Books filled my childhood as much as toys in the Sixties as I'm sure was the case for many MC readers.
I adored owning books back then and still do.
Two sets of books represent two ends of my childhood really. Book ends no less!
One was a series of glossy paperback non-fiction books by Hamlyn or Collins during the Sixties and early Seventies. Each book covered a different topic. I recall having Guns and Natural History on my shelf as well as my favourite, Black Magic, which I still have. I was crazy about monsters as a kid and this was a natural fit. I found the book very unsettling especially the paintings of modern day witches. I adored it though and still occasionally flick through it because its like an old friend now.
The other set of books are far less pleasant when I look back. They were GCE O Level revision guides for Fifth Years sitting final exams at Secondary School. They covered every exam subject and those for English Lit covered each book being studied.
I remember having guides for Macbeth and David Copperfield. They were yellow and black and may have been called McMillan's Notes. I disliked them a lot and have no fondness for them now. My final secondary school year, 1977, was the year my Mum died suddenly at the age of 55 and the fun of childhood was sadly over forever.
Its odd how inanimate objects like books can stir past memories and take us back to former times. I suppose like our toys and records they represent a certain moment in our lives and depending on how we felt at the time freeze that feeling for always like flies in amber. Its a sobering thought that the books I still have from back then are as old as me now but I am still the same person thumbing through them now as I did when I got first got them. Its just the setting and the people around me that have changed.
Do you have books which are significant to you readers?
That's very moving. My mum taught me to read before I started school and I still have the story book she used! As for books that marked times of my life, for me they'd be tv tie-ins. I started with star trek and planet of the apes ones. As a young child, I only ever read non-fiction. My teachers used to tell me off for it!
ReplyDeleteIts great that you still have that book Kevin. It must be very precious. I can see why you loved TV tie ins, a genre I have really grown into in the last few years. Did you read a lot of science books and encyclopedias?
DeleteYep, science books etc. Still, as Kirk says of his youth, "Serious, I was positively grim"!
DeleteHow to choose from the air that you breathe? The obvious impossibility of choosing aside, my books of choice would be the Mars (John Carter) Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Nothing has influenced me so deeply at such a tender age. So much so that I averted from seeing the movie adaptation, just to cherish my own visualizations that I carry with me, as vivid as ever.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely line Arto, the air that you breathe. I've never read John Carter of Mars and wish now that I had as they must be exciting if they featured so clearly in your own childhood. You haven't missed much not seeing the film. Oddly enough there are some John carter collectables listed in my copy of Space Adventure Collectables book!
DeleteBeautifully written, Woodsy! I guess To Kill a Mockingbird is significant for me. It's a novel I sat down and guided my youngest daughter through one summer when she first showed an interest in books. Priceless moments spent listening to her exploring challenging words and phrases, while enjoying young characters she could identify with. Treasured snapshots of time :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Tone. That's a a poignant image you taking your daughter through that novel ... and such an important one too.
DeleteHave you seen the new John Carter RPG game coming out Arto? its directly tied into the classic Burroughs material and has a bestiary written by one of my university tutors!
ReplyDeleteThanks for letting me know Bill, will check it out!
DeleteWhether it be books, comics, toys, records, etc., they're all markers in our journey through life. One glance at any of them, and I'm the age I was (and back in whatever house I lived in at the time) when I first got them.
ReplyDeleteYep Kid, they are the true time machines for sure. I suppose that's why I have my old stuff around me. Trouble is my old Brother says I live in the past!
DeleteFunny, I've just recently dusted the toy shelves in my office,and I have noticed an unacceptable amount of dust and cobwebs on the bookshelf at the end of the hall.Time to clean up!It's a lifelong collection, childhood till now, both fiction and non fiction.The funny thing is the subject matter;Dinosaurs,Sharks,Gorillas, Monsters ,and Outer Space have apparently been all that is on my mind!Visitors are always amused by this,I guess they expect a wall full of Shakespeare and such.I'm just thankful I have always found the time to read in a world where everyone is too busy to do so.
ReplyDeleteNothing wrong with a bit of dust Brian, especially on such a fine old collection. It could be mine! We have the same tastes! Ha ha. I imagine a lot of MC readers had a book shelf like yours. I wonder how many still do. I remembered another book I loved as a young teenager: Fire from Heavan, a study of spontaneous combustion. Spontaneously combusting was one of those fabulous zany subjects that were popular amongst Seventies geeks like me. I adored that book and reD the whole thing during an entire night without sleeping. I was 17.
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