Published on 12, July, 2020
What books have subtley influence you, ones that you read as a child? For me it was Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, as well as being a good adventure story, it introduced me to a whole world of folklore and what I call mystic Britain. You have the history of Britain and then you have the mystic history, the Britain of the things seen from the corner of the eye, the things that you know are there, that you can sense and feel, but can rarely see and other people think you're being daft for caring about. As well as all the strange rituals and folk customs around the country, the fertility dances of Morris Men, to the Hobby Horses and corn dollies. The pull of ancient sacred places, stone circles, holy wells, some very ancient churches, a whole sacred landscape that we're only just rediscovering through the use of such technology as LIDAR. Some customs that cross continenets and generations, throwing coins in a wishing well, these places have often been in use for thousands of years.
That one book set me on a journey thats still ongoing.
It's over 50 years since I read the Foundation trilogy. I enjoyed them at the time. I don't enjoy reading fiction any more. For years I believed other people couldn't imagine characters and scenes, just like me. The 1st realisation that wasn't true was doing guided imagery for anxiety . I couldn't do it at all. However it has been used for many decades, so there must be those who have benefitted from it. Several years later I came across mention of aphantasia. I have total aphantasia. I don't read fiction nowadays, because I can't do what the vast majority of other people can do.
I was a big fan of 'the 3 investigators'. I think I was the only kid that borrowed them from our local library
The youngest books I remember are the Mabel Lucie Attwell ones, I loved the illustrations.
I enjoyed Enid Blyton's Naughtiest Girl series, I always felt she was good and different and could relate to her.
Those books where you pick the adventure - at the end of each chapter you could choose from 2 or 3 options to go in different directions.
When I was 14 going into hospital I asked the librarian for a recommendation. Nancy Cato's All the Rivers Run, about a lady in Australia with a shop on a boat. It was so far removed from my upbringing, I enjoyed imagining this place I'd only ever seen in books/TV.
No, I have read some of his Sharpe books, though. I recently did a DNA test, which showed that my Y chromosome haplotype originated in Scandinavia and that I am genetically more similar to the DNA of (mostly Danish/Swedish) Viking Age burials than 67% of all the people who have used this service. All this 'Scandinavianness' is well hidden appearance-wise, however. I have never had occasion to use a Dane-axe, but perhaps I would prove to be a natural.
I can't remember those bits, but I do think of the "uncreates" in Uncle Hamish's home made relgion in The Crow Road.
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Uhane have you ever read any Charles De Lint? He's a Canadian author who writes what can best be described as fairly tsles for grown up's, I'd start with Moonheart.
Has anyone ever read any Storm Constantine, especially the Wraethuthu books?
I still think about the "missing teeth" scene in The Business. I also think about "back-bussing" in Whit a lot (whenever I'm on a bus or train lol).
Complicity was such good book the main character was so nasty. Whit was good too, you know he didn't even know himself what the gender of the character was? The Business was good too.
Yes indeed, but not as a child haha!
Oh I loved Espedair st. I've read all his IB books, even though I didn't understand The Bridge, Complicity and Walking on Glass I still think about them from time to time. I loved the Crow Road, but my favourite is Whit. Hilarious and entertaining from start to finish. I couldn't get into his IMB books, I might try again.
Ha ha - it's funny that this happens - I didn't know!
di you read Bernard Cornwell's story series on early english history of King Aelfred and the viking influx? I love his dramatizations. Vikings too - being pirates.
Uhane said:Have you read the other he wrote after these 3?
I read the next two but have yet to read the last 2 in the set, but have them all on my bookshelf to read:
It is really annoying when they change the style, fonts and sizes when the collection extends - have they no thought for us who like consistency?
I loved The Folk Of the Faraway Tree. It was such a wonderful book that allowed my imagination to let me live in the tree too.
I never got on with the Wasp Factory, or The Bridge, but Espadair Street is one of the funniest books I've ever read. I loved The Crow Road, also very funny, I didn't enjoy The Business as much, but still good.
Oh I read Garner as well, Elidor gave me nightmares! There was a book I read over and over, "The Old Powder Line" by Richard Parker https://www.amazon.co.uk/Old-Powder-Line-Puffin-Books/dp/0140306579 It was my first "time travel" book, and I still think about it: as well as the weird train that took the MC back into the past there was a hinted-at teenage romance - very tame but it was important to me growing up.
Also "The 3 Investigators" about 3 kids who solved crimes from a hideout in their uncle's junkyard, I wanted to be an investigator and made business cards and everything. By age 11 I was reading some of my mother's Agatha Christies and all the novelisations of the early Doctor Who TV series. Some Sci-fi such as Bradbury and Asimov, and then Lord of the Rings which I read twice as a child.
I remember being dissatisfied by not finding anything as good as Treasure Island in the pirate line. I have read some historical accounts of pirates, but cannot remember who by. When I was eleven I became hooked on CS Forester's Hornblower books. In the interim, I was much attached to Rosemary Sutciliff's historical books, especially Sword at Sunset, and Henry Treece's Viking books, pirates of an earlier age.
Ian M Banks's Culture series spans his entire career. I loved them all. the first one was rather bloody but he was so young when he wrote it and thought he had to do that. I could never get into his fiction as Ian Banks, like the Wasp Factory.
Horror not my cup o' tea
you have to write it like this D i c k. If that's who your referring to.
I had the books in the 50s and would try to dress and be her. I cant recall these begin any more racist and sexist than most of th3e culture from that era. But Pippy was a breed apart and always off on adventures.
Brilliant story! Love it