- Paperback: 213 pages
- Publisher: Picador USA; Reprint edition (Dec 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312421842
- ISBN-13: 978-0312421847
- Product Dimensions: 22.3 x 13.5 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,707,657 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Even though I am a few years younger than Mr. Spufford, he and I started reading at just about the same time. His rendition of the discovery of the magic of words on a page is the best I have ever read, and the first that directly connects with my own experience. Even all these many years later, I still remember how amazing it was when those strange marks on paper came together to form... a STORY. Spufford's description of this journey is lyrical, magical and such that I wish to put most of his first chapter in my favorite quotes page.
From here, he goes into the books that shaped his reading habits as an adult: C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and many others. His frustration at being "in between" children's books and adult fiction is palpable, and his discovery of, um, one-handed reading for adult men, is hilarious.
There is a lot of academic discussion here, and some very in-depth analysis of the stories that shaped Spufford's reading experiences. Some of those portions can be very dry, but I still give this five stars because the rest of it, the best of it, when Spufford discusses his own reading experiences, is pure magic.
From here, he goes into the books that shaped his reading habits as an adult: C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Ursula Le Guin, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and many others. His frustration at being "in between" children's books and adult fiction is palpable, and his discovery of, um, one-handed reading for adult men, is hilarious.
There is a lot of academic discussion here, and some very in-depth analysis of the stories that shaped Spufford's reading experiences. Some of those portions can be very dry, but I still give this five stars because the rest of it, the best of it, when Spufford discusses his own reading experiences, is pure magic.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
7 reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
A well-written, well thought out review of childhood reading
5 Aug 2003
Format:Hardcover
For me, a 34 year old British guy, one of the most interesting parts was seeing just how my childhood reading overlapped with Francis Spufford's. His re-reading has spurred me on to do the same and I'm enjoying taking a fresh look at my old favorites.
This is not a light-hearted read, though. This is a fairly academic exercise, picking the books he read as a child and really analyzing them as to how they affected his development. Do not expect a romp through the books, expect a detailed, studied analysis.
The writing, though, is beautiful. Francis knows how to read well and how to write better! Mingling a little bit of autobiography, Francis breaks the books down into various categories. Some, like the Narnia chronicles, get full chapters to themselves. Some, like the Swallows & Amazons tales, get mentioned in passing.
If you are at all interested in how childhood books affect our adulthood, read this book. At the very least, it might inspire you to embark of the same odyssey.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
one of the best books about reading as a child I've read
11 Feb 2003
Format:Hardcover
This is a book I wish I'd written myself, and anyone who loves children's fiction or who wants their child to read should buy it. Spufford's loves - Narnia, The Little House on the Prairie, Ursula le Guin etc will be shared by many, but few will describe so beautifully the feeling of learning to read The Hobbit, or of the way books act as "mood altering substances". The essays on individual authors are excellent, but his evocation of a chilhood sheltered by books while his sister was slowly dying of kidney illness, and how his reading changed as he grew up and out of paradise is one that will strike a chord with many.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Childhood reading: both journey and destination
26 July 2006
Format:Paperback
I read this book in 2003, the year after it was first published.
While I read some of the same books as Francis Spufford, my real interest in this book was in discovering someone else for whom reading was such an important part of growing up.
Reading can be such a solitary pursuit, especially where it is an escape route, that why we read what we read is sometimes not much discussed. The adult level analysis that Francis Spufford applies to his childhood reading will appeal to some more than others. I enjoyed it because I like the idea of revisiting some of the journeys of childhood and trying to identify some of the influences on the adult I now am.
I bought this book in hardcover because I know it is a book I want to keep, to refer back to, and perhaps to share.
Highly recommended to all who read.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
While I read some of the same books as Francis Spufford, my real interest in this book was in discovering someone else for whom reading was such an important part of growing up.
Reading can be such a solitary pursuit, especially where it is an escape route, that why we read what we read is sometimes not much discussed. The adult level analysis that Francis Spufford applies to his childhood reading will appeal to some more than others. I enjoyed it because I like the idea of revisiting some of the journeys of childhood and trying to identify some of the influences on the adult I now am.
I bought this book in hardcover because I know it is a book I want to keep, to refer back to, and perhaps to share.
Highly recommended to all who read.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
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