Books from our childhood/teens....d own Hazy Memory Lane

My favourite book is Towers in the Mist by Elizabeth Goudge. Also enjoyed Enid Blyton as her books were so easy to read. Elizabeth Farjeon was another favourite and I still enjoy dipping into her slightly anarchic writing. Can't wait to share her stories with my GS. As a teenager, I loved Jack London's books, and H Rider Haggard. I tried reading some books by both these authors a couple of months ago and couldn't get past the racist, sexist attitudes. Different times but the books aren't for me now!

Oooooh, yes, Children of the New Forest is wonderful - I loved that, along with Heidi, Katy, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Tales of the Greek Heroes, some Blyton (though it irritated me that the girls didn't have very active roles) - fairy tales, myths and legends, lots of poetry (my mother's influence and I've kept every poetry book she gave me and added to my collection).
Also Marianne Dreams, CHildren Who Lived in a Barn and lots more.....later I loved Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer...

Most of the above as I always had a book " on the go", still do. Read lots of Grimm and Hans Anderson and Legends from around the world..especially the Greek ones. But also loved my Girl Annuals, School Friend etc.

I have just been given a two book paperback of Hammond Innes comprising Medusa and The Doomed Oasis. I must have read them years ago. Although they are dated he writes a cracking adventure story and I am enjoying them enormously.

anno, I'd forgotten about Hammond Innes, and Alistair McLean. Great stuff!

In the seventies I was lucky enough to get a job in the library on one of the bases we were stationed at. It was the best two years I ever spent. What better job than to work surrounded by books.

I only ever had 1 book around the clock stories by Enid Bylton
I had a library membership and used it every week
My favourite book was Heidi and my dh bought me me a first copy for my 50th birthday
30 years ago I opened my own bookstore which I still own
The pure pleasure I get everyday is amazing.....the joy of recommending books to children is priceless and their feedback
I read about 2 books per week and I still enjoy it ......I have met some wonderful people

I'd forgotten Children of the New Forest- loved it and it was a great introduction to history.

How I loved Milly Molly Mandy. All the Little Grey Rabbit books, they were such gentle stories. Of course all The Famous Five books, the Alice books, Children of the New Forest, The Secret Garden and I loved the Wide Wide World. I was introduced to Dickens early on and still read and reread them. I am probably wrong but the books my GC read don't seem to be nearly as good as the ones I had.

Anything and everything. I loved the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome and was pleased when DS1 said they were his favourites too. I devoured all the Biggles books, handed down by older cousins. Always wanted to fly a plane but girls weren't allowed in the ATC then.By 11, I was reading John Buchan's adventure tales, though now they are condemned for their imperialist attitudes. Hammond Innes, equally adventurous. In my teens, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Ngaio Marsh, Georgette Heyer and then Jane Austen. How did I have time for homework?

Chalet School stories, Milly Molly Mandy, The Family from One End Street, The Silver Sword, anything by Noel Streatfield, Famous Five books (didn't like all E Blyton) both the Alice books (the Looking Glass was favourite) Progressed to Little Women and Jo's Boys, then pinched my mum's books- Neville Shute etc when I was 12 or 13. Then in late teens more modern stuff. Read Sartre when I was 16 and Albert Camus (pinched them off my brother).

As a child, Grimms Fairy Tales, and Greek myths, were favourites. Then an obsession with the Famous Five. I had a complete set of the books - read and re-read many times - and I wish my mum had kept them. When I was old enough to go to the library, classics like Children of the New Forest, Count of Monte Christo, The Prince and the Pauper, also Just William, the Molesworth books with Ronald Searle's wonderful illustrations, and 1066 and All That. As a young teenager, I liked Fred Hoyle's 'A' for Andromeda and The Black Cloud, and Dennis Wheatley's books with their black magic adventures of Rex van Ryn and the Duke de Richelieu. (When my father read a bit of The Devil Rides Out, and forbade me to read anymore of them, although it was our English teacher who suggested them . I still got them out of the library and hid them from him!). Dad was a big Rider Haggard fan, so we read She and King Solomon's Mines. In my late teens, I liked Thomas Hardy, A. J. Cronin and Howard Spring, and then reading fell off the agenda for some time.

Marmight - I loved The Swish of the Curtain and The Secret Garden. Also loved The Little Princess and Little Lord Fauntleroy. I was in love with him when I was about nine. Also loved the Jennings Books and Just William (they used to make me laugh)Ballet Shoes and a less known book by Noel Streatfield called White Boots. Oh yes and the Chalet School Books. Happy reading memories.

The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown, all the Heidi books by Johanna Spyri, Ballet Shoes, The Secret Garden, The Little Princess (my Mum's favourite book and after whom I was named !) all the Katy books, The Family at Misrule and also the Cherry Ames nurse books and many many more. I was never into Enid Blyton. Does anyone remember the Little Velveteen Rabbit?

I loved The Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield...

I loved the Chalet School books, as well as lots of the others mentioned above. Another was The Wide Wide World that I still have. One adventure book about some children who find themselves in or on a mountain, but I can't remember the title or author. I have a copy of 'Miskoo the Lucky' by Mary Fairclough, about a little Eskimo, that is now listed on a book site for £££'s. Lots of my childhood books got 'lost' when I married and moved away from home, shame.

I used to read the Blyton books, remember the Mallory Towers ones too.The Borrowers, What Katy Did. I would read anything that took my fancy and went through most of the Agatha Christie books in my early teens.
I used to spend a lot of time (all school hols) with my grandparents in the small village where they lived, and one of the treats was having the Library van stop across the road from their house. Great fun picking out four books and reading them before the next visit.

I read anything and everything I could get my hands on. So from the classics to Blyton - books I found under the stairs that were my Mothers childhood books, books found in my aunts dining room cupboard, books in the library etc etc

My favourites? Blyton of course, but also surprisingly books my mother read. Loved Heidi, Little Women,

As I got older I was lucky that my father worked for a book printers so I had access to a whole range of books - suitable and unsuitable! So I was introduced to books like. Brave New World, and books about the Holicaust plus other racier sorts like Angelique. Pear Buck was another author, Dickens was a favourite as was Austin. Really anything.

What I have found as I get older is that although I still read extensively, I haven't got the capacity to absorb books that I am not keen on nor the ability to get utterly lost in a book to the extent I was unaware of everything around me.

Mostly Enid Blyton for me. I hated anything girly to that (in my mind anyway) ruled out Anne of GG, Little Women.

Rowantree was the book you describe The Diddakoi?

The book that stands out for me is The Boy Next Door by Blyton. It's about an American boy who is hidden on a houseboat by some children. The children take the boy food and ginger beer.

I loved the one where the children lived behind a waterfall too.

I loved horses as a child and had Black Beauty and all the Flicka books. And Naughtiest Girl.

As a teenager I didn't read much but we read Lord of the Flies at school. Doing A Level English meant Jane Austen and a passion for her books which has never left me.

We also studied Mayor of Casterbridge.

I read as a volunteer and these modern books aimed at teenagers-mainly dire. Enjoying Matilda, though. .

I read a lot of Blyton. In fact I wanted to go to boarding school thanks to Mallory Towers.

I moved onto science fiction and then Jean Plaidy and Georgette Heyer.

I recently read the Divergent trilogy and was sad to find that teenage literature is so poorly written. It was a fun, easy read but it was lacking in substance and the vocabulary was so simple. I couldn't make my mind up as to whether this was the standard of teenage books or it was simply a lazy author.

I remember a book called " A dog so small " by Phillipa Pearce being my favourite book and the first I chose myself from the library . Others were My Naughty little sister , Mrs Pepperpot , Worsel Gummage , I liked Poetry from a young age and could recite Walter Scotts "Lochinvare "( not sure of the spelling!) all the way through .
I remember reading Wuthering Heights , and falling in love with Heathcliffe when I was about 13, One flew over the cuckoos nest was another fabulous read as an older teenager . My favourite book of all time is Pure by Andrew Morten which I go back to time and time again .