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What was your favourite book as a kid?

Started by Barry Admin, March 01, 2020, 07:34:06 AM

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Quote from: Cerys on March 18, 2020, 03:00:39 PM
Bert Baxter was the old bloke.

The first series had Gian Sammarco as Adrian, and I had a subscription to Smash Hits at the time, which would put it in about '86.

First series was summer 1984.

Cerys

Bloody hell!  I'm older than thought.  Coronation awaits....

famethrowa

I remember being intrigued by not knowing where Adrian Mole lived, I assumed everyone English lived in London. I recall working it out with from a few clues in the book and my UK atlas, there was one point where he said he rode his bike to somewhere and it took 4 hours.

Tony Tony Tony

I was really glad the thread turned Mole-wise.

I evangelized about the first one when I read it as a preteen.

I felt that I grew up with Adrian as each of the new books came out.

In the absence of any Mole I discovered the Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith a glorious tome and surely the Grandfather to Adrian Mole.   


turnstyle

Yeah, Adrian Mole was great. I remember being a bit too young to understand all the 'big and bouncy' magazine stuff, but most of it really spoke to me. Some genuinely funny stuff in there too. The teen angst of painting his room black, only to have Noddy's face constantly visible no matter how many coats he applies is still something I still think about to this day (I have quite a dull life).

Like others, I was also a Dahl kid. Read them all up, several times over. Favourites were probably BFG and Matilda for me.

I also read all the Famous Five books. This was in the 80s so they probably weren't as dated back then, but they were hardly relevant. Even in the fairly louche days of my childhood, I was amazed that these kids could fuck off for DAYS without any adults worrying about them. I liked reading about the gang foiling smugglers and shit. I would get through 2 or 3 a day, just sat on the sofa ripping through them while my mates played football in the park. What a spod. Also, AUNT FANNY.

The Fighting Fantasy books too, obviously. Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone were aces. Didn't used to 'play' them properly though. Kept a finger on the page I was on, flicked to the page of my choice, and then backtracked if I got done in by an Ogre or a Witch bit my bollock.

Had a couple of poetry books I was really into. Spike Milligan's Unspun Socks from a Chicken's Laundry, and Roger McGough's Imaginary Menagerie. I found a copy of that at my parent's place recently. Apparently at some point I'd drawn a big pair of tits on a possum or something, and then by the looks of it desperately tried to rub it out with no success.

I also used to get the movie tie-in books when the book fair came to school. I read loads anyway, so as a 'treat' my parents would let me get 'fun' books like the Back to the Future novelisation, or the making of Temple of Doom. We didn't have a video player at home, so these were usually my first exposure to a lot of big movies at the time. I made do with looking at still images of Jonny 5 and the like, before waiting the mandatory 4/5 years for the films to appear on telly at Christmas. Tell that to the kids these days with their torrents and vapes and fingering.


Captain Crunch

Interesting article about S.E. Hinton here:

https://timeline.com/outsiders-fifty-years-teenager-9a06e2dc91ba

I don't think we had these growing up but I've been really enjoying them recently.

Gurke and Hare

Loads already mentioned here (Mole, Jennings, Usborne, Faraway Tree) but also The Three Investigators. Particularly the extremely memorable (there are loads of people reminiscing about it on forums) Mystery of the Speaking Clock, with its two phrases that nobody who read it ever forgets:
Spoiler alert
"I suggest you see the book"
[close]
and
Spoiler alert
"Only a room where Father Time hums"
[close]
.

Jockice

I had The Book Of Milliganimals by Spike Milligan, which I loved. Later on (in my early teens) I bought Puckoon from a jumble sale, which I also loved.

The first Adrian Mole book came out when I was 16. I was most perturbed that despite being younger his dick was bigger than mine.

Catalogue Trousers

A lot of my nominees have already been - well - nominated, but I'd like to add Brian Earnshaw's Dragonfall 5 juvenile SF series. A family on a spaceship, having odd adventures. Meeting literal space cowboys, battling the would-be ruler of the Universe who happened to be a super-intelligent horse named Mr Mowl. Great stuff.

chveik

I had forgotten how much Redwall books there are. I'm not even sure I've read the whole series all now.

did anyone like EverWorld? I remember it being quite fun.

samadriel

When I was 12, I thought the world of David Eddings' Belgariad series. I doubt it stands up to adult eyes, but as a kid it was a fun fantasy, not too deep but still involving.

Cerys

I still enjoy reading it, but then I'm a big kid.

lebowskibukowski

Definitely 'Grimble'. Can't remember it exactly but one line about his parents writing on a biscuit saying "do not eat this biscuit because it has ink on it" used to crack me up as an eight year old.
Cyril Bonhamy and The Great Drain Robbery was another big favourite.
Also, there was something called "The Three Investigators" (or similar)which I read avidly but were no doubt shit. They were somehow tenuously linked to Alfred Hitchcock if I remember correctly...? 

I liked the Target novelisations of Dr Who in the 70s.  Also, does anyone remember Agaton Sax?  Can anyone remember the name of his tall sidekick?

Catalogue Trousers

That was Inspector Lispington, his British liaison at Scotland Yard. I love the Agaton Sax books - 'Criminal Doubles' is a particular favourite.

Bazooka

The Iron Man or The Iron Giant as it was known internationally such as in the brilliant 1999 animation. The follow-up The Iron Woman is also really grood, lovely monochrome illustrations.

Phil_A

Douglas Hill "Last Legionary" quartet, a series of books about a space dude with a Wolverine skeleton who has to go around fighting loads of other dudes. Er, I can't remember many plot details, but I do know they were the apex of pulpy sci-fi excitement to my pre-teen self.

purlieu

Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells. Guy wrote a lot of great borderline-teen/YA fiction which was suitable for slightly younger kids too. Hydra, Timesnatch and World-Eater were great sci-fi adventures, but Brother in the Land actually made me cry. Story of a boy, his brother and father who manage to survive a nuclear bomb attack, and their struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world.

Quote from: purlieu on April 02, 2020, 08:34:20 PM
Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells. Guy wrote a lot of great borderline-teen/YA fiction which was suitable for slightly younger kids too. Hydra, Timesnatch and World-Eater were great sci-fi adventures, but Brother in the Land actually made me cry. Story of a boy, his brother and father who manage to survive a nuclear bomb attack, and their struggle for survival in a post-apocalyptic world.

Robert Swindells and Robert Westall dominated my reading just before I became a teenager. Stone Cold was a bit much, iirc.

Re-read a trio of Westall books on a rainy weekend away in a youth hostel up some mountain (Machine Gunners, Fathom Five, Blitz Cat) and enjoyed even now.

Other series I once loved  previously mentioned - The XXXXX Adventure books, loved them; Fighting Fantasy. even the truly infuriating Starship Traveller

Artie Fufkin

So many! But the first one that came to mind was this beauty :

I remember our teacher, who was Australian, and I probably had a crush on him, read this to us in primary school. A guy, all the way from Australia, reading us an Australian book. Mind blowing!

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: jobotic on March 02, 2020, 09:56:01 AM


There was a publisher called Frontline/Headline who did a lot of hard hitting stories about deprivation and bullying and stuff. Can't remember many of them but I liked them at the time. Someone had a fight in an old quarry.


Someone hit and killed an old lady on their scooter!

Artie Fufkin

I loved me a bit of Joan Aiken, too. Especially the Mortimer books.

jobotic

Nevermore.

Yeah, lovely.

I had the Bottersnikes and Gumbles book too (that edition), but although I remember that i liked it I can't remember anything about it.

My Mate Shofiq - that was a good grim one for teens.

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: samadriel on March 29, 2020, 06:22:33 AM
When I was 12, I thought the world of David Eddings' Belgariad series. I doubt it stands up to adult eyes, but as a kid it was a fun fantasy, not too deep but still involving.
Yes! Loved that! And Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series.

Quote from: Artie Fufkin on April 14, 2020, 01:28:41 PM
So many! But the first one that came to mind was this beauty :

I remember our teacher, who was Australian, and I probably had a crush on him, read this to us in primary school. A guy, all the way from Australia, reading us an Australian book. Mind blowing!

I read and enjoyed that as a child.  I had no idea it was Australian.

Mr_Simnock


Quote from: famethrowa on March 03, 2020, 01:04:22 PMOne book we had at home and I also loved was a novelization of The Good Life, it was a slim paperback with maybe 4 episodes written into story form. It seemed fantastically well written to my young eyes and quite flowery in its prose (so as to speak). Can't find a single mention of it nowdays of course, anyone recall such a thing?

Yes, in fact there were two Good Life books. First one was 'The Good Life', cover available below, and was basically a novelisation of the first series, or most of it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Life-John-Esmonde/dp/0140033769/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1

Second one was 'More Of The Good Life', very similar cover but with an added inset photo of Penelope Keith. Episodes from the second and/or third series. Cover here.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/More-Good-Life-Christine-Sparks/dp/0140046283/ref=sr_1_12?dchild=1

The second one is credited to Christine Sparks as the author/adaptor, I don't know if she wrote the first one.

Artie Fufkin

Quote from: Alternative Carpark on April 19, 2020, 02:29:26 PM
Yes, in fact there were two Good Life books. First one was 'The Good Life', cover available below, and was basically a novelisation of the first series, or most of it.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Good-Life-John-Esmonde/dp/0140033769/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1
Awww, man! I remember reading this back in the day and loving it.

Inspector Norse

I reckon this probably got more reads and browses than any other book I owned:



(my copy had a blue cover)