Well. Hum. I’ve gone a bit wonky again, so I don’t know how much I’ll be posting over the next few weeks. Still, I’m trying to get myself back into gear, so you never know. I think I’ll have a go at the Friday Five though:
1. What were your favorite childhood stories?
I was a big Enid Blyton fan, and collected many many of her books – the Famous Five, Secret Seven, Mystery, Secret of, and school series ones… might have forgotten some there, too. That was between the ages of 6 and 9 or 10, I think. I read an awful lot in general, mind you.
2. What books from your childhood would you like to share with [your] children?
Hmmm… I guess the Blyton books – they aren’t remotely up-to-date, but they were entertaining in their way. I’d mainly encourage kids to read as much as they want, and whatever they want, and get to know the local librarians – my teachers and librarians suggested books to me that I wouldn’t have thought to read otherwise.
3. Have you re-read any of those childhood stories and been surprised by anything?
I’ve re-read books that I read in my early teens, and got different things from them, but I wasn’t really surprised by that since I know I’ve got a different perspective on things now that I’m older. One that did surprise me, I suppose, was David Eddings’ Belgariad series: I originally read that when I was 10 or 11, and while I quite enjoyed it, I later discovered on re-reading it (aged 22) that I’d missed a lot, and hadn’t really “got” it in some ways, I think. I enjoyed it much more the second time round.
4. How old were you when you first learned to read?
I knew how to read / write my own name, and maybe a few other words, when I went to school (aged four, but just a month off of my fifth birthday), but I didn’t learn to read “properly” til I was at school. I didn’t consider myself a very good reader until I discovered that I could read much much better and faster to myself, rather than out loud, as you had to at school to the teacher.
5. Do you remember the first ‘grown-up’ book you read? How old were you?
I’m not 100% sure, since I raided the parents’ bookshelves, and joined the adult library from a fairly young age. But I think it was Where Eagles Dare by Alastair McLean, when I was 10 or so.
That took longer than I thought. Shall take myself back off to bed now. See if I can actually get some sleep. Oh, and speaking of which, since I’m not sleeping anyway, I think I’ll sign up for this year’s Blogathon. If I fall apart a bit more and can’t manage it, then that’s what happens. But it gives me something to aim for, rather than floating in fuzzy vagueness the whole time.
