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Laurel's Reading Journey
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Hi laurel, that was really interesting. I haven't heard of many of your favourites though! I live the story of you finding your childhood book, wonderful!
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There are several books you mention which are in my TBR list - suc as The Crystal Cave or Vinzi: A Story of the Swiss Alps...
I have to hurry up then!
I absolutely adored The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.
Laurel,Thanks for sharing this with us . While I have only read a couple of your favorites , I definitely will look into the other titles .
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Big Mary Stewart fan as is my mother. Wonderful reading journey.
What a wonderful journey, Laurel, really interesting. I remember reel-to-reel:P Like you, I love Watership Down; actually anything by Richard Adams. I like it how you really love languages and reseach; nothing like digging in and finding out all the facts available. I have a few Sharon Kay Penman novels on my coffee table and am interested in the Dorothy Dunnet books you mention.Like you, I'm heavily invested into British monarchy books; they are just so damn interesting! Love them. My Dad was born in Wales but I would never attempt to learn the language. You're amazing:)
Aw, thanks, Bette! Don't feel so amazing right now. Woke up at 6am this morning and put my feet down into an inch of water. I live in a basement apartment and guess what? - Also the power was out and I had to go find a flashlight. Terrible terrible flooding here in Minnesota. There was so much water running across the road from the flooded fields it was like a waterfall running down the ditch beside the driveway. My sister drove out from town and the folks who rent the upstairs were a great help. Spent the next 7 hours at least trying to mop, pump, vacuum, and squeegee water. Packed up books, clothes, etc. though it was hard to find a dry spot to put anything. The guy upstairs is a maintenance man and he is going to try and put in a sump pump this weekend. Meanwhile I am at my sister's because, well, obviously I can't stay there. Will drive back in the morning and see what's what. Going to bed now, and hoping to get a GOOD night's sleep. It's been a very long day.
Laurel that's awful! I am sorry you are going through that. Your comment really piqued my curiosity because my daughter in law's name is also Laurel and she is just outside of Minneapolis right now for a month training. Had to check your picture twice!
Yay! Another Dorothy Dunnett fan :-) Definitely try to find time for the Niccolo series - I liked it even more than Lymond!However, I absolutely hated Watership Down! So interesting to have such a different reaction when we have others in common (Lymond, Mary Stewart).
Sorry to hear about your flood! Hope you get a good rest tonight (last night?) & didn't lose too much stuff.
Evelyn wrote: "Laurel that's awful! I am sorry you are going through that. Your comment really piqued my curiosity because my daughter in law's name is also Laurel and she is just outside of Minneapolis right no..."Ha ha - and my mother's name is Evelyn! Hope your daughter-in-law is enjoying all the rain we've had! Where is she from?
No way!!! My Laurel is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Not so very far away from you. I heard today that we have had 75% more rain this spring than normal, but no flooding.....fingers crossed
All About Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Watership Down (other topics)Vinzi: A Story Of The Swiss Alps (other topics)
The Crystal Cave (other topics)
Billy Budd, Sailor (other topics)
Lord of the Flies (other topics)
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1. Have you always loved books? Who, if anyone, in your life has most inspired you to read?
Yes, I have loved books as long as I can remember. I think my parents started reading to me at bedtime when I was around 2. There was a favorite picture book that I’m sure they got tired of reading to me. I still remembered it when I was grown, and spent YEARS trying to find the name of it. That’s a remarkable journey in itself, and if anyone is interested, I did finally find it not too long ago (I’m now 59) � here is my blog post about it: with illustrations.
I can’t say that anyone in particular inspired me to read. I’m a scholar by nature and love words and language and I had taught myself to read by the time I was 4. My kindergarten teacher was upset with my parents for “teaching� me to read, because I would then be bored in first grade. That was actually a surprise to them! I, myself, was excited by the idea of “learning to read.� Imagine my surprise and dismay in first grade when the teacher brought out that giant Dick and Jane book. It began “Look!� 2nd page: “Look! Look!� 3rd page: “Look, look, look!� That was reading? Well�.. let’s just say I quickly found myself in a reading group of one. I remember being handed a book of poetry, and reading a poem about a nightingale. The teacher was stunned that I could not only pronounce the word but knew what a nightingale was. She sent me proudly around to the other first grades to read the poem to them. I guess I’ve pretty much had my nose in a book ever since.
2. What was your favourite childhood book?
Primrose Day by Carolyn Haywood. This was my favorite book in 1st or 2nd grade. I read it over and over. It must have made a big impression. All these years later I have to wonder did my interest in England start with this book or are we drawn to things because of past lives? Did I identify with Merry because we both had flowers for middle names? (Laurel is my middle name.) Or because I had moved from New England to Minnesota when I was 5? I’m sure the language differences weren’t as great as from England to the states, but there were some. I loved that the British word for truck was lorry, pronounced the same as my nickname � Laurie. I’ve always loved learning about other countries and cultures and am still enamored of the British Isles. I reread this book in March this year as part of my challenge to reread my childhood favorites, and if you are interested here is the full blog post I wrote about it:
3. Which books do you remember studying at school? Did you enjoy them?
I think I pretty much enjoyed just about everything I read. (Okay, I wasn’t overly fond of Billy Budd or Lord of the Flies or The Great Gatsby.) In high school I remember The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter, My Antonia, several Dickens titles (Great Expectations), some Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), Thoughts from Walden Pond, The Essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. I had great fun with Leaves of Grass for a class. I took excerpts and set them to music (a movement from Chopin’s Piano Concerto #2) on reel-to-reel tape (revealing my age here�) and a scroll of shelf paper run through an overhead projector on which I had pasted all the photos from the book The Family of Man by Edward Steichen (bought two copies to cut up). (Nowadays I suppose kids do their projects using PowerPoint�)
As a senior in high school I took a British Literature class and we read Beowulf: A New Verse Translation, Chaucer (modern translations), Malory, Shakespeare, Dickens, the “Romantic Poets�, among others. I was a music major in college and grad school (before becoming a librarian � it’s a long story�) but I took classes on Arthurian literature (a lifelong passion), Anglo Saxon, and middle English (Chaucer in the original), Latin, koine Greek (told you I loved languages�), and eventually medieval Irish, and Welsh (The Mabinogian in the original). I have since taught myself modern Welsh (that has also been a passion of mine), and just for fun I also dabbled in Icelandic so I could read the sagas in the original language.
4. Where do you most enjoy reading? Do you need silence to read, or can you read almost anywhere?
Anywhere and everywhere, although since I moved out to the country I have become a big fan of listening to audiobooks in my car. I rarely listen to the car radio any more since I’m always listening to a book! No, I don’t need silence to read. I can tune out a lot of background noise. But I suppose I do prefer it to be quiet and to not have distractions around me.
5.Choose five of your favourite books and tell us why you loved them so much!
Vinzi: A Story of the Swiss Alps by Johanna Spyri. This was another childhood favorite that made a huge impression on me. I loved reading about different times and places. I think my grandfather got this for me at a book sale. It’s an old book anyway, and I still have it. It is about a boy who loved music and wanted to be a musician against his father’s wishes. It’s a powerful story about music, following your heart, love, healing and redemption. Or that’s what it remember it being about. Definitely going to reread it this year.
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart. I don’t remember when I first read T.H. White, so this is probably the book that launched my love of everything Arthurian. I’ve been collecting Arthurian fiction for years. Some other favorite Arthurian authors are Sharan Newman, and Parke Godwin.
Watership Down by Richard Adams. Bunnies! Haha, yes. I’ve probably had a thing for bunnies since age 2�. The Hungry Little Bunny. Beatrix Potter. Alice in Wonderland. I love stories about animals. I love the whole mythology and world-building of this book. Went on to read Shardik and Maia (one of my all-time favorites) and all three are on my reread list this year. Similar books I’ve enjoyed are The Cold Moons and The Golden Cat.
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset. I don’t remember if I read this in high school or college, but since at least age 10, I have had a definite preference for the Middle Ages. Some other favorites: Great Maria by Cecelia Holland, King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett, Sarum: The Novel of England by Edward Rutherfurd.
Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. Ever since I took medieval Welsh in grad school, Wales has been a passion of mine. I have since discovered that I am descended from the princes of both North and South Wales, but even before that I was avidly researching the royal genealogies of the Hapsburgs, the Tudors, the Plantagenets. Yes, I was a strange child! LOL! In high school, I spent hours in our basement, stringing genealogies on the wall using yarn and index cards�. But anyway, I digress. Sharon Kay Penman. Wonderful author. Wales. Medieval. Ancestors�. No bunnies, though, that I recall.
6. Do you prefer reading fiction or non fiction?
I wouldn’t say I have a preference, but certainly far more of my pleasure reading is fiction. Still, get me going on a topic and I will research it to death!
7. Are you fond of a particular author and what attracts you to their books? (You can pick a few if you can’t choose!)
Hands down, I have to say Dorothy Dunnett. I first discovered the Lymond Chronicles (starting with The Game of Kings)in my twenties and have reread the whole thing several times. She sucked me in right away with her huge vocabulary (words I actually had to look up! I was in heaven!) And the poetry, and languages, and music, and it’s medieval. Probably has bunnies, too. Pawn in Frankincense will rip your guts out. And by the time you have finished Checkmate you will be ruined for any other books or authors for MONTHS. Maybe years.
8. Is there an author you haven't yet tried but you'd really like to?
Surprisingly, I haven’t yet made it through Dorothy Dunnett’s House of Niccolo series. While I’ve read all the Ellis Peters books, I haven’t read Edith Pargeter’s The Brothers of Gwynedd quartet. Nor have I read Helen Hollick’s Arthurian trilogy. I haven’t yet read Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. Or Ken Follett (The Pillars of the Earth and Fall of Giants The Century trilogy.) So those are a few I need to remedy. For something completely different and maybe out of my comfort zone, I would like to try James Rollins� Sigma Force novels.
9. Do you rely on goodreads to keep track of your reading or do you have your own method?
Well, I post reviews on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, but I also post them on my own reading blog. I keep a notebook with me and am always writing down titles that I want to read in that. I don’t try and list all those on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. I have used Calibre to keep track of my ebooks, but as I can’t carry it with me between home and work except via exporting a spreadsheet I’ve started putting those on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. Since it is web-based I can access it anywhere and I think will work better.
10. What's the best book you've read so far this year? What are you reading at the moment? What will you be reading next?
Best book this year? Nothing jumps out really, but I gave 5 stars to Tears of the Giraffe, The Shoemaker's Wife, The Importance of Being Seven, Mr. Timothy, and The Queen's Secret. I have read a number of new Tudor authors in the last year and been surprised at how good most of them have been. I just finished The Boleyn Reckoning, # 3 of the Boleyn trilogy by Laura Andersen. It’s an alternate history � what if Anne Boleyn had a son that lived � and I have been quite impressed by it. Also reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle for my f2f bookclub and am underwhelmed. I’ll finish it because it is an audiobook, and I want to see how the Hamlet story plays out. I’m doing a talk for the Minnesota Library Association annual conference in October � ten titles on the theme of The [Fill-in-the-blank] Wife. I have The Aviator's Wife ready to go on audio, and The Crane Wife is definitely on my list. Another challenge is to read a book in Welsh this year and I have picked a children’s book Un Noson Dywyll by T. Llew Jones. Oh � and I guess this group has inspired me to read some Robert Frost so I have Collected Poems, Prose, and Plays on the nightstand and dipping into it at bedtime. I don’t know if I’ll end up reading all of it or not though!
There you have it. I hope you have found my reading journey interesting.