General Chat

I taught myself to read before I went to school - using the Beano :-S
My 3 elder siblings would have their comics, and would sit engrossed reading them - so I asked for one.
Once I had the comic - I HAD to learn to read it - if only to save face :-D

One teacher, many moons ago at one of the schools my children attended, was quite happy if a child read comics. In her eyes, the child was still learning to read. In my young years, I would read the labels of everything on the table if I had to sit there for a while.

Come to think of it, I still do!

About mid 70's.

Maggie what year was that?

When I worked in Porsmouth Dockyard, used to read Mills & Boon books.
Can't say they were the 'best', but they fitted nicely in my top drawer, on top of the tray. I was on reception, so, in 'slow' times, I could surreptitiously open the drawer and read the book! :-D :-D

You're right about a book being your friend Rollo! They've certainly seen me through quite a few lonely unhappy times over the years! Better than people sometimes, non judgemental loyal and comforting! As in all things I think we all have our own preferences , and what one person enjoys another will not for whatever perfectly acceptable reason!
My first book was called 'Conrad Cluckerty'! (about a baby chick!)| given to me by my Stepfather for my third birthday!

Yes that's what I meant Ann. Different sorts of books for different times in one's life also. The thought reminded me of my mum telling me about books that she enjoyed, probably in the late 1920's early 30s ( she was born 1920) one of them was this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Girl_of_the_Limberlost_(novel)

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Luck_of_Roaring_Camp

Both of the above are American and perhaps quite unusual reading for her age?

This is another she loved as a child which we could never find,(long before the days of the the internet) The Golden Clown
by Palle Adam Vilhelm Rosenkrantz

If I had to give the first book, which had influence on 'who I am', it was probably my first book "Baa Baa the lamb" lol ( and yes I still have it :-) )

I have said before that I read quite a lot of lightish books. However, a lot of these, wheeher on Kindle or a paperback will be by new authors. Occasionally I come across one that I think, yep this one will be a winner (no don't ask me to quote one I can never remember names off hand!) It is an age thing!) And also some of these books, not all I hasten to add (some are trash), some of them have been well researched and froma light novel I find myself being educated on 'something'. It maybe something historical, it may be on how something is made or it mat be the geography of a place.

I think I am trying to back up here what Rose has said about not all good books being 'worthy' ones. Well she sort of said it.

There are of course people who are snobbish about the books they read or won't read. I'm not one of them. If your preferred reading matter is the Beano that's fine by me. One of the more intelligent gentlemen of my acquaintance was an elderly former teacher, I don't know what he read ( though at the back of my mine something is telling me it may have been cowboy books? but I know he very much enjoyed watching Tom and Jerry cartoons... and why ever not :-)

Books don't have to be intellectual, they don't have to be 'deep', they don't even have to be particularly well written as long as they 'speak' to you personally in some fashion.
:-)

Dermot, I don't see anywhere, in any comment. by anyone, which implies you should be the same as anyone else? Why would you read that into anything that has been said?

The very point of the thread is that what one likes ( and/or praises) is so very rarely the opinion of all ( or even a majority). What one find erudite and entertaining, the next person will consider to be tosh of the first order. And with books, there are so many reasons why one might read them differently to someone else. That could be down to age, or predisposition not to believe in fairies, or science, or religion, or any number of things. Mostly for me it is down to style of writing I suppose. There are undoubtedly numerous good books that I have struggled to read because of the author's style rather than the content. Equally I can probably think of some books which no amount of good writing can make palatable to me because of the subject.

Not PC ?

Try Sven Hassel

https://tinyurl.com/y34wfkp2

s i e g h e i l

:-0

Rambling & maggiewinchester -

Why on earth would I opt to be just the same as everyone else when I can be different, utterly individual, unlike anyone else? :-S

Oh yes! Anya Seyton, Little Women, Just William, Enid Blyton, particularly the school books, Billy Bunter , lots of totally un. P.C books that today wouldn't see the light of day!!! Later on Hugh Walpole, Margaret Lane, The Brontes. A.J. Cronin, The tales of Sarkey, M.R James! Not to forget'Three Men in a Boat' which was written near my childhood home! I agree about Poldark!!!

My reading is mainly historical, but I love Dickens, Austin George Elliot, particularly Middlemarch which I read for A'level. One of the most moving books I've ever read is 'The Lost King of France'. This is the tragic life and death of Louis Charles the younger son (and Dauphin of France)of Louis V1th and Marie Antoinette! The fate of this little boy is almost too unbearable, but well worth reading about if you have reasonably strong nerves!!

Any tosh like that Dermot, that I feel the need to read 'just to see', (like any Dan Brown books) I buy at charity shops.
Then the charity gets the money. :-D

That's the one Ann :-)

Dermot, life is too short to put myself through the pain :-)

Ah Good wives, that had a blue dust cover I remember that. I knew I had missed one.

If you are already numbed by the Brexit debate, then this is the book for you.

The successive Brexit & Foreign Secretaries created high tension at home & abroad.

That's only just out Dermot (5th Sept), so can't exactly put it into any of the categories mentioned, nor comment on it as there are as yet no reviews on Amazon etc. Is it a riveting read?

Not for me thanks, I know what a **ck up it is without reading any more on the topic
:-(

'Blind Man's Brexit' by Edward Stourton & Lode Desmet.

Published by Simon & Schuster £20. (464 pages).

How the EU took control of Brexit.