Kitchen Garden Forum

Hi all,Truth to tell I've been so hectic this week I've not even managed to pick up a magazine for recreational reading this week! Johnboy,CD sounds fascinating in the original form but then weren't most of his books originally written in installments for newspaper publication to stir the Victorian conscience? I suppose that would account for the stories within stories.OH always says that CD has lots of hidden adult humour if you pay attention to what he actually says!
I've never read the Harry Potter stories but my Mum (81) has just read them all in one go over about a 6 week period to see what all the fuss was about,she says the first ones were better than the last ones but quite entertaining!The thought of the Discworld being sullied by Harry Potter gives me the shivers!

peter wrote:Oh I do hope that happens, the Librarian, Vimes, Lord Vetanari and Carrot should sort the little idiot out.
Also if Pratchett got involved that standard of english used will soar from its current lamentably low reading age.

Peter what reading age would you expect a childrens book to have?

Carole B, if you haven't read any of the Harry Potter books why does the thought of him on Discworld give you the shivers? Much as I enjoy Pratchett he is no less formulaic.

They are fine as light entertainment, the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy is more interesting, but it's aimed at older children. As an adult I find this sort of book good if I have the flu and can't follow an argument or complex plot

[quote="Beccy
Peter what reading age would you expect a childrens book to have?[/quote]

Something to stretch them a little, he says hopefully.

Reading ages, Potter is probably ahead of the "Sun" which has a reading age of five, but read Pratchetts childrens books and enjoy not being written down to.

As a child I had gone through all of my fathers bookcases by the age of eleven. I used to go to the library, take out as many book as as I was allowed and have them finished within a couple of days. My favourite was the village jumble sales, If I was in luck I could get as many as a hundred books out of one of them, that would last about a month. Before we had kids I had about two thousand books, most are in the loft now, but we still have six bookcases in our house.

Some of what I was reading at primary age.
"BB" aka D J Watkins-Pitchford, whose adult books Johnboy would probably enjoy, his travelogues map a bygone age and whose woodcut illustrations are pure joy. Airey Neave, Pat Reid, Tolkien, CS Forester, Jeffries, all the recognised childrens classics, Bevis, Last of the Mohicans, Coral Island etc etc.

Probably helped that we did not have a TV until I was about thirteen, but I was and still am an omniverous reader.

I actually read our O-level books the week I got them. Gerrry Durrell was a joy and I bought everything he ever wrote. Churchill was a little heavier, but sitting in class while people struggled to read some pages while I had read the whole book several times was a drag.

Sadly times have a changed!
Children in the top classes barely read for entertainment now.
I too love reading-not on the same level as you Peter; but also have thousands of books in all rooms and the loft.
Lily loves books-we buy at least 1 new book a week for her.

I'm an avid reader too, as is OH who has at least a dozen books a week from the library - a mixture of fact and fiction. We try to read a mixture each week (fiction wise that is) of new books and favourite authors.

However - confession time now - neither of us can stand Pratchett or Tolkien. Love Durrell, Forester and Rowlings though.

Having brought my son up on Asimov, Tolkien, Donaldson, Pullman and the like he's now telling me to read Steven Erikson (he pre orders the next volume) - anybody tried the Malazan tales?

Who said reading was dead? What an amazing selection of authors and styles we all enjoy.

Hi Carole,
I am thrilled at the response to this thread as there is nothing like the written word.
There is one book I have tried many read many times which is is about the Spanish Civil War. It is the biggest paperback I have ever seen and just about every sentence has a reference and it defeats me every time I have tried to read it. I get so muddled I do not know where I am.
I will have another session with Les Miserables in French soon this too is a very large paperback. I have copies in English and French and so far the translation is not far out but I have been told that it does differ considerably further into the book.
If I could not read for some reason I feel it would be the end of me.

I concur Johnboy, I feel lost without at least one book to hand

I was rudely awakened this morning at 6 by a terrific thunderstorm so i sat watching and then finished my thriller i was reading!It was by Tami Hoag. This morning both dh and Lily slept til 8!!

went to the car boot this morning, picked up a translation of the domesday book, (origional in latin 1086), published by penguin in 92. looks unread, dont think i shall read much of it but at £2.50 i just couldn't leave it there.

oh i buy loads at the carboots
well done you-thats a bargain

Has any one else noticed how cheap books go at general auctions,as though nobody values them,even really old ones,OH has a book of sermons from 1690 which only cost £10 or something ridiculous and no he's not a vicar he just loves the language!

Peter, I read BB as a child, AE Nesbit, Frances Hodgeson Burnett, CSLewis, Rosemary Sutcliffe, Henry Treece, Elisabeth Goudge, Ursula le Guin, Asimov, Heinlen, Phillip K Dick, Dorothy Sayers, I could go on. I read 'The Lord of the Rings' at eight years and had read Frank Herbert's 'Dune' by eleven as I was brought 'Children of Dune' for my birthday that year.

The point is my mother taught us all to read before we got to school and I had a reading age and vocabulary far in advance of my actual age throughout school. Not every one has those advantages, anything that helps to get them in the habit of reading is useful from Enid Blyton (who I was not allowed to read as a child, my mother considered her books 'terrible rubbish') through comics to GK Rowling. Once a child can read fluently it can be introduced to more intellectual writing, if it can't read fluently it will never get to this work. But to get a child to the point it can read fluently you have to catch it's interest, GK Rowling clearly does that for millions of children, as did Enid Blyton in her day. And that is a rare skill whether you like the work or not.

I agree Beccy. I could read before I went to school (I could knit and crochet too!) and would save up my pocket money each week to buy a new Enid Blyton or whatever. I had a problem then at school as we'd have a spelling test each week and I could always spell the obscure words like "catacombs" and "archipelago" (these words occur regularly in Blyton books). When asked WHY I was so good at spelling and told the others it's because I read lots of books, I was accused by some of my classmates of "cheating"! I remember being really upset about this for some time afterwards.

My mother worried about me reading the Beano each week when I was 14 until she realised that I was also reading Sheridan, Chaucer and Zola. Now I veer more towards James Patterson, Kathy Reichs and I just love Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh. I'm trying to read Patricia Cornwell in Italian which is something of a challenge but may be manageable as I know the book in English. I also have Winnie the Pooh in Italian which may be more my level