Books I Grew Up With

This is currently a trending topic on twitter, and due to the amount I read, I thought I really should blog about it.

I can't for the life of me remember the first ever book I read. It may or may not have been one of the Magic Key books they used in school, to teach us to read, but I'm pretty sure I was reading long before that. The first book I can ever remember being asked to read aloud to my teach was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Me being me (of course) I always actually really liked the White Witch. I thought she had a certain tasteful glamour about her. I loved how she knew what she wanted, and how to get it. In a (slightly evil) way, she's been a pretty big influence.

Another old favorite was Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. I still have my mothers old copy of the book, which is now held together with a lot of elastic, as most of the pages have fallen out. I went to my schools one and only fancy dress day as Alice when I was about six, wearing a lace apron Mum had sewn for me the night before. I mostly blame this book for how I turned out - with a no-holds-bared imagination and a slightly sassy response to rabbits. Alice was also my first literary crush. (Plus I get to say that I was into the playing cards/tea party thing before everyone else.)

Finally, I think it's very important that I mention the Harry Potter books. When I was (roughly) seven, Mum bought me the film of The Philosophers Stone. Needless to say, I loved it, and she almost instantly presented me with a box set of the first four books, which I consumed like wildfire. I can remember being eight, and reading The Chamber Of Secrets in two days, then jumping up and down along a train carriage in celebration. I bought the fifth book the day it came out, then promptly had to put it away for six months, due to being terrified of the first chapter (I sneaked a peek at the ending). There's way too much I blame this book for to list them all. I think it goes unsaid that it very much helped to shape who I am now.

So, it's mostly due to those three that I came out this way; with an irresponsible lust for author-dom and the inability to not blurt out stupid/weird/mentally scarring sentences. I stopped reading for a while last year (I discovered fanfiction), but over summer I launched myself back into the book world with no intention of coming back out. I finished Animal Farm this afternoon. I may not read quite as much as I used to, but I sure as hell aren't about to stop. A x

(Apologies for the sheer amount of crap on my shelves. There are books underneath it, promise.)