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What are your biggest library mistakes EVER
I don't have the non-reader issue, thank god! But we do sometimes run into issues of cross genreness. I love horror and fantasy and he's a bit more sci-fi/thriller. I have got him reading The Walking Dead, Brian Keene and some others and he got me reading Rachel Morgan, The Man With the Golden Torc and some graphic novels. I like to think we bridge the gap enough to make it pretty cool.
I'm married to a non reader. He is very supportive of my need to read though. We took the kids on a road trip when they were 9 and 13 and I read aloud "Wizards first Rule." My son and his wife just finished the series this month and my daughter finished every book right after I did. So Dear Hubby doesn't read but both the kids do and they like most of the same authors I do.
Very cool, Christine. I've been trying to decide if and when I'll introduce my daughter to fantasy. I don't want to be one of those parents that tries to turn their kids into carbon copies of themselves but I would love for my kids to share some of my joys, ya know?
I feel that she's ready now! :-) If she's anything like you she might already be chomping at the bit. Did you check out Pierce? It might be a little old... *sigh* What about the Dark is Rising Trilogy? Or A Wrinkle in Time?
I don't know how old your daughter is. My first was my daughter and I was reading to her probably before she knew what I was talking about LOL. I read to her and my son all their "young" lives. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (my son's favorite book)...and a "bunch" more. My daughter was reading early on, my son didn't pick it up young. He was around 12 before he started enjoying books...and I searched long for books he'd like. He got my Lancer Conans and a few other books. He finally got involved in the Dragon Lance books. I suspect that individuality makes itself known if we give them room. Introducing kids to books, crafts, the outdoors and whatever just opens doors. (I'm a pretty good natural shot and my son seems to have gotten that. He was knocking the spray nozzle off empty cans with a BB gun almost as soon as I started teaching him safe gun handling).
MrsJoseph, Grant..I just gave away my copies of L'Engle's The Time Quartet to my pastor's daughter (and son, though the daughter was the one who really wanted it). I still have several of the Tamora Pierce books. I plan to read through them and than they may go to some kids to.Neither of my kids has provided grandchildren...oh well.
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "MrsJoseph, Grant..I just gave away my copies of L'Engle's The Time Quartet to my pastor's daughter (and son, though the daughter was the one who really wanted it). I still have several ..."I've been trying to buy my co-workers kids books for the last 6 months. They keep telling me that their kids aren't old enough yet. :-( I've been reading since 2 (and my brother since 3 or 4) so I guess I'm not sure what the right age is.
My daughter is 7, soon to be 8 in a few months and she reads constantly. We have family reading time most evenings after her homework. She loves it and that thrills me I just haven't introduced her to Fantasy yet! (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a fav of hers as well, Mike) Right now she's reading Ramona and Beezus and Henry and Ribsy and Old Red and books of that nature. The Time Quartet (A Wrinkle in Time) would be a perfect start :) I just don't want to be disappointed if she doesn't like fantasy, ya know? She's already entirely too much like me for her own good!
No introduction to fantasy yet, and 7 going on 8?!?!? My son is only 15 months and I'm already trying to figure out the best approach, LOL.
Lol...strangely that makes me feel better, Dawn :) Now don't get me wrong I read The Name of the Wind to my son, Conner, at night while I'm trying to put him down. It doesn't work but I still read it to him regardless ;)
Grant wrote: "My daughter is 7, soon to be 8 in a few months and she reads constantly. We have family reading time most evenings after her homework. She loves it and that thrills me I just haven't introduced he..."You just have to find the things that will interest her. I'm trying to remember the ones I read at that age...I really loved The Time Quartet as well as the Dark is Rising...LOVED LOVED LOVED Tamora Pierce cause The Song of the Lioness series started with the main character (a girl) who was only 10 at the time. I also the liked the Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown. Mercedes Lackey...she starts a lot with childhood but I'm not sure if she's that age-range.
I read The Hobbit to both my kids (when they were small)I'm pretty sure, but I don't remember just what age. They're about a year and a half apart. I can't remember all the books I read to them.
LOL, I read my books out loud to Lucas as well, I've been doing it since he was a day old. He used to enjoy it, back before he learned to slap and wiggle and pull hair. He would just look at me with big eyes, and enjoy the sound of my voice. Now he barely let's me hold him if it's not to do something exciting, and if I try to read not holding him he just tries to take the book away and eat it.. Joy :P
I read The Shining out loud to Lucas... Just a little, I skipped some scary parts. Does that make me a bad mom? lol :)
Part bookworm? Maybe he's just trying to "digest" the story?
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "Part bookworm? Maybe he's just trying to "digest" the story?":-)
LOL, I think he's probably just a typical 15 month old. He has to taste all of his toys before he plays with them, to make sure he approves. Why not mommy's books too?
Yes and anything else he wants to examine. Starting him on King huh...I don't know, but for your own safety you might want to skip any references to Children of the Corn. Just a thought.
lol We introduced them to Fantasy movies early too so I didn't think to much about it. I can't stand the movie "Willow" but its one of dd's favourites still. There are very few movies I want to watch over and over. There are a lot of books I want to read again though. He wanted me to read the rest of the books to him but the material was way to much for him at that time.
I liked Willow. Maybe not great...but pretty good. But then fantasy movies are hard to come by.
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "I liked Willow. Maybe not great...but pretty good. But then fantasy movies are hard to come by."That's why I decided to read Shadow Moon because it is supposed to continue Willow's story.
I have fond memories of my dad reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to me and my sisters when we were young.
I tried to like Shadow Moon, I just couldn't. It was one of those books that I just could not get into, and I really wanted to.
I didn't start him on King, sheesh. I started him on Wurts, because that happened to be what I was reading when he was born. He also got some Hobb and Jordan in him.. He's well read :)
Dawn wrote: "I didn't start him on King, sheesh. I started him on Wurts, because that happened to be what I was reading when he was born. He also got some Hobb and Jordan in him.. He's well read :)":-) I like the way you think, Dawn.
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "I tried to like Shadow Moon, I just couldn't. It was one of those books that I just could not get into, and I really wanted to."It's slow to get started but pretty good once it does.
I've read Nikki (who's 5 almost 6) most of Roald Dahl's kids books (who he loves to the point I read him the whole book in the space of a night or two depending on length)and Charlotte's Web so far. We've tried a few others like Wind in the Willows (language was too old fashioned for him at this age) and L. Frank Baum's Santa Claus book (same here)and got Peter Pan and The first couple Series of Unfortunate Events to try out. I read him some of the novels and then give him little breaks to just read the picture books like the Barenstain Bears, Arthur, and others. This seems to work pretty well for me. It also seems to help that I choose novels that have little illustrations as it goes along.
I've already gotten him to see a lot of my favorite fantasy films like Willow, Neverending Story, Dark Crystal, The Last Unicorn, Labyrinth, and the regular run of Jim Henson's The Storyteller. He loves them all I'm happy to say :). I'm just trying to sort out when I might be able to pull off reading him thinks like The Hobbit and The Last Unicorn. i want him to like them and don't want to push too hard so I've been waiting.
You mentioned Baum. Have you introduced him to Oz yet. When I was young my parents didn't really read much and didn't read to me (I had a grandmother who did but of course we didn't see her that often. We visited on weekends or she'd come and stay a while in the summer). I found Oz and read it myself when I found it...till it fell apart.
I'm starting to notice that I didn't read as much YA fantasy as I thought, lol. I guess I slammed right ahead into more adult books...I missed a lot of this stuff!
When I was young there wasn't as much. I used to search libraries for Science Fiction or Fantasy. My dad bought me one Tom Swift book when I was a kid, but that and one other I found in a school library were all of those I found. Most of mt friends who did read were reading things like The Hardy Boys. I never got into mysteries much.
Mike (the Paladin) wrote: "You mentioned Baum. Have you introduced him to Oz yet. When I was young my parents didn't really read much and didn't read to me (I had a grandmother who did but of course we didn't see her that of..."I haven't just yet but I do plan to :). I might even try it after we get through the books we have now.
Mike, I was totally a Hardy Boys nut as a kid. I actually recently found the entire hundred plus collection from the 60's in hardcover and bought the whole thing to share with my son when he's of age :)
Prior to discovering fantasy, I was hooked on mythology. I'd spend hours upon hours reading about all the various pantheons of Gods and could probably still quote Edith Hamilton to you :)
Prior to discovering fantasy, I was hooked on mythology. I'd spend hours upon hours reading about all the various pantheons of Gods and could probably still quote Edith Hamilton to you :)
I did enjoy my mythology. :-)I never got into the Hardy Boys but I consumed mass quanities of Nancy Drew (and SVH, lol). After Nancy I discovered Sue Grafton's ABC Mysteries (A is for Alibi - read them for years.
Grant, MrsJoseph, I did to. There weren't a lot of fiction books around my parents house or my grandparents (except for Zane Grey, they had the entire collection of Zane Grey so I read a lot of westerns for a while. My bed room seemed to smell of gun-smoke and horse dung). But both my grandmother and her sisters had been teachers so I found books from earlier school times. I liked mythology to, it was a close as I could get to heroic fantasy. I especially liked Norse mythology, though I could never get over Balder's death. :)
Oh and my daughter was big into Nancy Drew for a while.
I liked Hardy Boys as a kid, but I didn't read them for too long because I soon discovered Stephen King and Raymond E. Feist. I was lucky. My mom let me read that kind of stuff. If my wife and me ever decide to have kids, I plan to read to him/her as a baby.Perhaps not Stephen King, though. LOL
Mike, I've read every Zane Grey and Louis L'amour book out there. My dad was 61 when I was born and both of my uncles were singing cowboys in the the pictures back in the 40's/50's so western books/films were a staple of my home growing up. Just another kind of hero to appreciate ;)
Joe Abercrombie seems to be doing a western-influenced book next, judging from hints on his blog. Curious to see what comes out, there.
I think I'll read anything Abercrombie.
Names Grant names... I grew up on the cowboy movies from the 30s through the 50s. I've read many of the L'Amour and Grey books, though I haven't kept track as to if I got them all LOL.
Lol Monte Hale was my blood uncle. He was also Gene Autrys best friend the last 20 years of his life and chairman of the board of his western heritage museum in California so I grew knowing him as Uncle Gene. They'd take me to see the Angels play or horseback riding and the such. I miss em both something fierce. My other uncle is Bill Hale a rather unknown supporting actor. He was in everything in the 50's/60's. Heh he married an oil baroness and disappeared from the acting scene shortly thereafter.
I remember Monte Hale. I tried to place Bill Hale. I probably saw him. Well, cool.
I'm not sure it's really a mistake, but one of my 'bad' habits is that I tend to pick up any fantasy books I find (that I don't already have or don't think I have lol) if they are cheap enough(at garage sales and library sales, etc). While this in itself is not bad, the end result is that I have a lot of 'partial' series sitting on the shelf: where I have the whole series EXCEPT for book #1, or maybe I have books #1 and #3, but not #2, or....well, you get the idea.
Melissa wrote: "I'm not sure it's really a mistake, but one of my 'bad' habits is that I tend to pick up any fantasy books I find (that I don't already have or don't think I have lol) if they are cheap enough(at ..."I do that, too! My basic rule is if it's in hb, cover looks good, and on sale - it gets purchased. So I get a lot of 2's & 5's but no book 1s.
In fact, I did that today, too. *runs & hides while chortling over a new book*
MrsJoseph wrote: "I did enjoy my mythology. :-)I can remember my mother reading Greek and Roman mythology to me as bedtime stories when I was 5 and 6 and the best college literature class I ever took was a class it "Comparative Mythology".
Obviously a short step from mythology to fantasy, although I also went through all of my grandfather's Zane Grey and Max Brand books, started my drawing career by copying horses out of his "Trails Plowed Under" by Charles Russell and to this day, wish he had been here to read with me when I discovered the Louis L'Amour books.
Glad to know I'm not the only one who does that MrsJ! I must have over a hundred books I can't read because I'm missing one or more in the series. I keep telling myself I'll get the missing books someday, but some have been here for years and never completed....
Sharon, hi. A lot of us still pull out the gun belts and saddles now and then... Westerns like fantasy don't get the respect they deserve.As for buying parts of series...I do it to, we probably all do. And Amazon, Abe Books and others are so glad we do because they are where we go to buy book #1 or book #2 or whatever we're missing!
Fantasy Aficionados
Books mentioned in this topic
A Is for Alibi (other topics)The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (other topics)
Shadow Moon (other topics)
The Omen (other topics)
The Hero and the Crown (other topics)
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I loved Legend, too.