Wednesday 28 February 2018

Children's novels

As an adult I scarcely ever reread novels. But as a child I used to reread novels all the time. I used to read all the Enid Blyton books I had maybe once every 2 years or so. Same for the Narnia books (all 7 of them), and the Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge, and the Oz books (well 3 of them -- The Wizard of Oz, The Marvellous Land of Oz, Glinda of Oz), didn't know about the existence of any others). And reread "Tom's Midnight Garden" countless times and each time I cried at the end.

I think because reading children books as a child was so much more enjoyable than reading adult novels as an adult. Children books had a kind of magic, they instilled in me a yearning to be there, to experience what the protagonists in the novels were experiencing. I identified and emphasised with the characters. That doesn't happen now.

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