What's the first book you remember loving?
When I was a kid, say just learning to read, my favourite book was Mr. Hazelnut. It was about a young girl who meets a tailor who sews magical clothes. He knows just what Alice longs for, makes the clothes for her, then poof! Disappears. But the clothes grow with her over time, so it's a kind-of happy ending. I still have that book (it was written by a Scandinavian woman) and plan to read it to my three year old granddaughter this winter.
I grew older and devoured Nancy Drew
and the Hardy Boys. By eleven, I was into Agatha Christie and had read
most of her books by the age of thirteen. In high school, I fell in
love with Ivanhoe. Then and now, I zoom to my friends' bookshelves in every house I go into.
Were there books in your house? We had several low-bookshelves lining our living room and dining room. I was raised by an ardent book-lover. My dad lost his father when he was six, and there was no money for books in his young years. He vowed that - when he grew up - he would buy every book he ever wanted. I grew up in a house full of books and they are still my treasures.
My own home has books in every room. Filling walnut bookshelves, piled on side tables, bedside tables. My office is a shrine to books. And while I applaud the development of Kindle, a shelf-full of Kindles doesn't fill my heart the way book spines do.
Yes, there was magic in the first book I loved. Sorcery magic, plus the kind that fills your soul.
Because books create magic, I have found. They provide a magical escape into a zillion adventures.
I count myself lucky to have made a career in writing books. If in my lifetime, I can create that wonderful escape for some readers, then my heart will be full.
What about you? Was there 'one' book that made a difference to your childhood and stoked your love for reading?
There's more than one: Fairy tales, of course, and "The Jungle Books", specifically "The Miracle of Purun Baghat"; "Tom Sawyer" and "Huck Finn".
ReplyDeleteEve, I've never read The Miracle of Purun Baghat! there's something for me to look up!
Deletethank you! Melodie
I think it's in the Jungle Book, Part II. It was my first introduction to Hinduism, meditation, and the idea that you could walk away from power and wealth to find wisdom. It just knocked my socks off...
DeleteGreat! Thanks Eve
DeleteOh, heavens, yes. The earliest book that made me a writer, before I was ready for Little Women, was L.M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon. Emily took a lot of crap for writing poetry and descriptions of her respectable family and neighbors on Prince Edward Island in the early days of the 20th century when she was supposed to be doing schoolwork and saying her prayers. I still re-read that one periodically. Now I'm tracking down some books I remember vividly from my earlier childhood, maybe age 6 or so. Some I owned, others I got from the library or at school. One discovery I'm making now is that all the books I remember are by highly regarded children's authors of the 1940s and 1950s. The White Horse, by Elizabeth Coatsworth, is about two children captured by pirates on the high seas and taken to Morocco. Understood Betsy, by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, is about a frail, timid little city girl who's sent to her cousins in rural Vermont and becomes sturdy, healthy, and self-reliant. I've just found the first in paperback and the second in a Kindle edition on Amazon. (Yes, it will be hard to boycott them on the 28th.) A joy to revisit those worlds.
ReplyDeleteOh you just reminded me about The White Horse, Liz! I was hoping people posting their faves would give me reminders :) Thanks for this - Melodie
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