Re-reading Childhood Favourites

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I have yet to re-read one after all those years ago when I was a pre-teen. I wouldn't be surprised at all, though, if what you said is blatantly and offensively true if I went back and re-read one - probably any one of them from that series.

I doubt I would be able to re-read one in this day and age, due to my now heightened awareness of racist issues compared to when I was 5-8 years old. Also, my reading habits (I like to think) are more sophisticated.

Agreed. Back then I didn't notice the offensive comments. But I would now.

[PeterT]

The thing is one has to take the work as a snapshot of the time/era it was written, and realize that society and our acceptance of things has changed.

[DrNefario]

And we should probably stop trying to foist the books we liked onto our kids, and let the problematic ones fade away. There's plenty of good modern stuff out there.

I've been doing an exercise recently where I've re-read some formative books that I loved as a child. The idea is to pick a significant book published in every year of your lifetime, reread it, and write about it. I'm up to my teenage years now so they're now tending to be just good books, but I read some barely remembered children's books in the early years:

Nicholas Fisk - Trillions and Starstormers - both decent
Monica Hughes - Crisis on Conshelf Ten - still pretty great
Brian Earnshaw - Dragonfall-5 and the Empty Planet - a bit silly (I didn't use this one in the end, since I wasn't sure I'd previously read it)
Patrick Moore - The Moon Raiders - I loved Moore's Scott Saunders series at the time, but this was much more feeble than I remember

And moving into my teens with The Belgariad, Dragonlance and Piers Anthony, with mixed results. There are books I read in that period that I still love, but these were all things I grew out of.

The exercise is focused on SF and fantasy, so I didn't reread, say, Willard Price's zoological Adventure series. I wonder how they hold up?

[JSWolf]

I remember getting the first series in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I plowed through those. I remember when I started the first book, by the time I stopped reading, I was at least 1/2 (or more) done. They are not small books.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I remember getting the first series in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. I plowed through those. I remember when I started the first book, by the time I stopped reading, I was at least 1/2 (or more) done. They are not small books.

I vaguely recall reading the first 3, slogging through the second 3 and then just giving up.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I vaguely recall reading the first 3, slogging through the second 3 and then just giving up.

I loved the first 6. I do eventually need to read the last 4.

[DNSB]

Anyone else read the original Tom Swift books?

[Martinoptic]

Not as a child. Some are over at fadedpage.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Anyone else read the original Tom Swift books?

I read some of them as well as some of the Tom Swift Jr. books. They were fun and I read whatever I could get my hands on, but they weren’t at the top of my Stratemeyer syndicate pantheon.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Anyone else read the original Tom Swift books?

YES.

Very shortly after 'devouring' a large number of the Tom Swift, Jr. series (by "Victor Appleton II", 1954-1971), I actually found some of the original ones [1910]. They were a hoot. Even at such an early age, I realized that TIME had passed. I still find title hilarious. The story, I remember feeling, was not very interesting compared to '54-71' series. There were a lot of "egads" and characters "ejaculating" - when speaking. And I remember Black stereotyping, as well.

Below is a cover of a title I still own. (But this is not the actual book I own, although mine is in great shape. Mine is currently in a climate-controlled storage in the U.S., along with the rest of my book collection. I found this nice cover to upload.)

[issybird]

I am surprised to realize that I remember the story of The Visitor from Planet X quite well. Perhaps not the most plausible of plotlines.

[rkomar]

I had a copy of "Tom Swift Jr. and the Race to the Moon" as a kid, and must have read it a dozen times. Since then, I acquired copies of the rest of the series (except for the last volume, which was printed in low quantities and is now very expensive) and enjoyed reading them as an adult. I love the cover art on the yellow-spine hardcovers, which is what probably drew me into hunting them down at AbeBooks. Somehow the later editions with updated covers don't have that magic for me.