Wednesday, 18 July 2018

Bookworm by Lucy Mangan



The book I mentioned yesterday is called 'Bookworm',recommended by Sue in her blog, The Cottage at the End of a Lane(https://attheendofasuffolklane.blogspot.com/2018/07/its-new-week.html)  and I am thoroughly enjoying it.

This is what Amazon says:
"When Lucy Mangan was little, stories were everything. They opened up new worlds and cast light on all the complexities she encountered in this one.
She was whisked away to Narnia – and Kirrin Island – and Wonderland. She ventured down rabbit holes and womble burrows into midnight gardens and chocolate factories. She wandered the countryside with Milly-Molly-Mandy, and played by the tracks with the Railway Children. With Charlotte’s Web she discovered Death and with Judy Blume it was Boys. No wonder she only left the house for her weekly trip to the library or to spend her pocket money on amassing her own at home.
In Bookworm, Lucy revisits her childhood reading with wit, love and gratitude. She relives our best-beloved books, their extraordinary creators, and looks at the thousand subtle ways they shape our lives. She also disinters a few forgotten treasures to inspire the next generation of bookworms and set them on their way.
Lucy brings the favourite characters of our collective childhoods back to life – prompting endless re-readings, rediscoveries, and, inevitably, fierce debate – and brilliantly uses them to tell her own story, that of a born, and unrepentant, bookworm."

Reading it has made me realise how fortunate I have been in my childhood reading.  Many of the books and authors she writes about are old personal favourites of mine too and, of those books that have been written since my childhood, I have met them in a book-rich school environment and have had the privilege of introducing 'my' children to a range of them, one way or another.

The author reminds me of myself.  For example, I was the one who went to a friend's home, found the book shelves and disappeared into a corner with one I hadn't yet read or wanted to re-read.  I was the child who kept her torch under the bedclothes to read after the lights had been switched off.  I though my parents didn't know but, of course, they did.
Mum, in particular, encouraged me in my reading.  She was a librarian before I came along and loved books.  Not only was I taken to the library every fortnight; remember when you could only borrow three books at a time and each book had a ticket inside(?), I had a home filled with books of all kinds, old books, new books, classics, all sorts and mum took the attitude that if I was old enough to want to read it, then give it a go (I guess they just didn't buy the more 'mature' type books or, at least, kept them out of sight of us children.

Reading Bookworm is like going into a house and finding it a home, the one in which you grew up with all the old furniture, furnishings and rooms.  It is beautifully written and is giving me many a 'stop and appreciate the language' moments as well as chuckles and quieter smiles.
I will certainly read it again - and again and again and again.  It is already a favourite.  Not everyone will like it but I most certainly do!

Here's more reviews.

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2 comments:

  1. galant18 July 2018 at 11:05

    I am sure I should enjoy this book, Joy, but Lucy is a whole generation younger than me and therefore has read different books - yes, some classics (although I never read any of those) - such as those by Judy Blume. I read books my mother suggested and she was born in 1912 and so her reading was Angela Brazil's school stories. I had no idea they were so old, I just loved reading about all these girls have 'topping' times at boarding school! I loved Enid Blyton's Famous Five but none of her other books with the exception of Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm and Six Cousins Again, copies of these I still have. My parents didn't buy many books for themselves - they didn't need to as we had a newsagent's shop in which was a small library, and so they read books from that, as indeed I did. There wasn't a children's section so I ended up reading books such as The Kon Tiki Expedition. I also loved encyclopaedias, and would start at page one, and read all about the planets and end up at the back learning about the various parts of the orchestra! I enjoyed the books of Pamela Brown (such as The Bridesmaids) but I never read any of the conventional children's books such as The Railway Children, The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, etc. But I enjoyed what I read, that is the main thing. I always think that our Thatcher Rock, in Torbay, is so like Kirrin Island!
    Oh, and best books of all, the ballet books by Lorna Hill.
    Margaret P

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  2. Joy18 July 2018 at 11:10

    You'd be surprised, Margaret. She was obviously a voracious reader and read widely from all eras.
    I think that, having taught all my adult life more or less, I also had access to the more modern children's literature as well as my own childhood books. Then, of course, I had children with overflowing bookshelves too.
    I think I have been very fortunate.
    xx

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