Your Favourite Book?

[Dan Goodwin]

What was your favourite book as a child?

What stories could you get in lost in for hours on end?

Which characters did you long to meet in real life? Who did you want to be?

How did reading stories influence your creativity, then, and and now?

Share your comments with us below...

[jane]

i had several favourite books - The Secret Garden - which has been an influence all the way through my life - just the romance of a hidden over grown garden that can come back to life with love... something i love undertaking. Also the thought of opening an old wooden door in a wall and finding such a wonderful secret place beyond.. Loved that story.

Then there was The Borrowers - the world beneath the floor boards filled with little people who were now the owners of all the things those above boards lose or misplace... loved it.... was disappointed by the film - shattered my imaginery world and pictures in my head.

Lion Witch and Wardrobe - not the others in the series - just the first - again its the opening a door and finding a new world.... perhaps i was always looking for an escape!!!

The book i used to enjoy reading to my children most, and them to hear, was the Elves and the Shoemaker... lovely story - when i visited Brugges with my daughter - it was JUST the town from the story!

there are more books - but cant remember at the moment..... Black Beauty was another...... x

[Dan Goodwin]

I remember the elves and the shoemaker, that was one of my favourites as a child. Think there was a series of Ladybird books like that, but can't recall any of the others right now...

[Dan Goodwin]

Ah, quick trip to Amazon:

Chicken Licken, Three Billy Goats Gruff and Puss In Boots were other favourites of mine in this series...

[Ang Monsoon]

I loved my "pop-up" book of the "Sleeping Beauty", I found the picture of the witch with the spindle so scary, made you want to shout "don't trust her!", but of course, the princess did, then she had to sleep for 100 years, whilst all the thorn roses grew up around the castle, and all the staff of the castle slept too, and then one day the handsome prince came & woke her up....and of course it was all fate 'cos the bad witch came to her Christening. It seemed a terrible waste to miss the century you should have been living in.

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Those princesses were always making mistakes and doing what they were told not to do, weren't they? I just finished reading the tale of Amor and Psyche and am about to delve into the author's theories (Erich Neumann) of how the story relates to the psychic development of the feminine. Psyche had it made ... kewl castle, invisible servants, riches beyond compare ... as long as she did not make any attempt to view her lover when he came to her at night. But of course, her sisters got jealous and talked her into taking a peek, convincing her that he was a monster, so she did, and he got burned by the lamp, and that's where the trouble and woe began.

[Ang Monsoon]

yeah, and the princes so 2-dimensional just wheeled on at the end to break the spell with a kiss. It's the dancing princesses who have all the ecstasy. The princes just ride in from somewhere. No wonder Bluebeard & and Psyche's invisible lover (????) are more exciting. Bit like Beauty & The Beast as well that one. I've always gone for the older, more interesting lover myself, Heathcliff, Oliver Reed ("The Virgin & The Gypsy"), Robbie Williams....in my dreams only, of course.....Your Psyche one is like Adam & Eve as well, don't look or else you get burned (castrated?, or is that going too far?) The forbidden. I studied Milton's "Paradise Lost" at college & I remember the prof. saying that his hell was much more interesting than his heaven, & I guess its the same in fairytales. Angela Carter is a novelist who explored these fairytale themes a lot.

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Well, Amor is Love ... so Psyche fell in love with Love ... much to his mother's dismay - he was the son of Venus and she had sent him to make Psyche fall in love with a mortal but he decided he wanted to be her lover ... Psyche had to go through a lot of running and hiding from Venus after the proverbial poop hit the fan, and then she surrendered and had to do a lot of impossible tasks for Venus ... it all turns out happily ever after in the end, of course.

[Ang Monsoon]

"of course". i used to like my Enid Blyton's "Greek Myths" too, can't remember the proper title, especially the tale of Proserpine & the Underworld....

[Dan Goodwin]

Enid Blyton, where do you begin! Wrote LOADS of stuff I read as a child, probably about half my books where by her, Noddy, Secret Seven, Famous Five, Mr Pinkwhistle, and dozens of others.

Searching under her name on Amazon.co.uk under children's books returns over 18000 results!

Enid Blyton books

[sueokieffe]

The first book that came to mind for me was The Secret Garden as well. I loved the romance of it, the possibilities of loving what has been shut away and undiscovered. I think I felt like that a lot as a child and it is a theme that follows me through to present day. I devoured Nancy Drew stories; they were fun and adventurous and it was great seeing a strong girl role model. Another book I remember reading and loving was the original version of Pinocchio, not the watered down Disney tale. I still have vivid memories of a week long dream about the Blue Fairy. She was my guardian angel in those dreams. I think I was about 10. Ilonged to have her in my life for real. I loved horse stories by Marguerite Henry...Misty of Chincoteague...I think every little girl dreams of wanting a horse or being a horse. I also loved mythology...not just greek and roman, but also american mythology like paul bunyan. i loved writing stories and plays when i was in grade school and middle school. I still see myself as a story teller in my mandalas and doodles.

This was fun to think about. I never really thought about those connections to my adult life.

Sue

[Barbara Ann Storrier]

Yes, you do tell stories in your art, Sue and I'm so grateful that you do :)
I missed reading The Secret Garden. I'll have to remedy that soon. A "children's" book that really moved me when I first read it a couple of years ago is "The Little Prince". Very simple, very profound.

[sueokieffe]

i read The Little Prince in high school, along with Winnie the Pooh. I still have those books from so long ago.