I've just finish 'Bookish' by Lucy Mangan. This is the second book by her that I've read and I wrote a whole post about the first one - 'Bookworm: A Childhood Memoir' way back in July 2018.
I said then that her memories of early reading are completely different to mine, where the only regular reading was a weekly 'comic' (Jack and Jill, Judy, Jackie and Fab 208 are the ones I remember), books were only given to me as birthday or Christmas presents by aunties and I didn't even know library buildings existed until I was about 14!
This new book starts with Lucy's teenage years and university and again she read much more widely and more classics and well know books than I did then. My reading from age 14 onwards were books by Alistair McLean and Agatha Christie but then once I started work in the library age 16, I read Catherine Cookson, Mary Stewart, R.F Delderfield, Howard Spring and lots of sagas while Lucy was at Cambridge reading a long list of books that make me glad I didn't go to uni to do an English degree!
Then onto marriage and motherhood and the post natal depression. Once again her reading material is completely different to my journey through books. She has lists at the back of the book for reading in different personal circumstances - I'd only read a couple out of all the lists.
I finished the book thinking "Thank goodness we are all so different, and don't have to read the same books as other people!"
Other people have written books about books and reading. 'Howards End is on the Landing' and 'Jacobs Room' is full of Books are both by Susan Hill. 'Ex Libris;Confessions of a Common Reader' and 'At Large and At Small' by Anna Fadiman. I know there are more but can't think of them at the moment!
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I was taken to the library regularly when I was a child and became a librarian when I left school so my nose was usually in a book. These days I am more into audiobooks but even then I am far from the avid reader I was in my younger days. I am in awe of your monthly book heaps!
ReplyDeleteI had Jack&Jill comic. Then Judy [and swapped with a friend who had Bunty] Then for 2 years I had Look&Learn. I think I read more fiction in my younger years than I did in my 40s to 60s when life was busy. I am gradually increasing my reading again.
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine a life without reading. Such a blessing to be literate and have access to books. Just finished English Pastoral by James Rebanks and really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeletePenny
Lucy Mangan along with Marina Hyde are favourites of mine, their wry, sceptical articles always make me laugh. I read obsessively as a child, the librarian in our town allowed me into the adult books. Loved ghost books, horror, Georgette Heyer and Wells and Poe of course.
ReplyDeleteI have always been a bookworm, and was delighted once starting senior school to see the size of their library, my english teacher started to choose books for me to read to change direction in my taste.
ReplyDeleteMy Gran and Grandad always got us books for birthdays and Christmas. Always classics Little Women, Gullivers Travels, all the Dickens, etc. We also got a lot of second hand books not sure where from but I read anything and everything, some a bit too adult but all grist to my mill. I still read but not so avidly. I've gone off fiction a bit too many churned out now and so many aren't well written in my opinion. I read mostly non fiction and biographies now. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteI always had my nose in a book, even from an early age. I remember reading The Secret Seven books, Lorna Hill's 'Wells' books from our local library. In my teens I moved on to Georgette Heyer, Margaret Irwin, Jean Plaidy and Anya Seton, also D H Lawrence and Thomas Hardy. Classics like Children of the New Forest and Lorna Doone and Jane Eyre were studied at senior school also Margery Allingham's Tiger in the Smoke and Gulliver's Travels, as well as CP Snow's Corridors of Power. Now I lean more towards crime fiction than historical novels, still love libraries and that magical feel of discovery:)
ReplyDeleteAs the youngest child of 4 I had access to all the books that had been given to us over the years. There were a few too many Arthurian tales and Aesop fables, but really I was lucky. Reading was a good thing in my house.
ReplyDeleteMy teenage and young adult reading was very much like yours, including A.J. Cronin and sagas, I read all these in German though. I noticed that since I moved over to kindle and e-reading I've lost the knack of wandering into a paper back section and picking out books which I think I'd like by just looking at the front and back covers.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure all of us could write a book about the books we've read - whether anyone else would read them is another matter.
ReplyDeleteI remember 'Bunty.' I read many Dennis Wheatley books, as well as 'My Friend, Flicka' and 'Travels with a Donkey.' I read all the time as a child.
We were supplied with books from a young age (as well as Judy and Beano annuals!) We gad a set of 10 Arthur Mee's Children Encyclopaedias, which we all read from beginning to end, several times, and set of classics including such titles as A tale of 2 cities, The Coral island, Gulliver's Travels and Black Beauty, and various religious books for children telling the Christmas story. Also regularly went to the library from a young age. As I got older read the usual classics, Austen, Brontes, Hardy, Dickens etc. And a huge amount of 'light' reading, of course. A levels led me to Shakespeare, who I've loved ever since after seeing 'Richard II' in Stratford. Also led me to D H Lawrence which I was NOT thankful for. I love reading books of letters and diaries. I have kept an incredibly dull diary myself since 1973....
ReplyDeleteThe Swallows and Amazons series was an absolute favourite. It is a delight to observe my granddaughter reading the books I enjoyed so much, and so
ReplyDeletedid her mother.