Influential texts from your childhood?

[Bogman10]

Recently given Conn Iggleydens(Iggulden) book on nonPC behaviour for Boys, an excellent book, even for a forty year old boy like me!


Haha, I thought I was the only 40ish year old boy around!
Great to see I am not alone!
I am soooo Peter pan!

 

[rivermom]

I hate this thread!
Most of the book mentioned were not written until I had left childhood far behind!
You are making me feel OLD!
Alot of the books were influential in my young adulthood though...

Don't be daft, John. You don't have to be a kid to read kids books. I read them all the time. And, by the way, compared to most of these good folks, we ARE old. But compared to the forest, we are young and foolish.

 

[maddave]

I loved My side of the mountain, by Jean Craighead George and the hobbit. silmarillion LOTR Also the Alan Garner novels Wierdstone of brisingarmen, Moon of Gomrath, Elidor etc

 

[rik_uk3]

No order

Robinson Crusoe
Coral Island
Rupert the Bear books at xmas
Scouting for boys
The Conquest of Everest
anything by Issac Asimov or Arthur C Clark
and much more......................

 

[sandbender]

The third proper book (without pictures) I read was the Hobbit although I didn't get around to LOTR until I was quite a bit older. I read Dune by Frank Herbert at a young age and it was this book more than any other that got me to thinking about wild places and mans ability to live in them.

Additionally...

Arabian Sands - Wilfred Thesiger
Seven Pillars of Wisdom - T. E. Lawrence

Which I can remember reading immediately after Dune,

Almost everything by Eric Newby, but especially...

Slowly Down the Ganges - Eric Newby
A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush - Eric Newby
The Last Grain Race - Eric Newby

And of course...
Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah & Meccah - Richard Burton
Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
Moby-Dick - Herman Melville

 

[sandbender]

I was trying to remember the name of an author while writing the last post, I remember reading a book he'd written about a Stone Age tribe struggling to survive in the face of more 'civilised' and 'advanced' incomers arriving from the continent. The book was quite detailed, lots of references to the trees and plants that the tribe used, descriptions of hunting and dressing game, setting traps etc. More importantly it was a really good read.

It was also quite brutal in parts.

Well it turns out that the author (Richard Herley) has placed all his books on internet for anyone to download, if you enjoy them, you can make a donation.

The book (The Stone Arrow) can be found here...

http://www.richardherley.com/downloads.html

 

[Tengu]

I read it and wasnt impressed, the tone of the three books were completley different, it seemed like he wasnt sure what he was writing

 

[sandbender]

I read it and wasnt impressed, the tone of the three books were completley different, it seemed like he wasnt sure what he was writing

Until today I hadn't realized that there were three books

However I do remember my fourteen year old mind being very entertained by the first one, hopefully when I reread the digital version it'll be just as good a read.

 

[Tengu]

What is your avatar, sandbender?, looks like a marten to me

 

[sandbender]

What is your avatar, sandbender?, looks like a marten to me

It was, I'd love to see one this close, one day maybe.

 

[Scots_Charles_River]

Stig of the Dump, by Clive King
What were your early influential texts?

My god, I believed it. We used to go to our scrappy and seek him out !

Nick

 

[wizard]

New Way of the Wilderness by Calvin Rutstrum and The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne were 2 of my early inspirational books and still among my all time favorites.

 

[Bogman10]

New Way of the Wilderness by Calvin Rutstrum and The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne were 2 of my early inspirational books and still among my all time favorites.

Just reading "New way" now after finishing "Once upon a wilderness" and "Paradise below Zero" all of course by Calvin Rutstrum. I don't agree with some of his thoughts, however, he does have great incites that I had never before considered. I do recommend reading him , Paradise below Zero gives the most "how to" , and is my favorite so far. Very interesting man.

 

[John Fenna]

Oh I still read "childrens" books - what makes me feel old is that the thread is about books from your childhood - and most of the titles mentioned were written when real (as oposed to current or second) childhood was just a pink and fluffy memory....

 

[Huon]

Hi Spamel,

I think you may find they are back. I used to love these as a kid and my mother has managed to find a copy of 'The Griffin' with a 2007 copyright for my son. The details of that are:

Author: Sheila McCulllagh
Publisher: Allegra Publishing Ltd. London for Caxton Publishing Group
Editor: Felicia Law

ISBN: 9781845600440

Good luck!

Huon

The Griffin Pirate stories. The Red Pirate, Roderick the Red, was my favourite. The art work was mind blowing and the stories were pretty cool too. I like nothing better than to look at pictures of a tall ship with all sails billowing against a blue sky and a choppy green sea. I've looked into getting them for my kids, but they are out of print and cost a fortune. It's been a while since I last looked though, so imay go and take another browse!

 

[Huon]

Just saw this after my first reply. You are right about the artwork :-(

Just had a look at the Pirate books, it seems they are currently being re-released but drawn in a sickly happy cartoon stylee instead of the fantastic artwork that was in the original editions. How sad.

 

[robadams]

1. The Swiss family Robinson. I have never forgotten the effect that story had on me, probably explains why I hoard the strangest of things and never throw anything away.
2. Enid Blyton and all those great adventures. lashings of ginger beer.
3. Biggles. Explains my travel lust.
4. Hucklebury Finn. Always wanted to build a raft and float down a river after reading that.
5. Bushcraft. A book I got from my local library in the late 70's. never seen or found since.
6. No need to Die. Eddie Magee. Lucky enough to attend one of his courses in the early 80's as a teenager.

Probably loads more but these ones spring to mind immediately so they must have had the desired effect.

 

[Zodiak]

1 - All the Arthur Ransome books. I kept ordering them from the library, who didn't have them at first so had to buy them I wasn't so keen on the "big boat" stories such as Peter Duck or Misse Lee, but the rest were fun and definatley inspirational.

2 - 1970's Scout Handbook and PLs handbook, full of all kinds of articles about camping and tieing knots etc. I bought a new copis of them on e-bay last year and was worried that it would not be as good, but it was better and far more enjoyable that the "dangerous book.." series which just wind me up. I also bought the Leaders book which was new to me and it was interesting to see where out skip got lots of his ideas from

3 - American book on lightweight camping from the library. It had page after page of things you could do with cooking foil, which was cheap in teh US but still expensive here. I used to drive my mum nutty whe I used up the last bit.

 

[Graham_S]

I read all the Willard price books,
the hobbit,
stig of the dump
Asterix (these romans are crazy!)
Lofty Wiseman