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71st out of 461 books
—
706 voters
The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading
In this extended love letter to children's books and the wonders they perform, Francis Spufford makes a confession: books were his mother, his father, his school. Reading made him who he is. To understand the thrall of fiction, Spufford goes back to his earliest encounters with books, exploring such beloved classics as The Wind in the Willows, The Little House on the Prair...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
December 1st 2003
by Picador
(first published October 8th 2002)
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Not sure what to think about this, and not sure what I expected, only that I didn't get it. To me it wasn't really a book about books, about reading, but just a book about growing up and a nod to how books figured into that -- I thought, when I saw the title, that if I wrote an autobiography I'd have to steal the title, but... I don't know, I think Francis Spufford is talking less about how books formed and shaped him, and more about how he reacted to them, and even more about how people in gene...more
Mar 04, 2012
Kinga
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction,
writing-and-literature
I appreciate the effort Francis Spufford made into to describe all the psychological reasons behind reading anything from picture books to porn literature. He analysed his reading from the moment he learnt to read until his late teenage years.
It was an interesting perspective, though I think sometimes a bit far fetched. I wish there was more memoir in this memoir and less of showing off Spufford's erudition. Even though it was interesting most of the time, I felt like it was random and going now...more
It was an interesting perspective, though I think sometimes a bit far fetched. I wish there was more memoir in this memoir and less of showing off Spufford's erudition. Even though it was interesting most of the time, I felt like it was random and going now...more
I have been into a "books on books" kick lately and had been recommended this book rather highly. I am a reader that will usually give a mediocre book/author I've never read before three books before I give up entirely on them. I don't think I made it half-way through this book. Not only was I disgusted with the author and his views on his own family. But was shocked at how bluntly his stated mentally and physically challenged people scared and revolted him, especially his own younger sibling, u...more
Francis Spufford (what a supremely British name) was born only the year before I was and is, like me, a self-described book addict who began reading compulsively at a very early age. He discusses those books that had an early strong effect on him, from picture books like Where the Wild Things Are to The Hobbit, one of the first books he read all the way through, and discusses the circumstances of his life that may have given rise to such a reading mania. Bettelheim comes up, and Piaget - and the...more
So disappointing. My expectations submarined this book for me. I was expecting magical writing, as magical as the books that brought light into my childhood. Instead, this very academic look at a small subset of children's books feels dry, soulless, and sad. The best parts of this book are the author's own story, talking about being an older sibling to a child with a devastating illness, but those parts are few and far between.
These two sentences sum up the book's tone and purpose:
"When child ab...more
These two sentences sum up the book's tone and purpose:
"When child ab...more
Not at all what I expected (what that was, I can hardly say now, having read it). A sort of memoir; a cogitation of books and reading and language; a study of philosophy; a look at the books or writers--or both--that the author loved and read at various stages of his reading life as a child... All these things, and more, written in lovely prose with deep-thought invoking ideas. One of the pleasures is comparing what books he read to those I read, how he reacted to them, and how he built the worl...more
Mar 24, 2012
^
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
readers of 1960s-1970s British childrens literature
A first hand, first class description of what it is to be a child addicted to reading. Yes, I do agree with Mr Spufford that the 1960s & 1970s did see a veritable explosion of excellent and imaginative writing for children: a Golden Age by comparison to the last thirty years. I very largely agree with his perspicacious analysis from answering questions which had not previously occurred to me (I’m uncomplicated. I just enjoy a story at the level of the story!). It’s also always pleasant to re...more
very nice meditations on reading, from a little ankle biter reading "the hobbit" when he was 6 to ransome to narnia to ingalls wilder to pullman to le guin to porn when he was 18 to borges and stories about stories. very insightful look into how reading works, how readers incorporate stories into their "real life" and that jolt, he says like grabbing a live wire, that delicious feeling of BEING inside the book where the characters and settings and feelings are what is real and real life maybe do...more
I found parts of this book easy to read and others impossibly hard. I liked best the middle chapters when Spufford wrote in detail about his first book loves. In the chapter entitled "The Island" he writes about the Narnia books and describes beautifully his feeling of betrayal when Narnia is destroyed in the final book. In "The Town" he describes a visit to an Independence Day celebration of the "Little House" books and shows how Rose Wilder's libertarian views may have colored The Long Winter....more
this was one strange book: i started reading it under the impression that it would take me on a trip among classic children's books, that it would describe the feelings I had when I was little and I put my hands on a great novel. It was only partly so: it was a roller coaster between presenting novels and those emotions a young reader has and philosophical ideas; don't get me wrong, I liked those as well, especially in the first two chapters, where language was debated at lentgh, but it simply w...more
This is an amazing book. It's about growing up as a child book-worm, in Cambridge, in the 1980s. It's about living as an adult with that book-worm still inside you. It's about reading as an addiction, but also as an powerful formative experience. It's pretty much a manual for how my mind works - so and accurate it's scary.
The experience of reading it is supremely comforting, as well - like re-reading all my favourite childhood books all at once.
The only problem is that pretty much every other se...more
The experience of reading it is supremely comforting, as well - like re-reading all my favourite childhood books all at once.
The only problem is that pretty much every other se...more
New Historicism's emphasis on personal antecdote is mixed with Bachelard's Poetics of Space idea--the woods by the college where he grew up and doors are evocative.(Jungian images in literature.)
About CSL: the circle of things we can perceive by our senses becomes in Lewis an island surrounded by pleasurable reality. Forest is the boundary of the circle.
British people believe Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter wrote her books. Is this true?
Sin tastes like ash because "sins were parodies, or per...more
About CSL: the circle of things we can perceive by our senses becomes in Lewis an island surrounded by pleasurable reality. Forest is the boundary of the circle.
British people believe Laura Ingalls Wilder's daughter wrote her books. Is this true?
Sin tastes like ash because "sins were parodies, or per...more
Collecting Green Shield Stamps, but never having quite enough for the great gifts. Sledging treacherously with 'borrowed' beer trays on thin and muddied snow in Haw Hill Park. Watching the Woodentops and Fireball XL5 in black and white.
And sitting on the floor of the old smallpox hospital, now small-town library in Normanton, choosing with great care the three books, just three, to be handed over with great ceremony to the librarian, together with the three pale green borrower's cards. She remo...more
And sitting on the floor of the old smallpox hospital, now small-town library in Normanton, choosing with great care the three books, just three, to be handed over with great ceremony to the librarian, together with the three pale green borrower's cards. She remo...more
Even though I am a few years younger than Mr. Spufford, he and I started reading at just about the same time. His rendition of the discovery of the magic of words on a page is the best I have ever read, and the first that directly connects with my own experience. Even all these many years later, I still remember how amazing it was when those strange marks on paper came together to form... a STORY. Spufford's description of this journey is lyrical, magical and such that I wish to put most of his...more
I checked this out from the library based on supergee's recommendation, but also curious to see if the author's experiences reflected my own.
Mr. Spufford not only reflects on his own reading choices as a child, but also discusses some of the psychological aspects of what children learn from books. He used books as an escape, a metaphorical forest in which he could choose to get lost. He explores the Narnia series in depth, giving his interpretation of Lewis' approach to Christianity and how, al...more
Mr. Spufford not only reflects on his own reading choices as a child, but also discusses some of the psychological aspects of what children learn from books. He used books as an escape, a metaphorical forest in which he could choose to get lost. He explores the Narnia series in depth, giving his interpretation of Lewis' approach to Christianity and how, al...more
This book was quoted often in the little blurbs before each chapter in Inkheart and Inkspell; it made me want to read the book. The author looks back at his history with reading and books and how they affected him through his life. He is WORDY (and the bigger the words, the better), deeply and DETAILEDLY analytical and awfully hard to get through at times (I wanted to bundle up some of his big words and beat him with them!) yet I still kept reading (except towards the end when he gets into "adul...more
An absorbing and slightly fevered account of the author's childhood reading. The Piaget child development 'skeleton' is a bit half-baked, but the passion with which Spufford writes is enough to pull you through. If you had an intense relationship with books as a child (and you're on GoodReads, aren't you?) then you should find a lot you'll recognise here, even if you didn't happen to read the same books Spufford covers.
This started strongly, with Spufford's lyrical descriptions of what books mean to him, woven through the stories of his own childhood. However, I felt it became too abstract, favouring discussion on the theories of reading over the (to me) more interesting personal perspective. Still lovely to realise I'm not the only book addict out there!
I just couldn't get into this. The educational topics(child psychology, language acquisition, literacy) that the author brought into the mix were interesting, but I didn't relate to the author's favorite books so I found myself skimming and wishing I thought of the idea first so I could write it about my favorite childhood books instead.
This book started off really well, digging deeply into early children's fiction and the effect it had on the writer. I would say it was good up until his teenage years, where he became crass and self indulgent, flowing off on to different and boring tangents.
How one man was influeenced by the books he read as a child, including _Little House on the Prairie_.
Spufford comments on many of my own favorite childhood reads, so I was excitedly looking forward to this book. However, I thought it fell a little flat.
Spufford comments on many of my own favorite childhood reads, so I was excitedly looking forward to this book. However, I thought it fell a little flat.
This book is a fun and informative read. The author, using himself and his journey through books as an example, describes childhood books shape a person. Fluxes back and forth between technical psychology and heartfelt personal experience narrative. Plus, I squeed when he geeked out at Narnia.
When I started this book and was reading the introduction, I really related to the way in which the author experiences reading a book. The glazed look he gets in his eyes as he is absorbed into another world or experience. Unfortunately my enthusiasm for the book started to wane. I think that Spufford's passion for all written word was just too much in the end and he went on for a bit too long! I picked this book up not knowing what it was really about, and while I took a few things away from it...more
Francis Spufford's memoir focuses on the books he read as a child and their impact on him. Interesting in places but horribly dense in other sections. This one is a mixed bag for me - I liked some of it very much but was also very bored at times.
I had high expectations for this one but got bored fairly quickly. Probably because I read different books as a child and because the author comes across as a know-it-all. Interesting facts about Laura Ingalls though.
Brilliant and fascinating and with an additional interest in that Spufford grew up at Keele university, where I currently work.
A very enjoyable ramble through the author's memory of his childhood reading with long digressions into psychology and anything else that takes his fancy along the way
Okay, so I didn't read the last 20 pages or more. I just really didn't find the author likable.
May 01, 2013
Beth
marked it as to-read
mentioned by Robin McKinley on her blog (she was talking about another book by this author)
Nov 17, 2011
Brian Robbins
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
biography,
on-book-addiction
Enjoyed thhe book for the most part. One of those writers who hit a number of reading experiences shared by self and many other readers.
Occasionally I yawned - his discussion of Piaget being one of them, but on the whole found much of interest. Loved some of his humour.
Occasionally I yawned - his discussion of Piaget being one of them, but on the whole found much of interest. Loved some of his humour.
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Spufford specializes in works of non-fiction. Among his books are I May Be Some Time, The Child That Books Built, and Backroom Boys. He has also edited two volumes of polar literature. His first book I May Be Some Time: Ice and the English Imagination won literary prizes including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, Writers Guild Award for Best Non-Fiction Book of the Year, and the So...more
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“Goblins burrowed in the earth, elves sang songs in the trees: Those were the obvious wonders of reading, but behind them lay the fundamental marvel that, in stories, words could command things to be.”
—
7 people liked it
“If your memory was OK you could descend upon on a bookshop – a big enough one so that the staff wouldn’t hassle a browser – and steal the contents of books by reading them. I drank down 1984 while loitering in the 'O' section of the giant Heffers store in Cambridge. When I was full I carried the slopping vessel of my attention carefully out of the shop.”
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6 people liked it
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