Happy & Brainy Group discussion
Literature
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What was the first fairly long book you enjoyed as a youth?
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The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. i read it when i was in high school. it was a fairly long and good read -- and it's making a come back with a cool new cover. :P yey.
In early grade school I became totally involved in the Dr. Doolittle series. It was quite a commitment to read as they were large books, but talking to the animals somehow took me into another world more successfully than anything else available to me at the time.
I didn't read back then if I could help it.
Mod
Hi Randi, Jim, Joy, and everyone. Have a fun day.
The book I remember most from my pre-teens is FOREVER AMBER by Kathleen Windsor [1944:]. Now, over 60 years later I can still see some of the scenes in my head.
Whew Peggy! That was a hot one! I think the first 'tome' I delved into was Ozma of Oz...and then I spent the nest several months looking for and 'inhaling' the rest of the series.
I think one of mine were Michael Ende's The Neverending Story. Still a favourite of mine, even if it's been years since I last read it.
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Have a happy Friday and a marvelous weekend. Happy Halloween!
Roxanne won one of two Reason Reigns giveaways - thank you, Roxanne! Many thanks to everyone who entered to win my novel.
Anya Mitcham is the other winner - thank you, Anya.
Whew Peggy! That was a hot one! I think the first 'tome' I delved into was Ozma of Oz...and then I spent the nest several months looking for and 'inhaling' the rest of the series.
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Have you ever seen the movie "Return To Oz"? A lot of it was based on that book in the series....
Stephen Turner
The Last Voyage of the Cassiopeia
Almagest: The Adventures of MarsShield
3700
Actually, I just thought of three books I actually really liked as a youth, and I read them over and over. I don't know which came first,though, so I will give all three:The Road to Agra
Mrs. Coverlet's Magicians
Wind in the Willows
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Hi Ilyn. Happy Halloween. Talk to you next month.
Mod
What a great question! So much fun to think back. I've been a book-a-holic as long as I can remember. I remember reading Robert Louis Stevenson as a child. And Albert Payson Terhune, Lad and all his other dog books. And then I discovered Edgar Rice Burroughs and his Tarzan series. I loved the Tarzan books! They're way different than the awful movies made of them. This was in the 1950s, before anyone had a glimmer of a glimmer about the book world today. The Tarzan books were out of print even then. My dad had a used book store send me Tarzan books when they came in. I had a whole collection that I think were early editions of it. All have disappeared over the years. All but the memory, which your question invoked.Thanks for letting me recall those days.
Sandy Nathan
Numenon
Thanks to all for your great replies. I wish I had started reading earlier as a kid. I remember going to the bookmobile and looking for only picture books. I couldn't imagine how people read all those "thick" books on the adult shelves.If I had begun reading books earlier, I would probably have a better vocabulary now and would be more articulate. I've improved with age but I always feel lacking when I try to find just the right word. Thank goodness for Thesaurus.com!
You can find it at: ===>
http://thesaurus.reference.com/
I use it all the time! :)
It's wonderful!
Er... I mean it's: ===>
admirable, amazing, astonishing, astounding, awe-inspiring, awesome, brilliant, cool, divine, dynamite, enjoyable, excellent, fabulous, fantastic, fine, groovy, incredible, magnificent, marvelous, miraculous, outstanding, peachy, phenomenal, pleasant, pleasing, prime, remarkable, sensational, something else, staggering, startling, strange, stupendous, super, superb, surprising, swell, terrific, too much, tremendous, unheard-of, wondrous
Hi All,
Joy that was a thought provoking question. I remember reading the Bobbsey Twin series, Nancy Drew and Spin and Marty series (from the Mickey Mouse Club(of The Walt Disney show). I also remember,in the 6th grade, a friend bringing in her Mother's book "Lady Chatterley's Lover", so we could read the sex scenes. The only problem was we got caught and we didn't understand most of it. Oh, to be so naive, again.
Thanks for the memories, Joy.
Everyone have a nice Sunday.
My Best, Donna
Mod
Thanks. You, too, and everyone - have a nice Sunday.
Good question. Know how I solved that enigma of books? I couldn't read, I knew that much. I hadn't read a thick fiction until high school. But I did read Uncle Otto, and later others like graphic picture books, and Dungeon & Dragon's manuals, until high school, so I was always making up stories, until high school because reading was more compulsory. I'm glad of that. And by then I like philosophy of astronomy, that was it in my mind, it was difficult to even understand. But my friend saw that as my problem, and so she introduced me to YA novels, like Pamela Dean or Phyllis Whitney. That poses a challenge to challenged readers. But then suddenly I had hit new heights in creativity.
Mod
Hi everyone. Have a marvelous day!
BTW, my OWN favorite "long" book?? Well, the first book I remember finishing was a Bobbs-Merrill biography of Babe Ruth. Then it was "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" by Ian Fleming. My first CLASSIC was "Candide" by Voltaire, however. Ages nine and seventeen, respectively.Stephen Turner
The Last Voyage of the Cassiopeia
Almagest: The Adventures of MarsShield
3700
The Avedon Question
Hi SAndy,I was so interested to hear that you read Albert Payson Terhune. I was thrilled with Lad,long before Lassie came on the scene. Also, back in the sixties I had a good friend who bought the house where Albert P. T. lived when he wrote the dog books including LAD. It was a charming old house in Croton on Hudson. it was sort of tumble down when I visited it but I could have moved in the next day. nina
I remember, too, that my early reading included comic books. I loved "Wonder Woman", "Captain Marvel", and IIRC, a funny comic with characters named Nancy and Sluggo. See:http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon_synopsis/...
The first book that I actually read other than a book about sports or sports figures was Les Miserables. We had an old hag for a Junior Literature class and she made the call read Les Mis. It opened my eyes to the joy of reading. god bless her for making us read some classics. We also read "A Clockwork Orange" in that class. Pretty cool.
Mod
Kudos to your teacher - Victor Hugo is superb. Though I usually change his endings in my mind.
Hi, Nina. I loved those Terhune books. Still do. I've got a couple printed in the 50s or 60s. I should reread them.And your friend bought his house? What good vibrations must live in those rooms! Thanks for sharing that.
All the best to you.
Sandy
PS. I just thought of something that might be interesting to you: I'm adding a link to my first book, Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice. I'm going to be doing a book party with Stepping on December 9th.
I did not intend to write Stepping Off the Edge: I was working on my series of novels and had plenty to do. The book was born when force that I could not deny grabbed me and hauled me from my home in California all the way across the country to Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest.
I went to a Native American spiritual retreat led by Bill Miller, the magnificent Native musician, artist and speaker. (Look at /billmillerofficial on MySpace.) He's a multi-Grammy award winner, a lifetime Nammy Achievement winner and one of the most powerfully spiritual people I've met. The retreat turned me in a whole new direction.
I ended up writing a book on spiritual practice which features the retreat, the Gathering. This is not your, "Oh, no, I've got to go to Sunday School," type of book. It's nondenominational and respectful of all religious creeds. I do stay faithful to my own, but this is a book you could give to anyone.
And I mean anyone--it handles spiritual challenges faced by modern people. Got an eBay addiction? Infatuated with a rock star? Facing evil? This book contains everything I learned getting my two Master's degrees and more.
It has a Christmas tie in, which is why I'm doing the book party in early December. I finished the manuscript for this book on December 22nd a couple of years ago. Something happened that day that rocked my world. I share it with you in Stepping Off the Edge.
Oh, yeah––it also won six national awards, including being a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award, winning a bronze medal in the IPPYs, & being a finalist in the Best Books Award of USA Book News as well as the Indie Excellence Awards. It's won in spirituality, memoir and self-help.
This is a great Christmas gift for yourself or a loved one.Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice
Hi, Ilyn,I'm a great fan of DH Lawrence and loved Lady Chatterley's lover. I recently read all three versions of the book. Lawrence, a perfectionist, wrote 3 manuscript versions before settling on the third as "the one".
I was prompted to do read all three versions when my husband and I got a DVD of "John Thomas and Lady Jane", the second manuscript version. I was so awful––missing the power of the characters and the class struggle and decimation of England as due to industrialization. This was nothing like the book I loved.
I ran across the print version of John Thomas, etc., on eBay and snagged it. Whoa! This is my favorite of the three by far. Constance and Oliver are less jaded and cynical, though facing the same obstacles. It's 20,000 words longer than the final Lady C and contains searing (not sexy, but painfully real human confrontations as Lady C meets Oliver's family and friends) scenes that the Lawrence cut in the final version.
The major critics, NYT and so on, proclaimed this the best book on the book's DJ back. One said, "Having read this book, I don't know why Lawrence expended so much of his waning strength on the third version." Amen.
This book is out of print. If you can get one somewhere at a semi-reasonable price, get it. It will be in my library forever.
But not the French DVD adaptation. No. Shun that.
All the best,
Sandy Nathan
PS I'm adding a link to my first book, Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice. I'm going to be doing a book party with Stepping on December 9th. I did not intend to write Stepping Off the Edge: I was working on my series of novels and had plenty to do. A force that I could not deny grabbed me and hauled me across the country from my home in California to Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest.
I went to a Native American spiritual retreat led by Bill Miller, the magnificent Native musician, artists and singer. He's a multi-Grammy award winner, a lifetime Nammy Achievement winner, and one of the most spiritually moving people I've ever met. The retreat turned me in a whole new direction.
I ended up writing a book on spiritual practice which features the retreat, the Gathering. Several chapters are occur at the retreat in its magnificent forest setting.
This is not your, "Oh, no, I've got to go to Sunday School," type of book. It's nondenominational and respectful of all religious creeds. I do stay faithful to my own, but this is a book you could give to anyone.
And I mean anyone--it handles spiritual challenges faced by modern people. Got an eBay addiction? Infatuated with a rock star? Facing evil? This book contains everything I learned getting my two Master's degrees and more.
It has a Christmas tie in, which is why I'm doing the book party in early December. I finished the manuscript for this book on December 22nd a couple of years ago. Something happened that day that rocked my world. I share it with you in Stepping Off the Edge.
Oh, yeah––it also won six national awards, including being a finalist for the Benjamin Franklin Award, winning a bronze medal in the IPPYs, & being a finalist in the Best Books Award of USA Book News as well as the Indie Excellence Awards. It's won in spirituality, memoir and self-help. This is a great Christmas gift for yourself or a loved one.
Stepping Off the Edge: Learning & Living Spiritual Practice
I always say I read Peace because I tried to read War and Peace and only ended up reading the parts of the book which were the discussions of the romances of the characters, not the battle scenes.Pam Broderick
Mod
Pam, good fortune on "Death in December" and "Justice in January".
Steve, good fortune on all your books.
I wish everyone good premises & good fortune.
I intend to check out your book. Who can't be blessed with new info on spirituality. Good for you to write about your inspiration. nina
I had to think for a bit. I loved Charlotte's Web (still do!) Where the Red Fern Grows (My all time favorite) and the Hobbit. All three on on my children's reading list. :)Oh, How could I forget To Kill a Mockingbird. Also a classic that has to be in the top 5!!
Chris, great books you listed. I'd forgotten about Where the Red Fern Grows but I just caught part of To Kill a Mockingbird with Gregory Peck on the tube. Wonderful book & movie. Don't forget about The Yearling. One of my all time favorites & I would guess most every kids.
This is such a cool topic. Brings back a lot of memories.
Great thread. I read all of the Nancy Drew mysteries when I was 12 and 13. I thought that made me the best reader out of all my girlfriends. Then, when I was 14, I found Louisa Alcott's Little Women and To Kill a Mockingbird. Those two books hooked me into reading for content and both affected me greatly. I began to view books as elements for growth rather than entertainment. I love the movies and try to watch both at least once per year. I have two versions of Little Women, one with Hepburn and Taylor, and the other with Wynona Ryder. Can't make up my mind which one I like the most. Gregory Peck was fabulous in To Kill a Mockingbird. He was a true talent.
Mod
Hello everyone. I have not read nor watched To Kill a Mockingbird - I will, soon.
Mod
Harriet The Spy. :)when I was in 6th grade
No one believes me, but I've read "The Fountaihead" when I was only a third year high school student by Ayn Rand which really is one hefty book. At my young age I can't fathom yet the philosophy of Rand and just only after reading this book found out what objectivism is and for that matter what philosophy is). This is the first long book that's never been assigned by our teacher to read but anyway i read it for I thought back then that it had a compelling plot( but yeah it surely have). My fave character is Elseworth Toohey (boy what a name!) in case you want to know.. ^_^
Mod
Jzhunagev, you mean you read it when you were a Junior? Or a Thrird Grader? Sorry, I was confused :)
When I was a Junior.What attracted me to read the book aside having all the time in the world is it's cheap price of 10 pesos, which maybe is roughly 10 cents in dollars. Yeah, I'm a sucker for cheap and vintage books.
I have the one where in the cover of the book it featured the painting done by Rand's husband.
Oh now! I remember some of the books I'd read when I was younger.Elementary and High School Days:
Nancy Drew series
Fear Street
Christopher Pike's books
Barbara Cartland's books (my mom owns them and I found it amazing.)
Sidney Sheldon's books (this came in late high school and early college days)
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Happy & Brainy Group
Books mentioned in this topic
To Kill a Mockingbird (other topics)The Pillars of the Earth (other topics)
The Hobbit (other topics)
Where the Red Fern Grows (other topics)
The Prince and the Pauper (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Stephen Turner (other topics)J.R.R. Tolkien (other topics)
_Little Lord Fauntleroy_ by Frances Hodgson Burnett
or
_The Prince and the Pauper_ by Mark Twain
Reading that book made me realize how enjoyable reading could be.