Baby boomers - what books did you read when you were a nipper ?

[joe cassidy]

This post is aimed at the over-sixties, so apologies to everyone else.

What books did you read (for pleasure) as a kid ?

I'm thinking about the classics, i.e. Wind in the Willows, Biggles, William, and Jennings, but also the more obscure.

I still have fond memories of the Swallows & Amazons, and also the Moomins.

Yours nostalgically,



Joe

[port perran]

I well remember all of those Joe except Moomins which must have escaped me.

I'd add Secret Seven, Babar the Elephant, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Famous Five and several books, the names of which escape me, by an author called de Jong.

There must be many more.

Cheers
Martin

[themadhippy]

This post is aimed at the over-sixties, so apologies to everyone else.

Thats  ageist, so for the sake of equal opportunity my reading material included the secret 7 ,famous 5,5 finder outers, mayfair, just william and the complete ladybird works of peter and jane.

[OffshoreAlan]

Shadow the Sheep Dog

[javlinfaw7]

Started  on Secret Seven and Famous Five went on to Biggles , Gimlet  by W.E. Johns and classics by R L Stephenson and Walter Scott by twelve reading Rider Haggard , PC Wrenn's Foreign  Legion  books  and some Issac  Asimov. Also collected ladybird books  then Observers books

[Papyrus]

Biggles and the Secret Seven never interested me. My absolute favourite childhood book was Lawless Days by Mona Tracy, a 'boy's own' adventure set in New Zealand and the south seas. I read it over and over and over until it became a joke around the family. I still have it upstairs and I am going to read it again one day.

cheers,

Chris

[Chris Morris]

Victor and Valiant comics every week. Ok not books but they were my staple diet. When I was younger all the Thomas the Tank books.

[Newportnobby]

I think I read every Thomas the Tank Engine book made. Classics such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Tom Brown's Schooldays, Bunter, Just William and Swiss Family Robinson followed. I ransacked the library in Birchfield Road, Northampton and read possibly every Biggles book (apart from 'Biggles Flies Undone' which I never did find)
Even as a kid I was an avid reader and my sisters' books were fair game - such as Claudine at St. Clare's
I still read far too much but, then again, being retired I don't have to get up early

[Nbodger]

We must have been very poor, hardly any books in the house, except for a set of encyclopaedia.

The only books I can remember owning and reading was Black Beauty (with many pictures), Wind in the Willows, one of Thomas series books (yes one) and various railway picture books.

Oh and a weekly comic "The Victor"

No wonder I am not very good at spelling and hardly read today, but during my working life I had to read and understand hundreds of contract documents, specifications and drawings.

And I still don't read today, other than railway books

Mike H   

[ChrisWV10]

Practically every word written by Enid Blyton including all the Famous 5, Secret 7, Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Mr Gallianos Circus, Children of Cherry Tree Farm, Mr Muddle and yes all the St Claire's and Mallory Towers too! Arthur Ransome's series of Swallows & Amazons, CS Lewis's Narnia set, some 'childrens classics the Coral Island was a favourite, Jo's Boys, Robinson Crusoe, the Malcolm Saville series based round the Welsh borders/Shrewsbury, then on to Gerald Durrell (all this was before secondary school) I remember reading a set about 2 brothers one was on a whaling ship but can't think of the series or the author. I thought it was the xxxxx of adventure not to be confused with the similarly named Blyton series. And of course The Hobbit!

Never into William or Biggles.


After that it was James Herbert and Stephen King and comics 2000AD and Warlorld 😁

[Jack]

For me it was The Secret Seven, Famous Five, Worzel Gumage, Wind in The Willows and Biggles. I also had a collection of the war comic books of the day such as "Commando"  .

When I was overseers (my childhood was military based) I used to like to listen to Just William being read on British Forces Radio.

[themadhippy]

Classics such as Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Tom Brown's Schooldays,

any one remember the range of books aimed at kids that had all the classic titles such as those above,others i recall  were   robinson crusoe  and around the world in 80 days,they were hard backed and had a list of other available titles on the back cover?

[joe cassidy]

Thanks guys - I'll check out some of these.

As a kid I never owned many books but every Saturday we went as a family to the public library in Reading.

At first the local library in south Reading, then the main one in Blagrave street.

[Flange Squeal]

Railway Modeller, Model Railroader, everything else was meh IMHO

[martyn]

Some Biggles and Thomas (from school library) but most were fact based about the Merchant or Royal navies.

I still have an autographed copy of 'San Demetrio' from the Second Mate who successfully re-boarded her with part of the crew and navigated the ship back to the UK after being damaged by a convoy raider in WW2.

'Look and Learn'; this later amalgamated with 'Eagle', and there were some good cut-away diagrams in this; also there was a long running  series in the 'comic' about British steam locos.

Many other books, some forgotten, some not.

Martyn