Favorite Book as a Child

[Pete1111]

Back in the previous century we had something called encyclopedias.  My family had a set of World Book encyclopedias, and would also receive something called a Year Book covering the highlights of news, science, sports and so on that occurred during the prior year.  We also had a room with maps on the wall, our home state, the United States and the World maps.  I would spend time looking at the maps and then research in our encyclopedias about various places.   Back then we also had what was called an Almanac, with more facts and figures one could research.  

As far as regular books, I recall a few that my aunt gave us but I was not a huge reader of fiction until I got a job at the public library during high school. 

I do recall a favorite book on weather phenomenon, such as famous lightning, tornado, and flood events. 

Of course that was well before weather and storm chasing became such a widespread

 hobby.

  

[AdamSmith]

1 hour ago, Pete1111 said:

Back in the previous century we had something called encyclopedias.  My family had a set of World Book encyclopedias, and would also receive something called a Year Book covering the highlights of news, science, sports and so on that occurred during the prior year.  We also had a room with maps on the wall, our home state, the United States and the World maps.  I would spend time looking at the maps and then research in our encyclopedias about various places.   Back then we also had what was called an Almanac, with more facts and figures one could research.  

As far as regular books, I recall a few that my aunt gave us but I was not a huge reader of fiction until I got a job at the public library during high school. 

I do recall a favorite book on weather phenomenon, such as famous lightning, tornado, and flood events. 

Of course that was well before weather and storm chasing became such a widespread

 hobby.

  

Those Year Books were indeed a great highlight to get & pore over each year. I still have a great stack of them on an attic bookcase.

[Buddy2]

On 8/23/2020 at 12:02 PM, AdamSmith said:

Exactly. And this will make me sound like an old fart, which I certainly am, but I see today too much ‘protecting’ of students, even in college. ‘We don’t want to trigger the delicate little things.’

Well, yes you do! Education is the job of preparing kids for real life. Which is, in one sense, just a constant series of micro-aggressions punctuated by macro-aggressions.

Get used to it; and learn which to ignore, and which to fight back against like an enraged tiger.

’Don’t be careful, be dangerous.’ https://www.jordanbpeterson.comI 

I audited five or six literature courses at the University of Pennsylvania on Russian literature in English translation, Mann, Kafka, Hesse in English translation. But the best course was Colonial Literature taught by female model from South Africa. Nelson Mandela died near the end, she flew to South Africa for the funeral.

 

The Ides of students having it easy now is not true, in my experience. The amount of required assignments in German lit class was staggering. To the extent the Prof agreed to drop Thomas  Mann, "Doctor Faustas.". I read it anyway.

[caeron]

Best Book I read in High School would be Faulkner's "Light in August". 

First book I read in a foreign language would be Madogiwa no Totto-chan. I've forgotten too much of my Japanese to manage that again. Trying to keep all those characters memorized is hard when you don't use them every day!

 

 

[AdamSmith]

7 hours ago, Buddy2 said:

I audited five or six literature courses at the University of Pennsylvania 

Well, there it is. The top-tier schools still hold to highest standards.

What I have seen and read about the rest today is almost too depressing to think about.

[AdamSmith]

2 hours ago, caeron said:

Best Book I read in High School would be Faulkner's "Light in August". 

First book I read in a foreign language would be Madogiwa no Totto-chan. I've forgotten too much of my Japanese to manage that again. Trying to keep all those characters memorized is hard when you don't use them every day!

 

 

Light in August & As I Lay Dying may be his best works.

Beyond impressed that you learned that Japanese!

I several times taught myself to read a tiny bit of Mandarin but it all went up the chimney within 24 hours. 

[Buddy2]

1 hour ago, AdamSmith said:

Well, there it is. The top-tier schools still hold to highest standards.

What I have seen and read about the rest today is almost too depressing to think about.

I read all the books so took part in all the discussions. The fee to audit at Penn is $500 per course, a bargain for me. And I did get to know the students and hang out on campus.

[AdamSmith]

The Most of S.J. Perelman

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._J._Perelman

[BigK]

In middle school The complete works of Sir Aurther Conen Doyle...Sherlock Holmes. 

In my first couple of years in High School C. S. Forester Horatio Hornblower series of books.  Action on the high seas!

 

[Britnnyc]

The Lord of the Rings. Reading now. Very comforting. 

[AdamSmith]

7 hours ago, Britnnyc said:

The Lord of the Rings. Reading now. Very comforting. 

See also:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belgariad

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malloreon

[Britnnyc]

16 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

See also:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belgariad

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malloreon

Thanks!

[AdamSmith]

25 minutes ago, Britnnyc said:

Thanks!

Sort of next-gen version of the same thing. Very enjoyable likewise.

[Britnnyc]

Will order on Amazon. Cant believe i hadnt heard about

[adamdub]

22 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

See also:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Belgariad

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Malloreon

Oh! This brings me back I was obsessed with these books as a kid and read them cover to cover until I wore out the spines. I really loved the whole universe this created, down to the different religions, languages, cultures, and it just felt very lived in.

Edited September 1, 2020 by adamdub

[AdamSmith]

39 minutes ago, adamdub said:

Oh! This brings me back I was obsessed with these books as a kid and read them cover to cover until I wore out the spines. I really loved the whole universe this created, down to the different religions, languages, cultures, and it just felt very lived in.

Very good to hear. Have likewise read & reread them obsessively.

[AdamSmith]

Titles	The Clubfoot
Race	Melcene
First Appearance	The Sorceress of Darshiva

Senji is an Alchemist and Sorcerer who Beldin, Belgarath and Garion meet in Melcene during Sorceress of Darshiva after they followed Zandramas' trail there. Senji is a senior member of the faculty of the College of Applied Alchemy at the University of Melcena. He is referred to as 'the Clubfoot' by Cyradis and is around 3900 years old. He leads the sorcerers to a museum where the Sardion once rested and also gives Belgarath an unmutilated copy of the Ashabine Oracles. 

 

He discovered the Gift of 'the Will and the Word' by accident in the 15th century when he turned lead into gold by shouting at it; because the Melcenes did not believe him, they attempted to prove it by trying to pushing him out the window (trying to determine if (A) he was in fact unkillable, (B) what means he would take to save his life while plummeting toward the paved courtyard, and (C) if it might be possible to discover the secret of flight by giving him no other alternative. Quoted from page 139 of "Sorceress of Darshiva"). While they were carrying out this method, he translocated the assassin high above the Melcene harbour (thus ruining the fishing nets of a local fisherman). Outraged by this affair, he implemented a widespread plague of constipation, releasing his victims only after a personal appeal from the Melcene Emperor himself. After this they accepted his extraordinary gift and left him to himself. Even though he has this gift, his abilities are weak at best, and he chooses to turn it to Alchemy. 

Senji has a rusty-sounding voice and is described as a grubby little man. He was bald and smelly. 

It is heavily implied that Senji was going to be a follower of Eriond.

https://davideddings.fandom.com/wiki/Senj

[RodHagen]

I read way too much Narnia when I was lutheran and small.  In Junior High my tastes improved.

[Ale4co]

Ralph s mouse

[Suckrates]

 

Reading is FUN-da-mental.....

 

 

[zippo5]

From childhood: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Charlotte's Web.  As a teenager tastes changed.  

[Axel23]

To Kill a Mockingbird was definitively my favorite when I was young. It was one among the other feel-good novels I’d love to reread over and over again , but I also recognized that it had a kind of maturity and depth to it that the other three lacked, which was what pushed it out of the ordinary for me. Also, Atticus Finch was  an epic and morally righteous civil rights lawyer.

[flguywest]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Thousand_Leagues_Under_the_Sea

[Zackbr1952]

Gosh so many, I read constantly (maybe a defense mechanism for a little gay boy in a very homophobic world?)

The Borrowers

The Hobbit and Lord of the Ring books

Enid Blyton books

We had this very scary old lady in our local library. If you brought back books late she fined you, usually a few pennies which she would count out carefully, all the time eyeing you with deep suspicion:  "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too"

Absolutely terrified me.

[tony1van]

Hahaha Zackbr1952 i think i had the same scary old lady at my library.

She would fine me all the time for bring back The Hardy Boys  books late and was not allowed to take another one until i paid up.