This one comes from one of our fantastic pledgezz, Jen!
What was your favorite book/story as a child?
Mine was "The Fox and The Hound" (although I always called it Tod and Copper, and for several years thought that was the actual title). When I was four or so, I used to make my mom read it to me practically every night, to the point where she pretty much had it memorized (actually, I wouldn't really be surprised if she could still recite most of it 25+ years later!). A few years ago, I bought the Disney movie version, but it's just not the same...
My second favorite was "The Aristocats" (does anyone see a theme here?!) Like the first book, we had to read it constantly, except we didn't actually own this one so we were regularly checking it out at the library!
2 comments:
As a child, I adored a volume of the Grimms Fairy Tales that was given to me as a gift; it was illustrated by Arthur Rackman. Here's a link to some of his art: http://rackham.artpassions.net/ The stories were a little more gruesome than the traditional American Disney-fied versions of the tales, & the gorgeous art was more mature too. I would have classical music on, read this book, look at the illustrations, & take off on flights of fancy where I was a princess, a royal lady in rags who wasn't aware yet of her princess-dom, or pretty much anything other than a normal Asian-American girl growing up in Houston, TX who wished upon stars for something more!
There are probably a bunch o' books/stories I loved as a kid but that was the first I thought of.
I am going to digress as I am way too old to remember a childhood book (maybe it will come to me as I type this).
As I was leaving the library Wednesday, with five books in hand, I was thinking how lucky I was that the love of books & the library, instilled in me by my parents as a little child, is still there. My parents exposed me to many things including violin, piano & ballet lessons, The Arts including museums & theater, a love of nature & animals, camping, fishing, sailing, farming, horseback riding, and a quest for knowledge through reading.
I got my first library card, at a very early age, and started reading books with a passion. Over the years, no matter how many times I moved, I always found and used the local library. My tastes in books goes back & forth from fiction to non-fiction and from recognized literary genius to trashy paperbacks. And then there were those great "summer books" that were soon then be made into movies. Who could forget Roots (actually I did and had to go look it up).
But going back to the question I wish I could say I remember books like Dr Seuss or Curious George as a child but I don't. I would have to say the first books that made an impact on my life were Huckleberry Finn, White Fang, Robinson Crusoe, Animal Farm, a play called Laura, and Moby Dick (even though I read this while traveling the NYC subway in my tweenties). PS I also remember reading Lords of the Rings and Catch 22 as a young teen (30+ years ago).
Post a Comment