Monday, June 25, 2012

Childhood Reading

When I was a kid I was very keen to start reading ... purely because I could not get adults to read to me as often as I would like... A few times a day was alot ha ha.
I had my favourite places to read.. Granny's kitchen... my bed before lights out...while out in the car/jeep with parents... I was not fussy. There was always a book stashed on my person somewhere..

I found that books that some adults gave children were terrible, and not suitable for the child they are buying for ..example.. don't buy a little boy a book about science when all he is interested in is funny  types of book and therefore that may put that child off reading for good.. As a child you don't have much knowledge about books, you only know about those you have been given by adults... Now if they had given that child a funny book  about misadventures of  other little boys then I pretty much bet that child would be become a life long friend of books.

Reading as a kid is mind blowing... everything is new.. you have not really decided on what books are your favourites yet and you are finding your way as you read . Then when you come across a good one you hold on for dear life and begin a search to  find all those that are similar to it... Your favourite book type then becomes more obvious and as you grow up this extends beyond a particular genre.. The world of books begins to open up..

As a kid.. knowing that if you have the right book you can go anywhere in the world..it feels great. You can visualise different countries and people and traditions ...you can be sitting on your bed while sailing the high seas.. you could be having fish fingers and chips as you prop your book against your cup at the dinner table and go on adventures with Harry Potter... the possibilites are endless...


I enjoyed Enid Blyton particularly the Faraway Tree collection.. Some day I will get round to buying a new hardcover edition of this series.My childhood editions are well worn by now.
Roald Dahl is another favouite.. I esp loved when in Primary School ( I believe it was 5th class) we had a stand in teacher who would read to us at the end of the day if we got our work done in time. He had a great reading voice that held your attention and he could do all the voices of all the characters. That christmas I asked my mum to get me all Roald Dahl's books for christmas..

I could easily read these books now.. They never lost their magic to me.. I think good books never do..

No comments:

Post a Comment