Your first book


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When I was a kid my head was always stuck in a book.

Me favorite author was Enid Blyton an the Famous 5 Books.

I also read Richmal Cromptons 'Just William',

Today I saw on the TV they are making either a film or a TV series now of William.

Another favorite was the adventures of a schoolboy 'Jennings'

What were your favorite books of the time?

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Always loved me books........i sit here now surrounded by them.......first one must have been a 'Rupert Bear Annual'' when i was about 4.....Also recall my first Football Book.......had it from aged a

Twas a fine October morning in April last July.  The sun lay thick upon the ground the snow shone in the sky. The flowers were singing sweetly the birds were in full bloom.  As I went d

Always got a football year book or annual, I remember it because it gave you the details of all the 92 clubs, manager/coach, nicknames, and home grounds when they had proper names not some stupid spon

Afraid to say I wasn't a big reader when I was a kid. We had to read books when I was at secondary school and write about the book, the English teacher selected the title.

Only when I'd left school did I become a bookworm, sometimes one a week. As a teen the James Bond books had just become fashionable, think I read all them, Malta Story, then adult mysteries, history etc.

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Alistair MacLean was probably one of my favourite authors.

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As a kid I read what every girl my age was reading, Heidi, Little Women, What Katy Did [and Did Next] Black Beauty, Children of the New Forest, The Three Musketeers. Then there were the comics, anything I could get my hands on, and annuals every Christmas. I read a lot and still do. I usually have anywhere from 1-4 books on the go at the same time.

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I too was never really into books as a kid , now Dandy and Beano is a totally different kettle of fish.!!

Later on I too was well into The James Bond books, , I own the full collection (Including a few 'first editions' which are worth a bob or two!!! I have read most of Tom Clancy's books up to the Spec Ops series and I never got any further , nowadays I mostly read facts books , IE The QI series and the like. Although I have read a few biographies and autobiographies lately .

Of course there's always my 2 'bibles' at the side of my bed!!! The Guinness book of British hit singles, and an Aircraft Encyclopedia !!

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Earliest books I remember were from the school library (Greencroft Infants) when I was around 6-7 years old. I read everything in the "Little Grey Rabbit" series by a Victorian writer called Alison Uttley - a kind of alternative Beatrix Potter. Obviously not the kind of thing I'd read now.

When I got a bit older and went to the kids section of the real library, I was hooked on the Biggles books by Capt WE Johns. I read a bit of one a few years ago, and I couldn't believe how hilarious it comes across now, but at the time I was really impressed.

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Everything that Kath read, I read. They were the half crown classics from Woolies and I got at least one each Christmas. Plus the Annuals of course - great stuff!

(I wasn`t an Enid Blyton fan. Didn`t like the posh kids.)

Loved Anne of Green Gables and the William Books and the Jennings and Darbyshire books. (The posh kids in them didn`t bother me.)

I also loved the Fairy Books by Andrew Lang.

I remember the first time I was taken to the Public Library - was it down Kirkewhite Street somewhere? I`d be about nine, I think.

There were hundreds of books on huge shelves and we could borrow them and actually take them home! Magic!!

I still love children`s books and read them all the time. I loved Philip Pullman`s 'His Dark Materials' trilogy and the Cornelia Funke 'Inkmagic' series - and the Philip Reeve 'Mortal Engines' series.

I read adult books as well. :rolleyes:

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Always reading the "Commando" paperbacks (think they were about 1/6d each then)but also anything to do with wildlife especially birds

btw Ashley, I have read Mein Kampf, thought it was a bit boring and a bit of a slog to get through it

Rog

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Is there such a thing as politically correct in children`s books? I dunno.

If you look back at the way kidlit has changed over the years/centuries it seems to reflect the changes in society at large and the way children are seen at the time.

Books were written by the people who had the education and free time to write and that was mainly the toffs.

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Is there such a thing as politically correct in children`s books? I dunno.

Well there aren't any Gollywogs in Noddy any more!!

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I think that`s what I meant - the content changed to reflect current thinking etc.

I can remember making a Golly at school when I was little and collecting the Golly shapes from jam jars.

I didn`t connect them with black people. Perhaps I was just being dim, though!

I also remember the expression, 'You`ve been jewed.' meaning tricked or something. I didn`t connect that with Jewish people either.

Okay, I admit it - I was just dim. :rolleyes:

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ALWAYS HAD LOTS OF BOOKS AND COMICSAS A CHILD ALL THE CLASSICS. NO TELEVISION IN OUR HOUSE UNTILL I WAS TURNED TEN SO ,MANY WINTER MONTHS WERE SPENT READING.BUT WOLL ALWAYS REMEMBER HAVING TO READ JANET AND JOHN BOOKS WHEN I WENT TO SCOOLL.AS A TEENAGER GOT INTO JAMES HERBERT, STEPHEN KING. HORRY TYPE BOOKS AND ANOTHER FAVERITE WAS LANCE HORNER AND KYLE ONSOTT FALCONHURST SERRIES ALL ABOUT LIFE ONTHE AMERICAN PLANTATIONS AND THEN INTO LOTS OF SOCIAL HISTORY TYPE BOOKS STILL AN AVID READER .BUT STILL CARNT SPELL, READING TAKESME LONGER THAN THE AVERAGE PERSON DUE TO MY DYSLEXIA. BUT CAN STILL MANAGE TO GET THROUGH A BOOK A WEEK IF I REALLY GET INTO IT.

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Always reading the "Commando" paperbacks (think they were about 1/6d each then)but also anything to do with wildlife especially birds

btw Ashley, I have read Mein Kampf, thought it was a bit boring and a bit of a slog to get through it

Rog

!bravo! Yes, the Commando books were a great read, I recall a very similar size/type/priced books for the other services also, Navy, Airforce

Great books that started me off with a thirst for reading:

Jennings, Tin-Tin, Moomins(found them fascinating), Noggin the Nog,also some 'school books' (compulsory reading) 39 steps, Family from one end street,swallows & amazons, & many many more, most of them read either at home or in the childrens reading room at the library on Nuthall Road/Melbourne Road Junction, the building still exists, but no idea if it's still a library.......... thumbsup

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I had hundreds of 'Commando mags'. I started to collect them whilst in hospital having my appendix out (Aged 12) I eventually sold them to a bloke on the Vic Center market (Bottom of the escallator) for about 50 quid!!!! I was about 19 at the time. I told you I'd got hundreds!!. 50 quid was a weeks take home pay at the time so it came in rather handy.

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Unlikely that many of the local modern generation of boys will be able to emulate any of the above reading memories...

Notts now the worst nationwide for reading skills - bar none.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12000886

Cheers

Robt P.

thumbsdown Followed your link, looks like Nottingham has more than it's fair share!!!!!! Sadder still Beefhearts died, not much of a singing voice :blush: , but a great character ..............

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Firbeck School started a library during my last year there and being a bit of a bookworm I was made librarian, great, they had a fantastic collection of Biggles books by W.E Johns which became my obsession. I used to go round jumble sales in order to build up my own collection of early Biggles hardbacks, most of which I found in my mums loft when I was clearing it out a few months ago, yes, I brought them back here, including a large size illustrated version of the 'Cruise of the Condor'.

Can anyone recall the title of the last Biggles book, which had turned into a Cold War theme, Biggles rescuing his arch enemy Von Stalheim from the clutches of the East German secret police and them becoming firm friends.

Pity about the Hollywood movie of Biggles, it was utter crap, I always felt that had it been done properly, there could have been a bit of a cult built up, notwithstanding the Pythons constant p1$$ take of our hero.

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Enid Blytons Famous Five and the Secret Seven. Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons books and Coote Club. I also read a series of books about the Calendar Family who were all named after days of the week or months, the books were entitled The Riverof Adventure, The Mountainof Adventure etc but I can't remember the author.

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  • Cliff Ton changed the title to Your first book

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