd rather have the paperback. i don't think that's right somehow.. it's only a file, not a physical object.. i never lend them. never. i'm lucky my husband doesn't mind, he even steers me into bookshops, and points out sales and cheap book bins.. :)

[jillybeanz]

I wish I was disciplined like you Jaide! I can't help lending books ... I even hear my self saying "Oh sure you can borrow it" while my head is going "No! No! You know they'll take a year to return it!"

I have got a little book I jot down my loaned book titles in, with the date and the name of the person. One 'friend' had three books for over 18 months and finally returned them after I'd been asking several times ... all looking very sad and forlorn. I won't be lending her anything again. I hope.

My SIL did a paper for Uni on early childhood education and children who have been read to from a very early age develop that area (the right?) of their brain very well and when they go to school they have better attention spans and better comprehension and generally are well ahead of their classmates. Fabulous stuff eh.

[jaideii]

I wish I was disciplined like you Jaide! I can't help lending books ... .

I don't think i'm disciplined jillybeanz! Just selfish! haha Mind you, now with them all locked away in the big cupboards, no one asks to borrow them!

I also find if CD's, Games, and DVD's are also things people always want to borrow, but never get returned!

The only thing i let loose these days are magazines! Once read, i don't keep them! LOL

And yeah, re the effect reading to children has on their development....that's so true. And especially if the children can recognise the repetition in the stories....they eventually link the words to their own understanding of what is being read...(interpreting text using their prior knowledge)

Reading, afterall, is all about comprehension!

Re right and left brained people....and the impact of reading upon the sides...i think your sister hit on a very interesting (and complex) topic!

The development of the modes of thought associated with either the left or right side of the brain is very complicated.

The right side of the brain is more creative and artistic, (ie musical and poetic) and tends to manage information more in chunks..whereas the left side is more analytical and logical (like maths and word skills) and tends to sift through the information and keep it in order!

Our education system focuses more on developing the left side of the brain..ie exams and rote learning of tables and words etc..rather than focusing on the right brain stuff like imagination and intuition...

Sad as that is because if the latter were more developed kids would be more able to follow their own senses. But then, if kids relied too much on using their right sides in spelling, for instance...they'd get the words wrong, because they'd be following intuition rather than the spelling rules we have imposed on words!

As far as kids developing one side of the brain more because they're being read to from an early age (i wonder what age the study quoted?) I'd say making assumptions like that would involve intensive study and (medical) research to be able to come to a convincing conclusion. I wonder where your sister got her information from?

Im blabbing, i could go on about this stuff forever..But yeah, as you say, it really is fabulous stuff isn't it!

[Rachel]

I loved Enid Blyton too I think I read nearly all of her books growing up :yes: I also loved the babysitters club..

[joy]

I loved Enid's books as well,and golden books,and comics:)

[Patricia]

I agree that the gift of a love of reading is the greatest thing you can give a child, it will open so many other doors for them...:yes:

I am a self confessed bookie too, although I am now feeding my addiction through the library and second hand book stores, I refuse to pay the prices they are asking for new books now.

I used to be a hoarder of eveything I had ever read but those days are gone and I am more than happy to pass books onto others in the hope that they in turn will pass it on again...and again...

[miss kiki]

black beauty, the secret garden, the baby sitter's club, goosebumps, more spaghetti i say!, etc.

out of us three kids, i was always the one asking for books. :yes: almost EVERY time we went to the store and i saw a book, i asked, and most times i've received one! :hehe: as for my sister and brother, they asked for toys, and most of the time they didn't get it. so i'm glad my parents usually always bought me the books i wanted. :yes: i was always great at reading and spelling-even got close to winning a spelling bee and going to nationals, which was going to be on t.v. :) i LOVE reading, i still do and can't see myself ever stopping. i don't like to give out my books and i too write the person's name down, that way i know i'm going to get it back. :)