Ten Significant Books - Day 5

On Day 5 - it had to be a Famous Five book! I grew to love and read practically everything Enid Blyton wrote - from the Noddy books, Amelia Jane, The Magic Faraway Tree, Mr Meddles Muddles, The Secret Seven Books, the St Clare and Malory Towers series to of course the Famous Five. If Enid Blyton wrote it, I've probably read it.

At this time in my life I could have read a book a day - oh to have the time to do that now! And often I did. Mum took us to Carrickfergus library regularly and we also were lucky to have a mobile library that came up our road once a fortnight. I was able to order books and have them delivered in the library van almost to the door - for free! - much better than Amazon! I remember well the joy of looking out the front window waiting for the library van to negotiate our narrow, bumpy road and how excited I was to climb up the steps to see if any of the books I had ordered had arrived.

Through our brilliant library service and my Mum going into a bomb damaged Belfast regularly to buy me a book I worked my way through the Famous Five books. I read all of them - or rather I started to read all of them. There was one of the stories I never finished and it wasn't anything to do with the story or my reading ability. I wish I could remember which book it was. I started reading it and around a third of the way into the book, noticed that it had been printed wrong and the story started again for a second time - but didn't finish. Mum took it back to the shop the next week and got her money back. They didn't have another copy as she had ordered it in and while they tried to order another copy it never arrived. The library weren't able to get a copy either. So the Famous Five book, whose name I can't remember sticks in my mind for being the first book I've never finished reading. And while I don't like to be defeated, I'm not going to read them all now to complete the challenge!

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Riverdance' in an anthology

It was lovely to receive this book in the post today - the Lagan Navigation Trust's anthology 'Where My River Flows' and to read my winning poem 'Riverdance' on the first page. I'm looking forward to reading all the other poems and stories.

Ten Significant Books - day 4

This book was a Christmas present one year. I already knew that books weren't just full of stories and poems, and that they could help you learn more about the hobbies you enjoyed to develop new skills. But this was the first time I had a book of my own, bursting with ideas of things to make rather than just watching  Lesley Judd on Blue Peter make a fabulous 'tidy tubs' from an old washing up liquid bottle and sticky-backed plastic.

I also learned from this book that rarely did my efforts to replicate the craft idea look anything like the photograph in the book. Just as well the book title was right - it was fun to make the items in it, but most of them were completely useless!

Ten Significant books - Day 3

This is the first poetry book I remember. I think it may have been a school book which my aunt (a primary school teacher) got for us, ever keen that we developed a love of reading. There were four books in the series and we had two of them - the red one and the blue one.

 

From these books I developed a love of poetry from an early age. From the poems in them such as Eleanor Farjeon's 'Cats', Alfred Noyes' 'Daddy fell into the pond', Rose Fyleman's 'Mice', Thomas Hood's 'Choosing their Names', Spike Milligan's 'On the Ning Nang Nong', Queenie Scott-Hopper's 'The Visit', I learned about rhyme and rhythm and that poems could be entertaining, funny and exciting.

 

The introduction to the blue book concludes "John Dryden once wrote that the chief end of poetry is delight. It is our sincere hope that RHYME AND RHYTHM will indeed be a source of delight, and that it will lead its readers to a lasting love of poetry". Mission accomplished.

Ten Significant Books - day 2

Recycling isn't a new phenomenon. A group of furry creatures made it fashionable in the 1970s and I was one of their biggest fans. Around the time they hit the TV screen I was reading about them too.

My Mum bought me this edition of 'The Wombles' and I read it and read it over and over again. They didn't look as cuddly on the book cover as they did on the TV programme narrated by Bernard Cribbins but the book still made an impression on me.

So much so that I amassed over a few years a Great Bulgaria toothbrush holder, pillowcase,  schoolbag with Madame Cholet on it and several womble records (which are still in my possession!) My aunt bought me this one in exchange for a bottle of sherry I had won in a raffle - while she probably got the better deal I was more than delighted with my new raffle prize.

What I loved most about the book was the characters Elizabeth Beresford created - they each have their own quirky traits and personalities. She made them believable and brought them to life, before they made it to television.

Ten Significant Books - Day 1

I'm going to identify a book per day over the next 10 days that had a significant impact on me from first reading. Thanks to my writing friend Vicky for the nomination. I'm starting out with one of the first books I remember reading in school - Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby from the Uncle Remus stories.

The impact for me was not the actual story, rather it was on my determination to be able to read a story for myself.

Our P2 teacher rewarded us with dolly mixtures for reading well - is it any wonder I have a sweet tooth? If we read well we received two dolly mixtures each day. The sugar police would have a fit at this nowadays.

This was the book that introduced me to the first difficult word I couldn't read on my own and the day I couldn't read and pronounce 'briars' correctly I didn't receive two dolly mixtures.  But it never happened again - not because I wanted the sweets, but rather because I became determined that difficult words wouldn't beat me.

edit, edit, edit - pays off

I was delighted to hear last week that my short story 'Left on the Shelf' had been successful in a UK writing competition. It's lovely to see the judges' encouraging comments about the story - especially as this story has been rejected several times. Following a few edits, taking on encouraging feedback from unsuccessful submissions, and continuing to believe in my story has eventually paid off.