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!
ReplyDeleteMy 'dead end job' as a library assistant aged 16 wasn't what someone from a Grammar school was supposed to do. But it got me reading all sorts!
DeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it was Bunty I had? There was a cut out doll with paper clothes with tabs to dress her on the back cover?
DeleteThat was the Bunty ... I used to try and wait until the comic was a few weeks old before I destroyed the back cover and cut out the doll and her outfit of the day. :-)
DeleteI 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
I read the first James Rebanks but couldn't get into the one you mention - can't remember why
DeleteLucy 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've never read any of her columns . I shall look them up
DeleteI 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.
ReplyDeleteReading was considered a waste of time - although it was OK when on holiday!
DeleteMy 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
ReplyDeleteThere are so many classics I've never read and have been put off by school exams!
DeleteI 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:)
ReplyDeleteI read some Famous Five from somewhere , at primary school perhaps, where the schools library service brought books round during the term
DeleteAs 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 Dad (step dad) never read a book in his life! Mum only read magazines or those Peoples friend books .
DeleteMy 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 still can't get into reading on a screen - my mind wanders!
DeleteI'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.
I remember Denis Wheatley books from library days -they had such gory covers
DeleteWe 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....
ReplyDeleteWe often got an Annual for Christmas from my Grandma - I liked Rupert Bear and the Blue Peter Annuals
DeleteThe 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.
I was late to Swallows and Amazons and still haven't read them all - son did though and I have copies to read sometime
DeleteI had read her first but not this, sounds interesting. Also thanks fir the heads up about the second book about books by Susan Hill, again I read the first and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
Without going through my 'Book of Books Read' I can't remember other authors who've written about books and reading but I'm sure there are more
DeleteI shall look into the books about books.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the library from an early age; we all took out as many as our tickets would allow.
I took our children to the library several times a weeks. It hadn't occurred to me that people didn't have shelves full of books, until I visited friend's houses were there were a few in the living room and a single shelf in each child's bedroom. I was astonished; it seemed very odd to me!
I think because Mum didn't drive and only went to town once a week on the bus there wasn't time to get to the library which was out of the town centre, but I'm not sure she would have borrowed books anyway
DeleteWhat a lovely post, Sue! Yes, I have often thought "Thank goodness I don't have to read the books 'they' read!". But, all the same, I enjoy hearing about the books they read & find it interesting....even though I wouldn't read the book myself. Love, Andrea xoxo
ReplyDeleteThe list of what she had to read for her English Degree was very off-putting!
DeleteI've always loved libraries and have rarely bought books. I remember reading Nancy Drew books when I was young and I still love mysteries the most to this day.
ReplyDeleteCrime fiction are my preferred reading now of course.
DeleteI used to walk, aged 8, to the Library in Woolston, to change my 4 library books. It was about 2 miles probably. I read everything involving horses! Plus the Children's Classics (persuaded that they had horses in too!) Enid Blyton was NOT for me. As a teenager at school, it was Georgette Heyer, after our English teacher mentioned her; books on Mythology and Folk Lore, and Rider-Haggard. Then when I left school, Catherine Cookson, Frank Yerby, Neville Shute, Jean Plaidy - all the popular ones of the day.
ReplyDeleteI read some Enid Blyton at primary school and then they became 'not good enough English' at some time in the 60's and schools didn't have them
DeleteI could read before I went to school and as an only child books were my friends. I was very fortunate that Mum and Dad bought me books, from jumble sales, church sales, passed on by friends. Also my Granny had a walk in attic absolutely stuffed with books. I read Gone With The Wind aged 11, didn't understand it, but enjoyed it. Xx
ReplyDeleteI doubt I will ever read 'Gone with the Wind' - it's too fat!
DeleteWith your love of books, working in the library was a good experience. Having access to all library books was valuable.
ReplyDeleteWe had children's books at home and subscriptions to book clubs. Reading was a constant. For me, it all started with bedtime stories and my mother or father reading to us as very small children. I did the same with my son.
"Thank goodness we are all so different, and don't have to read the same books as other people!" ... THIS is why I have never even considered joining a book club of any description. Although I might have liked to go to university to do English Literature, I think all the delving into the why and wherefores of the books would have driven me to distraction. I like to take things at face value and not dig into why!!
ReplyDeleteI got couple of books at Christmas, usually a Rupert annual and one reading book and sometimes one on my birthday. Other than that it was a twenty minutes walk with my Dad every Monday night to the library to take out four books. With not many books at home I jumped from Famous Five and Secret Seven library books, to my Dad's Harold Robbins and Dennis Wheatley collections.