Favorite Books From Your Childhood?

[bobsdad]

Any of Russell Annabel's stuff. I was lucky to find two of his books in our local library. I got started on him from reading the neighbors Sports Afield magazines (at least I think that was the mag.). I only owned "junk" for books and did try to keep some comic books. The library was my gold mine. By the way, in those days we had to whisper quietly. Today kids and even grown ups are hollering and yelling in there. What the hell is going on?

 

[Fishslayer]

Tom Sawyer

All the "Big Red" series

Robinson Crusoe (the only man to ever have all his work done by Friday. )

Swiss Family Robinson

 

[PALADIN85020]

I remember the Tom Swift books. They were my uncle's favorites; he grew up reading them in the 1920s and I read them in the '40s. Typical title was something like Tom Swift and his Electric Grandmother !

As I got a little older, Lady Chatterly's Lover became a favorite and was very instructional...

John

 

[wbraswell]

When I was in grade school, it was books about dinosaurs and snakes, and all kinds of animals. They were usually well illustrated. I loved looking through the World Book and Brittanica encyclopedias. Comic books, usually war comics instead of super heros. Our Army at War, Sgt. Fury, and the like. I liked the Classics Illustrated. Hey, why read a book when there's a comic of it. I never liked fiction much, still don't. I'd rather have fiction on TV, I guess. In high school, I liked Hunter Thompson's "Hell's Angels". Looking back now, I appreciate the author much more than the subject. I've always read more to learn than to be entertained. Of course the book that has influenced me the most is the King James Holy Bible. (none of that new fangled sissy stuff for me.)

 

[John Eilertson]

I wonder how much kids read anymore, aside from computer screens? When I was young I started out with Dr. Seuss, then worked my way through "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to some James Bond books. I also remember that when I was about 6 or 7 a neighbor down the street had a bunch of old "Field and Streams" and "Outdoor Lifes" that I patiently went through, evening after evening. Maybe that (and my dad's influence) is what made me the outdoorsman I've tried to be. And, I still like a good book. Just finished re-reading, "The Old Man and The Boy" by Robert Ruark.

 

[David LaPell]

I read alot of history books when I was a kid. Sink the Bismarck was a good one that I recall. War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, a few Ray Bradbury stories.
The Phantom Tollbooth when I was younger was a good one.

 

[Mule88]

I liked the Hardy Boys mystery books and of course Dr. Suess "Green Eggs and Ham"

 

[mtgianni]

I read a ton of biographies growing up. They were based for early readers 3-5th grade AIRC. Moved on to Hardy Boys, subscribed to Outdoor Life @ age 10 and discovered Louis La'Mour when I was 14 in 1968.

 

[PALADIN85020]

Looking back on the many books I remember reading in my childhood, this one stands out in my memory probably more than any other. The inscription inside, in my mother's handwriting, says it was a gift from my folks for Christmas in 1949.

The subject is a cottonwood tree that began to grow in 1610 on the Great Plains. In later years, it was rooted in what came to be known as the Santa Fe Trail. It was a peace-medicine tree for the Indians, and a landmark. Old age and the elements felled the tree in 1834. Two men carved a yoke for their oxen from its trunk, and covered it with rawhide to keep it from splitting. The wood carried artifacts including Indian arrowheads, the blade from a Spanish dagger, and a lead ball from the gun of a French trapper. The sweep of the history of that tree and its wood was artfully told in the book.

I think my early interest in history was sparked by this book, and I'm glad I preserved it from my childhood. Today it's a treasured possession.

John

 

[Stevens]

Hardy Boys series
Boy's Life Magazine
Hunter by John Hunter, big game hunting in Africa probably in the 40s+ early 50s
All the National Geographics I could get my hands on.
Steve W.

 

[BearBio]

Elementary school: Bullfinch's mythology, classics (Twain), historical, older classics (Odyssey, etc)

Junior High: Alistair MacLean, Hemingway, Forever Amber (forgot author), Frank Yerby, Andre Norton and all sci-fi, lotsa Jules Verne

High school: Classics (I didn't like Shakespeare's tragedies but did like the histories and the comedies), A LOT of books in Reader's Digest Condensed Books (A Night to Remember, A Time to Stand, White Witch Doctor are a few titles that come to mind)

 

[trrigger]

Oh this thread was made for me! I have wall-to-wall books and am a wanna-be SciFi writer. I particularly collect Illustrated Classics, but I'm a fan of illustration generally — especially alumni of the N.C. Wyeth Brandywine School. I live with depression, and I don't mind telling you that reading keeps me from going insane (particularly now during these days of quotidian gloom and ruin). I'll also say without shame that I sometimes read Children's Books . . . just to walk back the stress of the day, and remind myself of what a generous, decent nation we are. Doing that a lot while we head toward hell in a handbasket . . .

I just finished reading Fred Anderson's French & Indian War and I highly recommend it. If you are a history buff (as I am) — and particularly if you are an armchair historian of our American Revolutionary forefathers — you need to fully understand what came before the American Revolution (we didn't just one day decide to have the Boston Tea Party).

Am gearing up now to re-read George R. R. Martin from the beginning! (hey man, now that's reading heh he) since he managed to cough up another door stopper. I just refuse to be cliff-hanged by the guy, so I never let myself get beyond the next-to-the-last book he's actually managed to bring to print every 5 years. Damn, if they weren't so f'in good . . .

Anyway, enjoy. And yeah, READ. Turn off the 24/7 and read.

T
──────────────────────────────
AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (and everything else by Agatha Cristie)
LORD PETER WIMSEY MYSTERIES (Dorothy L. Sayers)
RED HARVEST (and all the Dashiell Hammett Sam Spade mysteries)
SHERLOCK HOLMES (Arthur Conan Doyle)

──────────────────────────────
ALICE IN WONDERLAND (Lewis Carroll, Illus. John Tenniel)
CHRONICLES OF NARNIA (C. S. Lewis, Illus. Pauline Baynes)
KING SOLOMON'S MINES (and everything else by H. Rider Haggard)
LOTR and HOBBIT (J. R. R. Tolkein)
VELVETEEN RABBIT (Margery Williams, Illus. William Nicholson)
WIND IN THE WILLOWS (Kenneth Grahame, Illus. Arthur Rackham)

──────────────────────────────
At great expense I procured all but one (Yearling) new hardcover reprints of the
N.C. WYETH ILLUSTRATED CLASSICS (Simon & Schuster), namely:

ARABIAN NIGHTS (Wiggin & Smith)
BLACK ARROW (Robert Louis Stevenson)
BOY'S KING ARTHUR (Sidney Lanier)
DAVID BALFOUR (Robert Louis Stevenson)
DEERSLAYER (James Fenimore Cooper)
DRUMS (David Boyd)
KIDNAPPED (Robert Louis Stevenson)
MICHAEL STROGOFF (Jules Verne)
MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (Jules Verne)
ROBIN HOOD (Paul Cheswick)
ROBINSON CRUSOE (Daniel Defoe)
SCOTTISH CHIEFS (Jane Porter)
TREASURE ISLAND (Robert Louis Stevenson)
WESTWARD HO! (Charles Kingsley)

My hands-down favorite was Porter's The Scottish Chiefs, but I treasure them all.

──────────────────────────────
A few additional assorted Illustrated Classics worth mentioning in my library:

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (Jules Verne)
BOOK OF PIRATES (Written & Illus. Howard Pyle)
COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO (Alexandré Dumas)
DON QUIXOTE (Miguel de Cervantes, Illus. José Segrelles)
THREE MUSKATEERS (Alexandré Dumas)

──────────────────────────────
And before his writing went south . . .

EATERS OF THE DEAD (and everything else Michael Crichton ever wrote up through and including TIMELINE . . . Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park etc.)

 

[trrigger]

Me too. Of course they are now politicly incorrect.

It's odd. I must be the only person who just loathes Mark Twain. I can't explain it. I like the man, I like the genre he wrote in. But his style just grates on me for some reason. Josef Conrad, there's another (Heart of Darkness). And another, more contemporary — Ruth Rendell, the mystery writer (which kills me, because I'm addicted to the PBS adaptations).

But then, I read what I like and at least half of it wouldn't be considered "LIT rateaur" as my college prof would remind me heh he. By the way, Bernard Cornwell whoever mentioned him . . . great read.

 

[gr8AmericanBash]

The Hardy Boys, The Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown

 

[29aholic]

My all time favorites were "Rifles for Watie", "The Flying Tigers", and "God is my Co-pilot". I have read literally 1000's of books, but dont read near as much as I used to.

 

[feralmerril]

Sears roebuck catalog.

 

[Tracer_Bullet]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Time Machine, Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, the Red Badge of Courage, King Solomon's Mines, and the Flying Tigers (thanks for reminding me of that one 29aholic!).

 

[29aholic]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the Time Machine, Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, the Red Badge of Courage, and the Flying Tigers (thanks for reminding me of that one 29aholic!).

I still have a 1st printing of 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The Flying Tigers was the first adult book I ever read. I was in the 1st grade.

 

[Armyphotog]

When I was a child, I loved the Hardy Boys, but by the time I was a teen-ager, Mickey Spillane had corrupted me.

 

[Engineer1911]

"Horatio Hornblower" adventure series
Landmark Books
WW I and WW II books at the public library
"1984" and "Animal Farm"

Now it's Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, and Clive Cussler for entertainment, not education. The national news provides plenty of comedy.