Childhood books you purchased yourself

[Mary Ann]

I have in my pudgy little hands a brand-new complete set of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. After more than 30 years the copies I purchased originally were literally falling apart, and since I reread this series about once a year it was worth my investing in new copies.

This got me thinking about my early book-buying days. At 10 years old I started going to the orthodontist regularly and his office was in a shopping mall with a bookstore. After my appointment I'd make my way to the bookstore to blow my allowance, and I rarely walked out without a book. The Little House books were among the first I bought for myself, along with most of the Judy Blume books and Enid Blyton's Famous Five collection (which have also fallen apart but won't be replaced because, well, they're so bloody naff! ).

How about you? What were some of the first books you bought for yourself as a kid?

 

[Mooch]

OMG Famous Five!!

I don't remember the first book I bought for myself (my parents usually bought them for me) but just last month I bought myself a set of Enid Blyton's "Adventure" series (The Island of Adventure, etc).

 

[Mr Silver]

I have in my pudgy little hands a brand-new complete set of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. After more than 30 years the copies I purchased originally were literally falling apart, and since I reread this series about once a year it was worth my investing in new copies.

I think I love you!!

Little House In The Big Woods and Little House On The Prairie are two of my favourite books from childhood, We had Big Woods read to us in school and I happened upon Big Woods and Prairie in my house, which I read through several times myself, two very old copies, that were almost falling apart

Being a "Brit" and all that, it might suprise some Americans that the Little House series of books (and indeed the various TV series') became quite succesful in the UK

 

[Kestra]

Whenever we'd go to India (every December) I'd spend my "pocket money" on Enid Blyton books. Malory Towers, The Barney Mysteries, and that group of kids that lived on an island. I loved that one!

Also Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew.

 

[doubleohfive]

Really the only ones I can think of at the moment that I've actually purchased myself were the seven Harry Potter books ... but I definitely plan on getting at least two others --Goodnight Moon and The Giving Tree-- in the near future.

 

[Amaris]

"There's A Monster At The End of This Book".

 

[Kestra]

"There's A Monster At The End of This Book".

Oh my brother loved that book!

 

[Amaris]

"There's A Monster At The End of This Book".

Oh my brother loved that book!

He has good taste! I wore those pages down to frayed ends, I read it so many times. Sometimes I would also flip back to the previous page and read forward again. What a great book.

 

[auntiehill]

When I was in my early teens, I bought several book series:
Robert Asprin's Myth-Adventures, Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books and then, later, Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker books.

When I was really little, I really like the Encyclopedia Brown books and the Narnia Chronicles. But, being the child of book collectors, I had only to ask and we were off to the book shop or the library. But often, I could just into the living room and pull things off the bookshelves---that was how I found the Narnia Chronicles in 4th grade. Read the entire series that school year.

 

[Kelso]

When I was nine or ten, my dad loaned me $20 to buy a set of the Young Indiana Jones books. Took me forever to pay him back (or a span of time that seemed like forever to a nine or ten year old, probably a few months). I loved those books.

 

[Admiral Shran]

I never read much as a child, but do a lot of reading now.

Probably the only books I bought for myself when I was kid were novelizations of movies I liked. I remember reading the novelizations of Back to the Future, Parts II and III, Batman (1989), and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Though, here lately, I find myself enjoying a lot of - quote unquote - "children's books." Don't ask me why. Starting with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoneix, I read them all as they came out. And, I recently finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia and A Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm also in the process of collecting the Little House books.

 

[Mary Ann]

I have in my pudgy little hands a brand-new complete set of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. After more than 30 years the copies I purchased originally were literally falling apart, and since I reread this series about once a year it was worth my investing in new copies.

I think I love you!!

But you hardly know me!

Being a "Brit" and all that, it might suprise some Americans that the Little House series of books (and indeed the various TV series') became quite succesful in the UK

I moved to the UK 15 years ago and most of the people I know watched the TV show (which I stopped watching as soon as I started reading the books because the show no longer made sense) but I don't know anyone who read the books., so I'm glad to meet a Brit who did.

OMG Famous Five!!

The funny thing is that I bought the first FF book blind, so to speak. This was in the late 70s when the TV show was made, but it was never shown in Montreal so I hadn't seen it. I wanted to spend my allowance and didn't know what else to buy, so I took a risk. Within a few years I had about 15 of the 21 books, all of which I read over and over.

Whenever we'd go to India (every December) I'd spend my "pocket money" on Enid Blyton books. Malory Towers, The Barney Mysteries, and that group of kids that lived on an island. I loved that one!

Kestra, growing up in the US (which I think you did; please correct me if I'm wrong) did you have any dialect issues with Blyton's books? Some of the terminology took me a while to figure out, such as bringing "rugs" on a camping trip (what's with the floor coverings? Bring blankets!), using "torches" to light up dark places (honest to goodness, at first I thought they had the medieval flaming stick type of torches, and pondered the lack of flashlights in England), phrases such as "Rather!" and "Do let's" (which would have worried my own English teachers), so forth. I also questioned these parents who pack their kids off to boarding school and then didn't bother spending the holidays with them. Hmm, come to think of it, I've just figured out why I went on to major in sociology and cultural anthropology.

Also Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew.

I had quite an impressive Nancy Drew collection, though mostly courtesey of my mother. Did it bother anyone else that Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys and the Bobbsey Twins never aged or moved to the next grade in school? At least the Famous Five aged!

"There's A Monster At The End of This Book".

*Googles* I want it! I adore Grover.

But, being the child of book collectors, I had only to ask and we were off to the book shop or the library. But often, I could just into the living room and pull things off the bookshelves---that was how I found the Narnia Chronicles in 4th grade. Read the entire series that school year.

It was much the same for me. I have 3 older brothers so the house was already full of Cat in the Hat and Hardy Boys books, and my mother would buy me books she thought I'd like 'til I left home in my 20s. In the early 80s there wasn't the selection of YA books we have now, so by the time I was 13 I'd started raiding my parents' bookcases and was happily making my way through all the Agatha Christie books, which began a love for crime fiction I still have today.

 

[trampledamage]

I don't remember buying my own books, but I did have an impressive collection of Mallory Towers/ St Clare's and the Chalet School books - did anyone else read those? Set in Austria and Switzerland but it was an English school, written by Elinor M Brent-Dyer if my sudden spark of memory is to be believed - which must have come from somewhere.

 

[Mary Ann]

Though, here lately, I find myself enjoying a lot of - quote unquote - "children's books." Don't ask me why. Starting with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoneix, I read them all as they came out. And, I recently finished reading The Chronicles of Narnia and A Series of Unfortunate Events. I'm also in the process of collecting the Little House books.

The Harry Potter books are what introduced me to internet groups about 10 years ago, and that was big leap for a technosquib like me. I think children's and YA literature is, on the whole, better than it was 30 years ago. My 13-year-old daughter passes her school library books to me to read and a lot of them are very good IMO, and I get a good laugh out of my 12-year-old son's Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Frankly it warms my heart that, in a world where more and more kids don't read for pleasure, there is such a wide selection of truly excellent children's and YA books. At the very least they help to keep me off the streets.

 

[Kestra]

Kestra, growing up in the US (which I think you did; please correct me if I'm wrong) did you have any dialect issues with Blyton's books? Some of the terminology took me a while to figure out, such as bringing "rugs" on a camping trip (what's with the floor coverings? Bring blankets!), using "torches" to light up dark places (honest to goodness, at first I thought they had the medieval flaming stick type of torches, and pondered the lack of flashlights in England), phrases such as "Rather!" and "Do let's" (which would have worried my own English teachers), so forth. I also questioned these parents who pack their kids off to boarding school and then didn't bother spending the holidays with them.

I questioned some of those things too! The answer to your question would be, yes and no. I wasn't used to certain types of speech, things like tea and scones and puddings and whatnot. And I remember in Malory Towers an American student came over and they made fun of her for being lazy. not "plaiting" her hair, and saying "twenny" instead of "twenty."

The thing is though, my parents were born and raised in India so they had a lot of British influence which was passed on to me. My mom has some funny stories about asking fellow physicians for a "torch" or saying that she lost her muffler. They looked at her like she was crazy!

I don't remember buying my own books, but I did have an impressive collection of Mallory Towers/ St Clare's and the Chalet School books - did anyone else read those? Set in Austria and Switzerland but it was an English school, written by Elinor M Brent-Dyer if my sudden spark of memory is to be believed - which must have come from somewhere.

I read Malory Towers and loved it; I think I actually got some of my values from reading that set! Never read the others though.

 

[trampledamage]

St Clare's was another school series written by Enid Blyton (can't remember in what way it was different to Mallory Towers, although I think there were twins).

The Chalet School series was huge and, I think, covered the years of world war 2 - I think they had to move the school. I'm going to have to go see if I can find them in the library, I want to read them again now!

 

[TerokNor]

All the "Famous Five" books I inherented from my father, who still had them from when he was a boy. I loved them!

I can´t really remember which books as a child I bought by myself or which ones I got as a present, because I wished for them... but books I enjoyed reading as a child (under 10) besides the Famous 5 were: The Little Vampire, Pizza-Bande (Pizza gang), Professor Kugelblitz (Professor ball-lightning), Professors Zwillinge (Professors twins), Black Beauty, The three Musketeers ....

And books I loved to hear before I could read were: Im Blumenhimmel (In heaven for the flowers), The little Lord, the Struwwelpeter Story with the girl, that plays with fire and kills herself .... Miau, Miau, Mio, jetzt brennt sie lichterloh! (Miau, Miau, Mio, now she is ablaze) Loved the story, though I was scared to death by the story with the boy who sucked his thumb and then the tailer comes in and cuts of his tumb for being so naughty to suck on it when he is too old for it... brrr... I always though that guy would come and cut my thumbs off as well. Thinking back this old stories are really questionable, but oh well...in the time they were written things were still a bit different when it came to bringing up children.

http://www.kocherts.de/br/fire3.gif

http://peoplethings.com/andblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/2297123190_7093722399.jpg

Anyway there are many many more books I love as a child, but these are the ones that spontaneously pop into my mind.
I still have most of my childhood books, just 2 of them I gave away and I am still annoyed about it, because they were so beautiful and now I would love to have them back for my own children.
Do you still have yours?

TerokNor

 

[cardinal biggles]

The first books I remember buying myself were Encyclopedia Brown titles, and maybe some of the Soup books by Robert Newton Peck. And of course, the Star Trek: The Next Generation novels.

 

[Naira]

There was a book series about 3 children-detectives. The titles were starting as "The 3 detectives and the mystery of..." (I don't know the exact English title). I had bought many of these. Also, someone got me the first Polyanna book and then I bought the other three myself.

Edit: I found a wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Investigators

 

[Amaris]

"There's A Monster At The End of This Book".

*Googles* I want it! I adore Grover.

It is so much fun. I wore that book out and it was a great way for me to imagine myself in the book with Grover. It was all about the imagination.

Okay, and a little bit of schadenfraude. "So, Grover, do you want me to turn the page of this book? <pint sized maniacal laughter ensues>