NH: I'm in the lucky position of having come from a bookish family. Dad
was a writer, Mum's a library cataloguer. Don't remember holiday reading
separately from other reading, partly because I spent my childhood in the
Caribbean, where seasons aren't as clearly defined. Did my share of
reading under the covers with a flashlight as a child, but no-one batted
an eye at a kid who could get so lost in a book that she'd block out the
whole world. My dad did the same all the time. I managed to be a
tomboy, too; perfected the art of swinging up into the branches of
whatever tree was my current favourite with a book clenched between my
teeth. Kid's books I remember fondly are:
_A Traveller in Time_ Alison Uttley
_Underground Alley_ (forget the author)
_Green Knowe Series_ (agh! author's name on my tonguetip, but I can't
spit it out)
-Gulliver's Travels_ (what did I know from social commentary?)
_The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ C.S. Lewis (this one was a class
text that I read in a matter of days before school even began. Got to
read the part of Aslan the Lion when he created the world (what did I
know from Christian allegory?). Still remember whole chunks of that text.)
_Alice in Wonderland_ and _Through the Looking Glass_ my 1st form
English teacher (that would be Grade 7, I think, or maybe 8 or 9; never
can get it straight) taught us some tunes for some of the songs. Still
remember those to this day.
Living in ex-colonies, much of the reading matter to which we had access
was published in England. As I look back at those titles, I realise how
many of them are English.
Do remember one seasonal novel; by then we'd moved to Toronto and there
were definite seasons. Always got books for Xmas & birthday, which come
within days of each other. My dad gave me Frank Herbert's _Dune_ one
year. I don't think I surfaced until after new year's. Carried it with
me everywhere. The sheer scope of it enthralled me.
-nalo
On Thu, 15 May 1997, farah mendlesohn wrote:
> On Wed, 14 May 1997 16:21:52 -0400 Joel VanLaven wrote:
> > Ouch. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be stuck in a
> car
> > for hours without being able to read
>
>
> I have two vivid memories re reading on holiday. One is of reading
> my way around Ireland as my mother complained bitterly about all
> the lovely scenery I was missing, and the second when my father
> took me on holiday (the one and only time) and afterwards said that
> in future he would leave me in a library for a week with a sleeping
> bag and a camper stove.
>
> Sounded good then, sounds good now.
>
> Farah
>
[So I tell my brother about being in the sf bookstores & everywhere
the covers show bronze, blue and gold-skinned aliens and white humans.
"What is that about," I ask him, "that the people of colour are all
aliens?" And he says wryly, "Maybe they're phasing us in."]
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