- Paperback: 213 pages
- Publisher: Picador USA; Reprint edition (December 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312421842
- ISBN-13: 978-0312421847
- Product Dimensions: 22.3 x 13.5 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #435,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
In this often incisive childhood memoir, a British journalist and award-winning author (I May Be Some Time) recreates his early reading itinerary and pinpoints the universal experiences of the constant young reader. Most important, he understands the escape that books offer a child "More than I wanted books to do anything else, I wanted them to take me away," he writes. He follows with musings on the particular effects created by the books he encountered: the ecstasy and longing of C.S. Lewis's Narnia chronicles, the community created in the Little House on the Prairie series (here Spufford offers interesting asides on how daughter Rose Wilder Lane's arch-conservative politics shaped her mother's books, which she helped write), and the "godsend," at a certain age, of science fiction, particularly that of Ursula Le Guin. Discussions of the ideas of Bettelheim, C.S. Lewis and others are serviceable but pale in effect beside rich evocations of communions with books, such as the pleasing power of libraries, the comfort of reliable Puffin Books, the experience of reading "faster than my understanding had grown" and the inevitable moment when a young reader reaches the "saturation point" and must move beyond children's books. Moments of literary discovery (even for "one-handed" reading of porn) are offered concisely. Readers will luxuriate in the memories of being consumed by books and the ways in which Spufford shows his developing talent as a reader.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Library Journal
"I need fiction. I'm an addict," confesses Spufford, a British journalist and critic. Few will dispute the sincerity of this confession after following this autobiographical journey of an obsessive reading life, which Spufford began as an escape from the envy and pity he felt toward his seriously ill younger sister. To Spufford, reading is a way of balancing the real-world experience of incident with a controlled, or "piped," experience and is the force that shaped his values, imagination, self-understanding, and personality. With humor and passion, he chronicles reading experiences and the impact of books by authors such as William Mayne, Peter Dickinson, Alan Garner, Jill Paton Walsh, Kenneth Grahame, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Jane Austen. Spufford connects his personal development through reading with research and theories in child development, cognitive psychology, language development, and literary criticism. This is a boldly honest, enlightened, and enlightening testimony of the power of reading that all librarians and other educators should read. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.
Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Jeris Cassel, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items. |
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A memorable and inspiring testimony to the wonder of books,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading (Paperback)
Francis Spufford, winner of the 1997 Somerset Maugham and Writers' Guild awards, has ably written The Child That Books Built: A Life In Reading, a tribute to the enduring message and power of children's books and how they shaped his life from his early years onward. Fondly reflecting on such classics as "The Wind in the Willows", "The Little House on the Prairie", and the Narnia chronicles, The Child That Books Built is a memorable and inspiring testimony to the wonder of books and the many universes they unlock for the wondering mind of a literate child.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A well-written, well thought out review of childhood reading,
By Andrew J. Platt - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading (Hardcover)
For me, a 34 year old British guy, one of the most interesting parts was seeing just how my childhood reading overlapped with Francis Spufford's. His re-reading has spurred me on to do the same and I'm enjoying taking a fresh look at my old favorites.This is not a light-hearted read, though. This is a fairly academic exercise, picking the books he read as a child and really analyzing them as to how they affected his development. Do not expect a romp through the books, expect a detailed, studied analysis. The writing, though, is beautiful. Francis knows how to read well and how to write better! Mingling a little bit of autobiography, Francis breaks the books down into various categories. Some, like the Narnia chronicles, get full chapters to themselves. Some, like the Swallows & Amazons tales, get mentioned in passing. If you are at all interested in how childhood books affect our adulthood, read this book. At the very least, it might inspire you to embark of the same odyssey. 13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
one of the best books about reading as a child I've read,
By A. Craig "Amanda Craig" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading (Hardcover)
This is a book I wish I'd written myself, and anyone who loves children's fiction or who wants their child to read should buy it. Spufford's loves - Narnia, The Little House on the Prairie, Ursula le Guin etc will be shared by many, but few will describe so beautifully the feeling of learning to read The Hobbit, or of the way books act as "mood altering substances". The essays on individual authors are excellent, but his evocation of a chilhood sheltered by books while his sister was slowly dying of kidney illness, and how his reading changed as he grew up and out of paradise is one that will strike a chord with many.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Childhood reading: both journey and destination,
By J. Cameron-Smith "Expect the Unexpected" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading (Paperback)
I read this book in 2003, the year after it was first published.While I read some of the same books as Francis Spufford, my real interest in this book was in discovering someone else for whom reading was such an important part of growing up. Reading can be such a solitary pursuit, especially where it is an escape route, that why we read what we read is sometimes not much discussed. The adult level analysis that Francis Spufford applies to his childhood reading will appeal to some more than others. I enjoyed it because I like the idea of revisiting some of the journeys of childhood and trying to identify some of the influences on the adult I now am. I bought this book in hardcover because I know it is a book I want to keep, to refer back to, and perhaps to share. Highly recommended to all who read. Jennifer Cameron-Smith |
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
