Books from Childhood...

[fajrdrako]

1. What book or books were special to you in your childhood?

Many, many books. I was an only child, and ill in bed a lot, so books were often my primary companions. A few favourites:

• Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne, and his other books especially When We Were Very Young and
• Now We Are Six.
  
• Merrylips by Beulah Marie Dix
  
• The Lost Queen of Egypt by Lucile Morrison
  
• He Went with Christopher Columbus by Louise Andrews Kent and Paul Quinn
  Enid Blyton's series of "Adventure" Books: The Island of Adventure, The Mountain of Adventure, The Sea of Adventure, The River of Adventure - I think there were two others; why can't I remember the titles?
  
• Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet by E. Nesbit, three fantasy stories about four children (Robert, Cyril, Anthea and Jane) who find a wish-granting creature called a Psammead in about 1906. Equally, her two slightly-interrelated books The House of Arden and Harding's Luck, both about time travel.
  
• Silver Pennies by Blanche Jennings Thompson, an anthology of poems for children

The most significant book in my young reading life was probably Sir Francis Drake, a biography of Drake for children. I don't remember the author's name. I was nine years old and I loved that book with a passion. It was a turning point in my love of history.

Comic books were also important to me. Adventure Comics was my favourite, until I discovered Fantastic Four with issue #18 ("The Return of the Super-Skrull") and Spider-Man with issue #4; that was a major epiphany for me. Then there was mention Journey into Mystery - which had me fascinated by Norse myth for years - and best of all, Sgt. Fury and His Howlin' Commandos, subtitled, "the war comic for people who hate war comics."

2. What was particularly special or memorable about those books?

They took me to new worlds - perhaps, given the fact that so many of them were historical in orientation, I should call it 'old worlds'. These books excited me. They made me laugh. They brought new ideas and a sense of curiosity to a life that often seemed painfully boring.

3. Have you re-read any of them as an adult?

Some of them. I recently reread The Lost Queen of Egypt (found second-hand by a friend in California) and Merrylips, which I found via Interlibrary Loan. All my life I have often reread A.A. Milne and often quote him.

King John was not a good man
He had his little ways
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days

4. If so, were the books as good as you remembered them?

Yes, by and large. I find I don't enjoy E. Nesbit's quite as much as I used to, though I still love her characters and plots.

5.What do you think about movies being made out of children's classics (like the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of The Rings, etc)?

I hated the Chronicles of Narnia when I read the books as a child, and disliked the movie for similar reasons. I can't think of The Lord of the Rings as being for children - I was fifteen when I read it, and consider it an adult work. (A rather sophisticated adult work at that.)

But the question is about movies. In principle, I like good movies based on good books. In practice, movies based on books are rarely as good as the books. That being said, if The Lord of the Rings is under discussion, I think the Peter Jackson movies were nothing short of brilliant - they are among my favourite movies of all time. (Just as the books are among my favourites.)

Comments

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

I grew up with the fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and those by the Brothers Grimm. Then I began in age of thirteen or fourteen to read books for adults.
Unfortunatly I've never read Tolkien,and as watched the movies - they were at first someway strange to me, but then I liked them more and more. Just Friday evening I've watched the first part and I've noticed that I like it very much. Actually I've wanted to see Marton Csokas(who also plays Guy de Lusignan in KOH). Sean Bean looks so good!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sean Bean looks magnificent as Boromir. He also looks magnificent as Richard Sharpe and Ulysses and Oliver Mellors and just about any role I've ever seen him in. He has a lot of presence. I was even more impressed, in LOTR, with the performance of David Wenham as Boromir's brother Faramir.

I would also highly recommend reading "The Lord of the Rings". I dislike "The Hobbit" (except for two excellent chapters) and "The Silmarillion" is sometimes difficult, but "Lord of the Rings" is an amazing book that did a lot to expand my understanding of history - yes, I know it's fantasy, but there is a more historical understanding in that book than in most historical fiction, or written histories, for that matter. That book did more than any other to make me a medievalist. Because of it I read Anglo-Saxon poetry and Norse myths and Beowulf and the Venerable Bede, all directions Tokien urged me in, and there was no holding me back after that.

Don't read it in translation, though. Tolkien does some very interesting, specific and unusual things with language and it doesn't work as well in anything but English. (I would elaborate but I don't want to bore you.)

Marton Csokas played Celeborn, right? What did you think of him in the role?

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

Oh, you would never bore me! Yes Marton Csokas plays Celeborn - but he was only for a minute in the movie; or maybe there is an another version I didn't see?
I will manage it to read Tolkien in English if you mean it's better to understand the book. It's a pity that I discover such beautiful things so late. I was for five years a fan of a rock music and movies (all movies:good movies, bad movies, boring movies ...). Please don't despise me. Sam Sheppard is also a fan of rock music.
But I also love classical music, esp. Mozart,Chopin and Italian masters.

[wanderinunicorn.livejournal.com]

And yes, David Wenham was great as Faramir; I wondered then as I saw him that I never had seen this actor before.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

He's going to be the storyteller in 300; I look forward to that.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Oh, you would never bore me!

I am happy to hear it. I occasionally make eyes glaze over when I really get going on the fine points of the twelfth century as I see them... I try not to do that to the defenceless bystanders.

I will manage it to read Tolkien in English if you mean it's better to understand the book.

I think it would be worthwhile, and useful. He does a few amazing things linguistically, and was himself never happy with the translations of the novel - it's possible that a really insightful translator might manage to do the same things, but I doubt that any did. One thing he did, for example, is have different characters talk with the idiom of different historical eras, reflecting the cultures they come from. Another things that is important for the atmosphere is the very English type names for places and people - like The Shire, where the Hobbits live, with Eastfarthing and Hardbottle - there's a sound/connotation to it that doesn't work in other languages. You don't need to be English to get it, but you need to be able to read the English sounds to get it, if that makes any sense.

There's no such thing as 'too late' as long as you discover wonderful things eventually. There's nothing wrong with rock music and movies! (And I love a fair number of movies that other people think are bad.... I just think they're wrong.)

[filkferengi]

_Lost Queen of Egypt_ totally rocks! So does _Silver Pennies_. I was hugely thrilled to find it at a library sale a while back. I reread it recently; it still holds up amazingly.

You have great taste!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You have great taste!

Heh - obviously, so do you! I have my aunt's old battered copy of Silver Pennies, I'm not sure how I came to inherit it, but I'm very glad that I did.

Lost Queen of Egypt always meant a lot to me.

Love your icon!

[filkferengi]

It was designed by trolleypup. A while back, Lois asked us to use them on LJ to generate buzz for the book; I just have lots of forward inertia when it comes to changing things.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

There's no reason to change a good thing unless you want to!