December Meme: Childhood books
Dec. 5th, 2014 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestdine asked me to talk about my favourite books from childhood.I read all the time when I was a child. I was never one for running about and there's only one tree I remember climbing (it was really easy, and had somehow grown with steps in the trunk), but I devoured books at a fantastic rate.
There were the obvious ones, of course, the Chronicles of Narnia, Beatrice Potter, George MacDonald, Roger Lancelyn Green's books of myth (Norse, Greek, and I think there were a couple of others), Paddington, Noel Streatfield, E Nesbit, fairy tales and Arthurian romances, the Famous Five and a panoply of School stories from the Chalet School to St Clare's to… whatever else there was. I also discovered a Biggles omnibus at my Nana's house, which set me off on a Biggles kick. Science fiction—Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, mercifully I missed out on E E 'Doc' Smith—came in my teens, along with Austen, Heyer, Tolkein, Jean Plaidy and a selection of other historicals. Many, many more.
My favourites, though, must be the Winnie the Pooh books. These are the ones I bought when I was pregnant with Bun, and which I still read, occasionally, even though she is twenty-eight (!!wtf!). I can recite the story of how Pooh gets into a Tight Place, not quite verbatim, but with extra glee at "How long does getting thin take?" "About a week, I should think." And Beast and I use "Honey or condensed milk with your bread?" on relevant occasions, usually accompanied by an admonishing eyebrow. I love that story so much. It's inaccessible behind the sofa at the moment, so I can't re-read it right now.
I read the Pooh stories to my children. My parents used to read them to me. My mother made a particularly good Piglet with a little, squeaky voice. My father was then and will always be the True Voice of Winnie the Pooh, deep bass and grumbly. Think Christopher Lee. Somewhere, I may still have an ancient cassette with recordings of stories read by both of them, which is nice, since they're both long dead.
Disney-the-Pooh is an abomination. Do not speak of it to me. Ugh.
A few dates still available if you want to set me a task here.
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Date: 2014-12-05 11:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-05 09:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-05 10:25 pm (UTC)I love your thots on Pooh - as an annoying teenager I became quite fond of reading Milne poetry aloud (always best that way) *at* my siblings; they weren't especially happy with me, but couldn't figure out a way to stop me, and complaining to the parents about it sounded ridiculous
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Date: 2014-12-06 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-05 10:37 pm (UTC)I also read Narnia and Nesbit (love!), but also lots of Michael Ende, Astrid Lindgren, Christine Nöstlinger and Susan Cooper, and of course Tolkien.
Later also Heyer, Austen, Karl May, Asimov...
And Pooh! <333 My mother had the best Eeyore voice. The BEST.
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Date: 2014-12-06 07:29 pm (UTC)The Pooh books are my favourites from childhood too! We didn't own many books when I was a kid - no money - but we lived across the road from the library so we'd lots of books at home anyway. The Pooh books I did own though and apart from my teddybear they're the only childhood possession I still have. They're very battered and these days I mostly read the English originals when I'm in a Pooh mood but I will never get rid of them!
And I agre completely that Disney Pooh is an abomination that should never be spoken of!!
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Date: 2014-12-10 08:27 pm (UTC)How cool that you have a recording of them reading stories!
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Date: 2014-12-05 03:05 pm (UTC)