Comments on: Weekly Geeks #3: Childhood reading, take 2

By: Crit

Crit — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 01:54:24 +0000

I returned to my bookshelf the other day..the Mountain sequel is called The Far Side of the Mountain and his family come to stay for a while. There’s also a third book called Frightful’s Mountain which is about Frightful the falcon. It was written in 1999, and isn’t quite as good as the first two, but is still interesting. I tend to find with nature-fiction writers that as they age, their prose becomes more stilted somehow. I was a great fan of Elyne Mitchell who wrote a bunch of anthropomorphic novels about brumbies (wild horses) in the region close to where I live. The first ones were fantastic, but after 6 or so she seemed to run out of steam, and her writing wasn’t as engaging. it was a similar thing to JCG i think, that the first ones were written about 30 or 40 years ago and then more recently made into movies by people who’d read the booksa as kids, so the writers who are now quite elderly in some cases felt like they could or should capitalise on the renewed interest, and write the novels that they’d had ideas for, but never got around to. I could be wrong of course, but it’s a guess…

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 26 May 2008 12:42:42 +0000

Crit, those sound great! I’ll have to see if I can find them.

Sandy, thanks for the link. I hadn’t seen that before. I don’t remember reading much Kipling as a kid, except the Just So Stories. Hey, I don’t think anyone has mentioned those, either. Or the Oz books. ?

Hi Guusje! I’m not sure I remember that one. My favorite was definitely Down a Dark Hall. It was my first introduction to the genre and at the time I thought it was an amazing literary feat.

By: Guusje

Guusje — Mon, 26 May 2008 00:25:32 +0000

I love Eve Duncan’s books – my favorite is “Trapped in Time”. Gallows HIll is also an amazing read.

By: Weekly Geeks #4 » The Hidden Side of a Leaf

Weekly Geeks #4 » The Hidden Side of a Leaf — Sat, 17 May 2008 15:02:10 +0000

[...] Bookworm [...]

By: Sandy D.

Sandy D. — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:13:09 +0000

Ah…speaking of Lois Duncan, have you seen these reviews?

http://jezebel.com/tag/fine-lines/

A couple classics that I re-read several times as a child that no one has mentioned: Howard Pyle’s “Robin Hood”, and Rudyard Kipling’s stuff – especially “Puck of Pook’s Hill” and “Kim”. :-)