The White Lily (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thewhitelily) wrote2007-09-16 08:50 am
thewhitelily) wrote2007-09-16 08:50 am
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Childhood Literature Favourites Meme
Going around my friendslist at the moment: thirteen favourite books from childhood. This is particularly relevant at the moment because... well, I know what I'm going to be writing for NaNoWriMo - and it's definitely kidlit. The protagonist is a boy who runs away to join the circus and everything. :)
I've titled my list my thirteen childhood literature favourites, though, because... well, I didn't really read books that there was only one of. So some of these are authors, some of them are series, and there's a couple of single books which I loved but didn't like the series around them. I couldn't narrow it down to only one kind.
1. David Eddings: I can't count the number of times I read these books. Honestly, it would be in the hundreds. It got to the point where I could read a whole series in three days - a week for part one and two - and that was while school was in. I took one with me everywhere - they were perfect, because they fit precisely into my blazer pocket. I got in trouble for taking one on a fire drill once, and successfully managed to explain that it had been in my pocket when the bell rang - and did they want me to waste time emptying my pockets before I proceeded in an orderly fashion down to the oval, just so that I could be as bored as everyone else? The Belgariad and the Mallorean were my absolute favourites, but I didn't mind the Elenium and the Tamuli, either.
2. Gordan Korman: "I Want To Go Home!" was my favourite, but "Who is Bugs Potter?" was also good. Just... hysterically funny.
3. Trixie Beldon series: I've got almost this entire series. I was obsessed.Lily? Obsessed? Surely not! Actually I wrote my very first fanfiction about Trixie Beldon, before I'd ever heard of fanfiction. I'd completely forgotten about that.
4. Enid Blyton - sheer genius, even if in retrospect not necessarily that brilliant. My favourite series was The Adventurous Four - or possibly the Adventure series ("The ... of Adventure"), but of course I loved the Famous Five. Never really got into the Secret Seven, and my sister was far more of a Brer Rabbit fan than I was, but...
5. Dr. Seuss: I totally agree with what others have said - the Cat in the Hat was rubbish. But I loved The Big Brag, The Sneeches, Yertle the Turtle, What Was I Scared Of?, Horton Hears a Who, The Lorax - all the ones with a moral and a real story to set off the clever or ridiculous rhymes rather than just a huge list of words that happen to rhyme.
6. Willard Price's Adventure series: thinly disguised animal encyclopedias as two brothers go around the world capturing exotic animals for their father's company (which provides animals for zoos). Riveting from one end to the other.
7. The Berenstain Bears: Particularly The Bike Lesson! "Will I ever ride it? Or will I just keep running beside it?" I must say, the Berenstein Bears and Dr. Seuss remain lasting entries in my childhood favourites mainly because they were the books I most clearly remember enjoying with Dad. I enjoyed them both well past the point where I was also reading stacks of way thicker books.
8. Ender's Game: my very first introduction to the twist ending. No, I did not guess what was going on, and it made me very cross when Hubby said "what? it was obvious, wasn't it?" after reading it on my intentionally vague recommendation. But I adored it and read it obsessively, and the whole concept of "the enemy's gate is down" was something that twisted my gravity-bound brain into an adoring pile of goo.
9. Bottersnikes and Gumbles: the most wonderful book series ever, about two warring tribes of mythical creatures in the Australian outback - the Gumbles were peace-loving mischevious environmentally friendly beanbags with faces and hands and feet, the Bottersnikes were evil, lazy, angry beings who lived in rubbish dumps and liked to catch Gumbles and stuff them into empty soup cans so that they could pull them out and have slaves whenever they wanted. Hilarious, thrilling, and complete and utter escapism.
10. Redwall: I stopped reading after some... ten books or something, but Redwall provided me with so much fantasy world retreat in my head, it was just awesome.
11. Ancient Future: also known as Mary-sue Strikes Back, but... well, I loved it. When a butt-kicking modern woman goes back in time to marry a medieval prince and get declared a warrior goddess... aaaaah, it's all my adolescent dreams coalesced into one handy volume.
12. A series I can't remember the name/author/etc., because they were from the library and are thus lost into antiquity. It was about a set of children who loved sailing and got into adventures: the first book I read opened with one of the children running across a grassy field pretending to tack, since they were going into the wind. I could never find them when I went back to look for them, but I remember absolutely adoring them. Anyone who can identify them will earn my eternal gratitude.
13. Narnia: The Horse and his Boy was the only one I never really enjoyed. I think The Last Battle was my favourite - a scene that sticks with me even now is Jill turning aside her face so that her tears didn't wet her bowstring. Beautiful.
Noticably absent from this list is anything like the Babysitter's Club, or anything that involved shifting friendships, loyalties, betrayals, and/or girls with crushes as main plot elements. Boooring! [/actually a comment about self, not about such books] Also absent is Roald Dahl and all the horror/gross sort of kids books, who I never really got into.
Since childhood, I've discovered a whole heap of new favourite kidlit authors: Eoin Colfer, Diana Wynne Jones, Phillip Pullman, and.. um... JK Rowling, I guess. The list feels incomplete without them, but I never read them when I was a kid, so I can't really include them.
I've titled my list my thirteen childhood literature favourites, though, because... well, I didn't really read books that there was only one of. So some of these are authors, some of them are series, and there's a couple of single books which I loved but didn't like the series around them. I couldn't narrow it down to only one kind.
1. David Eddings: I can't count the number of times I read these books. Honestly, it would be in the hundreds. It got to the point where I could read a whole series in three days - a week for part one and two - and that was while school was in. I took one with me everywhere - they were perfect, because they fit precisely into my blazer pocket. I got in trouble for taking one on a fire drill once, and successfully managed to explain that it had been in my pocket when the bell rang - and did they want me to waste time emptying my pockets before I proceeded in an orderly fashion down to the oval, just so that I could be as bored as everyone else? The Belgariad and the Mallorean were my absolute favourites, but I didn't mind the Elenium and the Tamuli, either.
2. Gordan Korman: "I Want To Go Home!" was my favourite, but "Who is Bugs Potter?" was also good. Just... hysterically funny.
3. Trixie Beldon series: I've got almost this entire series. I was obsessed.
4. Enid Blyton - sheer genius, even if in retrospect not necessarily that brilliant. My favourite series was The Adventurous Four - or possibly the Adventure series ("The ... of Adventure"), but of course I loved the Famous Five. Never really got into the Secret Seven, and my sister was far more of a Brer Rabbit fan than I was, but...
5. Dr. Seuss: I totally agree with what others have said - the Cat in the Hat was rubbish. But I loved The Big Brag, The Sneeches, Yertle the Turtle, What Was I Scared Of?, Horton Hears a Who, The Lorax - all the ones with a moral and a real story to set off the clever or ridiculous rhymes rather than just a huge list of words that happen to rhyme.
6. Willard Price's Adventure series: thinly disguised animal encyclopedias as two brothers go around the world capturing exotic animals for their father's company (which provides animals for zoos). Riveting from one end to the other.
7. The Berenstain Bears: Particularly The Bike Lesson! "Will I ever ride it? Or will I just keep running beside it?" I must say, the Berenstein Bears and Dr. Seuss remain lasting entries in my childhood favourites mainly because they were the books I most clearly remember enjoying with Dad. I enjoyed them both well past the point where I was also reading stacks of way thicker books.
8. Ender's Game: my very first introduction to the twist ending. No, I did not guess what was going on, and it made me very cross when Hubby said "what? it was obvious, wasn't it?" after reading it on my intentionally vague recommendation. But I adored it and read it obsessively, and the whole concept of "the enemy's gate is down" was something that twisted my gravity-bound brain into an adoring pile of goo.
9. Bottersnikes and Gumbles: the most wonderful book series ever, about two warring tribes of mythical creatures in the Australian outback - the Gumbles were peace-loving mischevious environmentally friendly beanbags with faces and hands and feet, the Bottersnikes were evil, lazy, angry beings who lived in rubbish dumps and liked to catch Gumbles and stuff them into empty soup cans so that they could pull them out and have slaves whenever they wanted. Hilarious, thrilling, and complete and utter escapism.
10. Redwall: I stopped reading after some... ten books or something, but Redwall provided me with so much fantasy world retreat in my head, it was just awesome.
11. Ancient Future: also known as Mary-sue Strikes Back, but... well, I loved it. When a butt-kicking modern woman goes back in time to marry a medieval prince and get declared a warrior goddess... aaaaah, it's all my adolescent dreams coalesced into one handy volume.
12. A series I can't remember the name/author/etc., because they were from the library and are thus lost into antiquity. It was about a set of children who loved sailing and got into adventures: the first book I read opened with one of the children running across a grassy field pretending to tack, since they were going into the wind. I could never find them when I went back to look for them, but I remember absolutely adoring them. Anyone who can identify them will earn my eternal gratitude.
13. Narnia: The Horse and his Boy was the only one I never really enjoyed. I think The Last Battle was my favourite - a scene that sticks with me even now is Jill turning aside her face so that her tears didn't wet her bowstring. Beautiful.
Noticably absent from this list is anything like the Babysitter's Club, or anything that involved shifting friendships, loyalties, betrayals, and/or girls with crushes as main plot elements. Boooring! [/actually a comment about self, not about such books] Also absent is Roald Dahl and all the horror/gross sort of kids books, who I never really got into.
Since childhood, I've discovered a whole heap of new favourite kidlit authors: Eoin Colfer, Diana Wynne Jones, Phillip Pullman, and.. um... JK Rowling, I guess. The list feels incomplete without them, but I never read them when I was a kid, so I can't really include them.