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Books that moved you as a child

dialectician said:
Nah, too long. and cheesy.

I'll just say that all the books I've listed have really resonated with me on a psychological/philosophical level. Whether that be desires, the meaning(s) of mundanity, morality as an institution, the nuances of every day experience (particularly as regards The Flea Palace and Dubliners.)

Also. The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

What we tend to miss in critiques of eastern bloc countries is a profound sense of humanism. We criticise authoritarianism, centralisation, bureaucratisation, but we never think to conceptualise the experiences insofar as a Nietzschean affirmation is concerned. An active force, if you will. Practice, not praxis.
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I thought The Unbearable Lightness Of Being was ace when I was 17 til I realised it was just about a lech shagging his way round Prague and trying to justify his solilpsism by having one of his victims take photos of Soviet tanks.
 
Belushi said:
The Rabbit. Given the circumstances of my early life, I can look back now and appreciate why that book had such a big impact on my little self. it was all about abandonment.
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One of my proudest moments as a librarian was when two children had separately told me they had fallen out over some silliness. They are both Travellers and have experienced social isolation amongst their peers and had an awful lot of other things in common, one of them being that they were both experiencing grief, one because they had lost their grandmother and the other because they had lost a beloved family pet. As luck would have it, we'd just got a book set in a similar environment to theirs and in which the isolated heroine lost both her grandma and her dog at the same time, so I got them to read it together and they are now BFFs.
 
Orang Utan said:
One of my proudest moments as a librarian was when two children had separately told me they had fallen out over some silliness. They are both Travellers and have experienced social isolation amongst their peers and had an awful lot of other things in common, one of them being that they were both experiencing grief, one because they had lost their grandmother and the other because they had lost a beloved family pet. As luck would have it, we'd just got a book set in a similar environment to theirs and in which the isolated heroine lost both her grandma and her dog at the same time, so I got them to read it together and they are now BFFs.
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Yes, you should be bloody proud of that. Middle class complacency over library closures ('But surely everyone's got a Kindle') doesn't take account of of the life altering serendipity of libraries and the fact that librarians do more than reshelf books. But I'll stop before this gets too far off topic.
 
porp said:
Yes, you should be bloody proud of that. Middle class complacency over library closures ('But surely everyone's got a Kindle') doesn't take account of of the life altering serendipity of libraries and the fact that librarians do more than reshelf books. But I'll stop before this gets too far off topic.
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Just the ritual of going to the library is precious.
I remember that I used to go to the library and get four books out every week and I would read them all before going again the next week and sitting in between the book shelves reading bits and blurbs of different books, in the dust and book smell, while deciding which to take home with me for a week. It was the best thing. I can still smell it :cool:
 
The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden when I was about 7, about a lonely Gypsy girl going to school - mainly because she had the same name as my baby sister who had died the year before... but the subject matter didn't help. I remember it being a great book in terms of explaining what it's like to be on the end of prejudice
 
Used to love rumer godden, including her books about dolls (wasn't that into dolls so they had some other attraction). Great descriptions of isolation and interpersonal relationships. Also like her adults books.
 
porp said:
As a child (11-ish), 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit'. I found the sense of threatened violence, dislocation, and the end of childhood innocence very moving. Rattling good story as well.
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Never read the book as a child but I met the author Judith Kerr as an old lady, she was lovely.
 
ShiftyBagLady said:
Just the ritual of going to the library is precious.
I remember that I used to go to the library and get four books out every week and I would read them all before going again the next week and sitting in between the book shelves reading bits and blurbs of different books, in the dust and book smell, while deciding which to take home with me for a week. It was the best thing. I can still smell it :cool:
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My dad was a prolific reader and used to take me to the public library to get the max number of books out everyweek. He always felt his education was lacking and as keen to learn stuff, to improve himself. That and he loved adventure stories and sci fi.

It was great - I'd get out all sorts of books, even when I was too young to read. If I wanted an adult book - I loved books with photos of ancient egypt he would get them on his ticket for me. Gave me a love of books and knowledge.
 
I was always haunted by the scene of the dead city of Charn in the The Magician's Nephew; such a vivid (ironically) and creepy scene. And similarly I was very moved by the end of 'The Last Battle'. I didn't and still don't give a shit about the Christian content of the Narnia books, I just took them at face value and loved them.
 
Cloo said:
I was always haunted by the scene of the dead city of Charn in the The Magician's Nephew; such a vivid (ironically) and creepy scene. And similarly I was very moved by the end of 'The Last Battle'. I didn't and still don't give a shit about the Christian content of the Narnia books, I just took them at face value and loved them.
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The Magicians Nephew is one of the best kids books ever imo. Why they haven't made a film of it I don't know.
 
sparklefish said:
When the wind blows had a big impact on me. We read it at school and I was already freaked out by nuclear weapons and war in general really. I had nightmares after I read it.

They didn't move me but I loved the Faraway Tree stories and they're making a film so I'm chuffed. :)
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When the wind blows, followed by Brother In the Land by Robert Swindells. Bleak and terrifying read as a young teen.
 
I read a massive number of books, of many types (still do, tbh).
But I can't say if any of them actually had a profound effect on me, I don't think any of them did - not even the Narnia ones - to the very great disappointment of someone who thought they would make me more receptive to religious indoctrination.
I can read books in a detached mode /state of mind with varying amounts of enjoyment, even "set books" of a type I don't usually like, such as Dickens (as some of them are massively padded as he was paid by word count for a serial work!).
 
Didnt read it but the pictures in The Trial of Adolf Eichman will always stay with me. My dad had a copy & i remember flicking through it as a child.
 
I find myself frustrated by wayward bob 's mention of 'A rag, a bone, a hank of hair', which I was very taken by when I read it aged about 9, but I also remember not understanding the end, and I can see loads of references to the 'twist' online, but unsurprisingly nothing explaining what the twist is. So if anyone remembers, please do a spoiler post, as it's driving me nuts now!

I remember the first 'grown up' book I read, aged about 12, was John Gardner's 'Grendel' (because we were doing Beowulf at school), and that was striking firstly for being told from the traditional antagonist's viewpoint, and secondly, for being the first book I read with the word 'fuck' in it.
 
220px-RogueMaleNovel.jpg


Rogue Male by Geoffrey Household

I was 13 or 14 and it was the first time I'd properly identified with a character in a book and felt something.

I can't for the life of me find an image of the front cover of the copy I read at school which has made me a bit sad for some reason :confused: so that's an image of the first edition's cover.
 
may kasahar said:
Also always cried at the death of Aslan. They were just so mean to him beforehand.
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Orang Utan the above is a reason why the stone table/cross metaphor is so blatant. The various torments and ridicule handed out to JC in the proccess of his crucifixion are mirrored by the suffering of aslan.

CS Lewis was a vile misogynist cunt mind. I've got one of his short sci fi pieces that is just disgusting. The rocket men have made a base on the moon. In order to sate thier manly needs Earth sends them an old madame and an ascetic duty type idealouge woman. So disgusted are the men that they climb into a rocket and fuck off back home.

I mean really
 
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