Childhood nostalgia poll

[rachelmanija]

Please reminisce, fondly or not, about any of these, or other books read in childhood, especially if they seem to have, deservedly or undeservedly, vanished from the shelves. I'd love to hear about non-US, non-British books, too.

[Poll #1720139]

Comments

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Toward the end of the series it becomes more and more about growing up-- not the weird fake growing up of Narnia, adult growing up-- and I wonder if that's why it didn't grab me as hard as a teen too.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I read the Prydain books around 4th grade or so -- I don't remember how old I was when somebody gave me a set of the Narnia books, but it was definitely while I was still in elementary school, and all the religious allegory sailed *whooooosh* right past me. But I did always find The Last Battle and The Magician's Nephew a lot less satisfying than the other books.

(I didn't pick up on any of the religious or autobiographical elements in Tolkien the first few times either, since I started reading those so young -- it was really fascinating going through those all over again in my teens for the first time after I'd read the biographies and some WWI history and so forth.)

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I remember distinctly lining up in elementary school after recess, talkin about The Last Battle with a friend. I can't remember the exact words now, but the translation into current patois, would be, I believe, "the fuck was that?"

(Same here, only it was my twenties.)