General Chit Chat

[Montreal Wanderer]

When I was very young I had books and books of the Enid Blyton short stories, 'Mr Icy Cold' and the like. I absolutely loved them. By the time I got older and found the longer Famous Five and Secret Seven books I found them boring. FF in particular, think I quite liked the SS (ahem). By that time I was down the library reading as much Asimov as I could get my hands on, and a quite a few Dickens (though not a tale of two cities as guillotines TERRIFIED me, I used to have nightmares about being executed). FF found it hard to compete with robots!

Weirdly, given how much I loved Asimov, I was never into Star Trek/Wars or any spacey shit when I was older.

I probably read everything that Asimov ever wrote in terms of science fiction and mystery stories. Were you into the novels or short stories, Pru?

I think, whatever I could get my hands on at the library. I was about ten I though so I'd imagine short stories. I don't remember a great deal about what I read, only that I loved it, if that makes sense? I think 'I, Robot' and 'Bicentennial Man' were among them, but I might just be projecting back memories because there have been fairly recent films of them both. I probably didn't get half of what was going on. I think, in a Matilda like moment I'd read all the kids books that interested me and asked the librarian what adult stuff I could read and got pointed that way. Thank f*ck she didn't give me Mills & Boon!

There was one collection of short stories I know I absolutely loved; Googling about, that might have been 'I, Robot'.

I also LOVED Jules Verne. 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth' and '20,000 Leagues' were amazing. Then I turned into a teenager and stopped reading until I was about 16 (A Clockwork Orange). Such a shame!

I, Robot was a collection of "three laws" short stories he wrote for Analog and more were collected in the Rest of the Robots. Bicentennial man was the title of a collection and a story within it. I bought just about everything he and Arthur C. Clarke wrote in terms of fiction. Jules Verne I read and enjoyed, even though the science was not generally plausible by the time I read it. I even read a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs (even less plausible).

[TANGODANCER]

I mentioned earlier The Weirdstone of Brinsingamen ,(Spelled it wrongly before) a fantasy adventure set around Alderly Edge in Chesire and based on a local legend. Anybody read it?

[Montreal Wanderer]

I mentioned earlier The Weirdstone of Brinsingamen ,(Spelled it wrongly before) a fantasy adventure set around Alderly Edge in Chesire and based on a local legend. Anybody read it?

I'm afraid not. I think it was supposed to be a trilogy but the author got so annoyed with his characters he never finished it. I could be wrong on this. Is it any good?

[TANGODANCER]

I mentioned earlier The Weirdstone of Brinsingamen ,(Spelled it wrongly before) a fantasy adventure set around Alderly Edge in Chesire and based on a local legend. Anybody read it?

I'm afraid not. I think it was supposed to be a trilogy but the author got so annoyed with his characters he never finished it. I could be wrong on this. Is it any good?

It's a young read, as in Narnia etc, but interesting because of the locality which has a spooky history anyway in reality. All sort of middle-earth and magic but I enjoyed it in the right context.

[Little Green Man]

I mentioned earlier The Weirdstone of Brinsingamen ,(Spelled it wrongly before) a fantasy adventure set around Alderly Edge in Chesire and based on a local legend. Anybody read it?

I read it an age ago, along with the author's (Alan Garner) other books Elidor and The Owl Service. Great early teens fiction, if I recall correctly. Garner's viewed by his peers as one of Britain's fantasy fiction greats.

[thebish]

I mentioned earlier The Weirdstone of Brinsingamen ,(Spelled it wrongly before) a fantasy adventure set around Alderly Edge in Chesire and based on a local legend. Anybody read it?

aye - when I was a teenager - I was totally absorbed... have always meant to read it again...

[bobo the clown]

I read every last one of the Famous Five, then the Secret Seven, then ... in quiet desparation even bloomin' Mallory Towers ! Then some Canadadadianish stuff called The Bobsey Twins and finally, around about 9 or 10 got into Tolkein.

Life was tough with black & white telly & only 3 channels.

[TANGODANCER]

All sorts of book titles and authors of fiction from youth are running around in my brain right now. That and the pleasure I got from them (and still can): Ivanhoe, The Prisoner of Zenda, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Sherlock Holmes, trips out west with Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, Ryder Haggard, Baroness Orczy, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, C.S.Forester, Dickens, the list is just endless.

[Dujon]

Ah, the Famous Five. As a seven or eight year old they were the frontier of adventure. I have never owned a copy but a friend (Jimmy Delamere, are you still around?) used to lend me, one at a time, his extensive collection. Later I became besotted with science fiction which, I suppose, was an extension of the frontier. Asimov, Bradbury, Verne, Clarke and a host of others, including Nevin, Purnelle and Herbert would whisk me away from my woes and plonk me for a time into a different world of escapism.

Louis L'Amour and H.Rider Haggard, along with, say, L. Ron Hubbard were great story tellers but not authors that I'd read over and over. Robert Heinlein produced works which, in essence, were a bit silly but still draw me back although I have no idea as to why that should be. Perhaps I'm a romantic at heart.

[thebish]

All sorts of book titles and authors of fiction from youth are running around in my brain right now. That and the pleasure I got from them (and still can): Ivanhoe, The Prisoner of Zenda, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Sherlock Holmes, trips out west with Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, Ryder Haggard, Baroness Orczy, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, C.S.Forester, Dickens, the list is just endless.

it's always a gamble in my mind - whether to read stuff again that absorbed me when I was a kid... the danger is that it will come as a crushing disappointment and ruin the magic of the memory...

[Lost Leopard Spot]

All sorts of book titles and authors of fiction from youth are running around in my brain right now. That and the pleasure I got from them (and still can): Ivanhoe, The Prisoner of Zenda, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Sherlock Holmes, trips out west with Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, Ryder Haggard, Baroness Orczy, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, C.S.Forester, Dickens, the list is just endless.

it's always a gamble in my mind - whether to read stuff again that absorbed me when I was a kid... the danger is that it will come as a crushing disappointment and ruin the magic of the memory...

I have that very dilemma at the mo. Discovered a superb second-hand edition of Eddison's The Worm Ouroubos which I bought on impulse (cost me £15) and which I'd read as a kid - I don't know if I should have another read, especially as I've spent money on it, but I don't want to spoil it. I read the Worm before I discovered Tolkein, so it might suffer in comparison now.

[bobo the clown]

I've just re-read "The Hungry Worm".

Marvellous stuff.

[malcd1]

I discovered Roald Dahl again when my daughter was younger. Brilliant.

George's Marvellous Medicine is just fantastic.

[General Mannerheim]

was thinking that myself, instead of reading a couple of short stories every night, maybe spread a proper book out over a week or so?

Any recco's for a 3yr old girl?

[TANGODANCER]

was thinking that myself, instead of reading a couple of short stories every night, maybe spread a proper book out over a week or so?
Any recco's for a 3yr old girl?

I think you're doing it right with the short stories at 3 General. Kids at that age IMO, don't have the attention span quite yet and if you start on "to be continued" too early she'll not want to go to sleep so easily as a story that ends. I only go off my own (which is a fair way back). When she's a bit older, Peter Pan, Narnia, The Railway Children, Secret Garden etc are all fine. Maybe G.G''s your best advisor on this topic as she's in a similar situation to you.

[Worthy4England]

was thinking that myself, instead of reading a couple of short stories every night, maybe spread a proper book out over a week or so?

Any recco's for a 3yr old girl?

The Twits might work as one, by Roald Dahl.

[TANGODANCER]

All sorts of book titles and authors of fiction from youth are running around in my brain right now. That and the pleasure I got from them (and still can): Ivanhoe, The Prisoner of Zenda, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Sherlock Holmes, trips out west with Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, Ryder Haggard, Baroness Orczy, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, C.S.Forester, Dickens, the list is just endless.

it's always a gamble in my mind - whether to read stuff again that absorbed me when I was a kid... the danger is that it will come as a crushing disappointment and ruin the magic of the memory...

The golden glow of memory is indeed a fact, but I've bought re-read quite a few recently that still give pleasure: Treasure Island, Ivanhoe and Last of the Mohicans being amongst them. One of the problems is seeing films of the books which, in some cases, are miles away from the text. J. Fennimore Cooper's Natty Bumpo is far different to Daniel Day Lewis and all the film Robin Hoods don't quite match youthful images. That said, much as I liked them at the time, I wouldn't want to re-read later stuff like Dennis Wheatley, Jack Higgins or Clive Cussler (although I could re-read Alaistair McLean and Hammond Innes) . It's all a personal thing with no fixed rules. I think part of the magic is being transported back to the innocence of youth and forgetting things around you for a while. Same with films. I once started to watch Narnia with my granddaugher. Halfway through she wandered off to play. I stayed there and watched it out.

[General Mannerheim]

Just bought a used copy of The Twits for a quid, worth a try...

[Montreal Wanderer]

All sorts of book titles and authors of fiction from youth are running around in my brain right now. That and the pleasure I got from them (and still can): Ivanhoe, The Prisoner of Zenda, King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Sherlock Holmes, trips out west with Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, Ryder Haggard, Baroness Orczy, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, C.S.Forester, Dickens, the list is just endless.

it's always a gamble in my mind - whether to read stuff again that absorbed me when I was a kid... the danger is that it will come as a crushing disappointment and ruin the magic of the memory...

The golden glow of memory is indeed a fact, but I've bought re-read quite a few recently that still give pleasure: Treasure Island, Ivanhoe and Last of the Mohicans being amongst them. One of the problems is seeing films of the books which, in some cases, are miles away from the text. J. Fennimore Cooper's Natty Bumpo is far different to Daniel Day Lewis and all the film Robin Hoods don't quite match youthful images. That said, much as I liked them at the time, I wouldn't want to re-read later stuff like Dennis Wheatley, Jack Higgins or Clive Cussler (although I could re-read Alaistair McLean and Hammond Innes) . It's all a personal thing with no fixed rules. I think part of the magic is being transported back to the innocence of youth and forgetting things around you for a while. Same with films. I once started to watch Narnia with my granddaugher. Halfway through she wandered off to play. I stayed there and watched it out.

I'm a confirmed re-reader - I have even re-read Dennis Wheatley. I have read Lord of the Rings many times (and certainly preferred Tolkein to the Worm Ouroubos and remainder of the trilogy. I probably have everything Mclean and Innes wrote and have re-read them. I don't have to buy new ones as I have kept all the paperbacks I want to re-read over the decades. P.G. Wodehouse I re-read and laugh just the same.

[TANGODANCER]

Amongst my personal reading preferences are the "of the time" writers. Good research is available for people writing historical novels etc, but Walter Scott, Dickens, Conan Doyle,Wilkie Collins and too many others to mention, wrote of their own times leaving us with almost diaries of events as they actually were. It's one of the reasons I like Jane Austen and the Brontes'. Many people write about Regency England and the events, lifestyles and happenings two hundred years ago. Jane Austen lived in that time and told it as it was. Much of her appeal is in dialogue and description, (in the unabridged versions) as her plots are very simple. It's interesting to see how language and spelling has changed, "chuse" for "choose" etc, and a view described as a "prospect" etc. I find this quite fascinating.