Notable Books.
The greatest joys in life, for many people, are books. The ones that stand out for each and everybody will of course vary greatly. My first encounter with the printed word stands out vividly in my mind.
My first ever voyage into literary wonder involved a large, brightly illustrated children's story. It was quite short, in fact ten pages, which coincided with a dramatic telling of a sort of ten green bottles on the wall story. The only difference being that this particular version had a far more haunting effect. The first page depicted ten happy smiling characters, that was up to the point of page after page, as one by one each character met an untimely demise until there were none. Even as a child the book had a hypnotic power, and even though I was somewhat uneasy about the prospects of the contents, upon opening the first page I could not put it down until all the pages were read. Could it be that I was looking for a happy ending?
One day completely by chance I came across a paperback novel that was discreetly hidden. I do not know which was the bigger surprise, the type of book or who had hidden it? It is enough to say the person was a senior member of my family and the novel in question was called Forever Amber written by Kathleen Winsor. The plot highlighted the conditions of the 17th century with the terrible loss of life due to the plague and later, the fire of London. A copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover was the next novel to frequent that particular vacated hiding place and I shall say no more on the matter.
My greatest possession in childhood was a beautiful lustrated copy of Aesop's Fables. The stories
are a great introduction to the complexity of morality. On leaving school, an important tool to guide
me in those coming years was a copy of the Christian Holy Bible. Of course if I was in another country it might well have been a copy of the Koran or the Veda.
Later in life, Salman Rushdie’s literary contribution hit world fame after the Ayatollah had issued a
a fatwa on the author, demanding his death. Surely the contents of this offending masterpiece must contain some shocking revelation, it consequently made me think. I began to wade through a rambling page after page, of in my opinion, loquacious and anticlimatic text. I never found the aforementioned revelation in the book, but took on board quantity can not replace quality.
My wife used to tell fairy stories and nursery rhymes to my daughter but used to make a point of changing the horrific endings into heart warming conclusions that left my daughter, I hope in a much better condition than myself, especially after having read the ten page shocker of my childhood.
Surely, literature and the most notable books, are the ones that can captivate the reader to want to see the journey through. Notable books evoke a response from the audience, albeit positive or negative. Notable for the impressions, meanings or mindful motivations that they can relay, books can be the reason or simply the basis for interpretations and altered perspectives. Transcending religions, cultures and borders, a good book can be notable in so many ways.
My first ever voyage into literary wonder involved a large, brightly illustrated children's story. It was quite short, in fact ten pages, which coincided with a dramatic telling of a sort of ten green bottles on the wall story. The only difference being that this particular version had a far more haunting effect. The first page depicted ten happy smiling characters, that was up to the point of page after page, as one by one each character met an untimely demise until there were none. Even as a child the book had a hypnotic power, and even though I was somewhat uneasy about the prospects of the contents, upon opening the first page I could not put it down until all the pages were read. Could it be that I was looking for a happy ending?
One day completely by chance I came across a paperback novel that was discreetly hidden. I do not know which was the bigger surprise, the type of book or who had hidden it? It is enough to say the person was a senior member of my family and the novel in question was called Forever Amber written by Kathleen Winsor. The plot highlighted the conditions of the 17th century with the terrible loss of life due to the plague and later, the fire of London. A copy of Lady Chatterley’s Lover was the next novel to frequent that particular vacated hiding place and I shall say no more on the matter.
My greatest possession in childhood was a beautiful lustrated copy of Aesop's Fables. The stories
are a great introduction to the complexity of morality. On leaving school, an important tool to guide
me in those coming years was a copy of the Christian Holy Bible. Of course if I was in another country it might well have been a copy of the Koran or the Veda.
Later in life, Salman Rushdie’s literary contribution hit world fame after the Ayatollah had issued a
a fatwa on the author, demanding his death. Surely the contents of this offending masterpiece must contain some shocking revelation, it consequently made me think. I began to wade through a rambling page after page, of in my opinion, loquacious and anticlimatic text. I never found the aforementioned revelation in the book, but took on board quantity can not replace quality.
My wife used to tell fairy stories and nursery rhymes to my daughter but used to make a point of changing the horrific endings into heart warming conclusions that left my daughter, I hope in a much better condition than myself, especially after having read the ten page shocker of my childhood.
Surely, literature and the most notable books, are the ones that can captivate the reader to want to see the journey through. Notable books evoke a response from the audience, albeit positive or negative. Notable for the impressions, meanings or mindful motivations that they can relay, books can be the reason or simply the basis for interpretations and altered perspectives. Transcending religions, cultures and borders, a good book can be notable in so many ways.
No comments have been added yet.
