Was there a book you read as a kid, not just once or twice, but over and over again? I think we create a special bond with those stories, (check out my C.S. Lewis quote below), and they are worth remembering now, years later…
Robin Lythgoe
Author of As the Crow Flies
I was born into family of bibliophiles. Probably the best thing that ever happened to me. No matter where I lived (like way out in the sticks), I always had places to go, people to see, and things to do. I found them first in the family bookshelves. The doors to whimsy surrounded me, and I was not afraid to open them and explore!
Patricia Reding
Author of Oathtaker
I’m just going to come right out and say it: I’m cheating this time. You see, there is a great, great work for children, that I wish I had read as a child, but alas, I did not. I did not read it until I was an adult. However, from the very opening words, I can say that this tale is not just for children. In many ways, it is most especially for adults. (This is probably true of any great “children’s classic,” don’t you think?) And for some reason, this story has been on my mind of late. (I suspect it is time that I re-read it …) …
Parker Broaddus
Author of A Hero’s Curse & Nightrage Rising
“I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.” ― C.S. Lewis
I read and re-read many stories growing up. Some are still on my shelf today. Call it Courage, by Armstrong Sperry. Another is The Wolfling, by Sterling North, (best known for the children’s novel Rascal, a bestseller in 1963). It’s a coming of age story about a boy and his half-wolf, half-dog best friend. It’s also a documentary novel of the eighteen-seventies. It has a romanticized view of farming and our relationship with nature, and is certainly a product of its time, in the same vein as Farley Mowat’s Never Cry Wolf.
Despite growing up on a ranch and knowing and understanding the real danger wolves posed to livestock, I loved the story, perhaps because it was a different view than I knew at home, but perhaps on a deeper level because it showed a world that I wanted to be true. Perhaps it showed the world not so much as it is, but as it could be. The romantic in me loved that. And if you’ve followed my writing, you’ll know I have a similar view on storycraft.
“An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only. . . . We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness.” ― C.S. Lewis, On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature
“In truly good writing no matter how many times you read it you do not know how it is done. That is beacause there is a mystery in all great writing and that mystery does not dis-sect out. It continues and it is always valid. Each time you re-read you see or learn something new.” ― Ernest Hemingway, Ernest Hemingway on Writing
What about you? What stories did you read and re-read growing up? How did they shape your view of the world? Comment below!
Great recommendations, Parker. Thank you. I looked for The Wolfling in a Half Price Book Store the other day, but they didn’t have it. I’ll keep watching for it though!
We grew up with Thornton W Burgess books. Call of the Wild was another one. no matter what our dad read to us we always wanted the next one to be about Brer Rabbit. There was never a book in the house we could not pick up and read and we all read all the time. perhaps being with the military my entire life, father, husband and son – had something to do with it. I was never alone no matter where we went.
I love that feeling, and you summed it up so well: “never alone, no matter where we went.” Thanks for sharing!
Well Parker you know your Grandma Vera taught me to read, and to love reading. It blesses me that you boys have that as well as Papa’s gift of writing . Love, MOM