Bittersweet Candy Bowl Forums

If you were anything like I was as a kid, you probably enjoyed reading a lot. It's one of the few things that carried on from my childhood into my adolescence (I didn't really start getting into comics until high school because, let's face it, manga is kind of a bad place to start). I would spend nearly every day at the library near my house when I was younger, checking out as many books as I could, and being really frustrated that I was only allowed three books at a time.

This thread is to discuss the books we read as a child, what we thought of them then, and what we think of them now.

For example, when I was younger, one of my favorite books was "Stuart Little". However, looking back on it now, very little of the book makes any sense and the entire book tended to be episodic rather than telling a single story. There was very little connection between the events in that book. One thing that baffles me now more than ever, though, is why the medical community in the book didn't go batshit insane when Stuart was born. In the book, from what I can remember, Mrs. Little was actually pregnant with Stuart and then instead of a healthy human boy popping out of that vagina of hers, a rat pops out. And the doctor who did the delivery pretty much goes "oh shit, well whatever. here's your baby."

Another book I loved as a kid was "Hope for the Flowers". It was the story of two caterpillars who were in love and eventually grow tired of their life. The two caterpillars notice several other caterpillars forming this large tower into the sky, and out of curiosity they decide to climb it as well. However, the two of them become separated and after reuniting, they decide to stop climbing and return back to the life that they had before. But this wasn't satisfying to the male caterpillar. He decided to go back and climb the spire, hoping to reach the top. Meanwhile, the female caterpillar learns about how to become a butterfly and after becoming a butterfly convinces the male caterpillar to stop climbing. The book is actually very dark and has a very different moral from other children's books. Other children's books are all "reach for the stars! chase your dreams!". This book, however, is all "if all you do is climb and climb and climb, you will eventually fall. you need to face reality, bitch". I wish I still had my copy of the book. I lost it ages ago.

There was one short story about ducks who wanted to cross a highway and people were trying to get the counsel or something to build a tunnel/bridge for the ducks to cross and it became a massive controversy like people made up shit about the ducks and it was like playing telephone where accusations got worse and worse.

And I believe the bridge/tunnel was finalised and worked and everyone lived happily ever after. Does anyone remember that? Because I cannot for the life of me find it again.

Oh shit, that book sounds so familiar to me. And I don't think they were making up shit about the ducks, it's that people were making up bullshit reasons why they can't help the ducks. Like, "Oh, uh, we can't redirect traffic because that'd be bad and inconvenient or something"

Like I coulda sworn there was a passage where someone said the ducks flew down from space and made the bridge themselves or something, like implying they were the problem!!

Maybe we're thinking of two very different yet similar books, then.

Anyone remember that picture book about alphabet letters climbing up a tree?

I remember "Bandierina" from when i was really young.
It was the story of a leaf that sprouted at the very top of his own cherry tree (hence her name Bandierina = little banner). The story was about her life on the tree and her relationship with the other leaves.
Seems like a nice story uh?
Did i mention there was a part where flowers started to sprout near the leaves. and the leaves treated them as babies.
Cute uh?
Did i also mention the chapter after that was an invasion of bugs that basically implanted their eggs in the flowers, so that when the flowers turned into cherries, their spawn will eat them alive.
And just to not forget that, the gardner sprayed the tree with insecticide, which killed most of the eggs. And a school of ants that lived in the tree and were friends with the leaves. And the rest of the ants made a funeral.

Then it comes autumn. The leaves started to die. Bandierina decided to keep living, so that she could give her knowledge to the new generation of leaves. She spent the entire winter hanging on the top of her tree, fighting against cold and winds, and when spring came and the new leaves sprouted, she teach them. And then she dies. falling at the root of the tree, hoping to be reassorbed and reincarnate again.


You know, the usual children book.

Dont need to read the book on that, it's happened more than once in real life. Silly environmentalists and yer projects that's are t ever used anyway.

Ah but good kids books, Magic School Bus and Bearnstein Bears. Fantastic.

Harry Potter. It's the My Little Pony of books.

I read Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island when I was quite young. That is a book I would love to read again, although I would probably aim for the English version rather than the Norwegian one - unless I, by the time I get to it, have learned French enough to read the novel as it was originally meant to be.

Mostly, though, I did not read many children's books, not counting those with seven pages and one sentence on every odd-numbered page (the ones I connect the most happy memories with are a series about a rabbit named Ludde; one of them, I recall with utmost clarity, was about Ludde looking for a loaf of bread that was inexplicably placed atop his head). However, around the time they first came out, I did read through the first four Harry Potter novels - in both English and Norwegian. They were also quite entertaining. When the fifth entered the shelves, though, I avoided reading it for some time.

I actually have not been reading many children's books in my life, come to think of it. The Ludde books were good; I also enjoyed the few copies of Moomin picture stories we had lying around; but I got acquainted with more grown-up books quite early. For a while in elementary school, most of what I read was actually books on natural history as well as encyclopaedias and accounts of mythology. Apart from the encyclopaedias, however, they were mostly simplified recounts of the more difficult texts you might get in higher education; it was whatever I could get my hand on from the school library. So in a way, they were children's books - but since they were non-fiction I do not remember anything about authors and titles. What I recall about them is their content. ^_^

Kaxbe, on 02 April 2012 - 08:41 PM, said:

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.

falconboy99, on 02 April 2012 - 10:30 PM, said:

Will there be enough room?

Anyway I remember reading a lot of Dr.Suess and stuff like that. Magic School Bus, and the fucking Hardy Boys, they were the manly version of Nancy Drew.

God I used to love the "Warriors" books with a passion.
Well, I've still been reading them, as when I start reading a book series, I fucking finish it. I can't stand not knowing the ending. Actually, yesterday I picked up the last book before it comes out, (April 3rd.) and i've got to ask everyone, are any of you ever disappointed in a book series you have finished? I mean, when they totally just say fuck it and made the plot of the last book as SHITTY as possible, totally going against every little hint they were giving.
Warriors, and Pendragon have done it, although a lot less with Pendragon.

Jesus Christ when books do that it pisses me off so much.

Goosebumps and Animorphs. I was a horror junkie as a kid. Now I'm just a regular junkie.

Man, the kids in Animorphs picked up some weird allies. Like, I remember one of their allies was one of the slug-things they were fighting who switched sides after taking over one of the Animorphs for a while. And then thu turned him into a whale so he could patrol the oceans. It made no sense to me. Like, how was he supposed to tell them of any oceanic threats if he couldn't change back?

I recall reading a book about a stray wolf being trained to fight dogs to make money for his owner, until he was given to a better owner and found a mate.
It's a surprisingly deep book, and very emotional.
I don't remember the name, but I doubt I'll be reading it again anytime soon anyway.

Quote

I read a few of the books from that series, but not when I was a child. It was, I think, when I was in my late teens that I was interested in those stories.

My life has been quite backwards, has it not. ^_^

I remember a few books I used to read when I was young... Where the Wild Things Are, Captain Underpants, Goosebumps... it's hard to think of much else right now, but I know there were more

I know they don't count, but I was a huge fan of the Calvin and Hobbes comic books, as well as The Far Side.

The covers were the best



THE BEST BOOK


Newer book: Pigeon finds a hot dog. I wasn't read it, but my brother was given it by a family friend. She read it to him.

If we're counting read books (like with words and stuff) then Captain Underpants, Magic Treehouse, Goosebumps, the lot of them.

This post has been edited by Dr. Klaus: 03 April 2012 - 12:42 AM

Jerk, on 02 April 2012 - 11:23 PM, said:

I remember being able to read those books in like an hour flat, they where still awesome though.

Also, I read The Hardy Boys as well, and The Boxcar Children. That and I read all the Lord of the Rings books in fourth grade. I read Hatchet too, and that's still one of my favorite books ever, it's sequels are really good too.

This post has been edited by CaptainBaconMan: 03 April 2012 - 05:03 AM

Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was the bomb.

There was another short story I don't know the name of where it had to do with animals again fighting some villain and the villain was killed, only to be picked up by a mother wandering by to GIVE TO HER CHILD as a doll. And the child was happily playing with it. It was a story that took place in an indigenous area though, but I still remember that ending always freaking me out. The villain is killed and just.. its body is used as a plaything from then on.

...Toy Story?

Round Robin, it was a book my sister and I took out of the public library all the time. It was about a robin who ate so much that he was too fat to fly south for the winter, so he waddled his way south.

This post has been edited by ChewySmokey: 03 April 2012 - 08:22 PM

I found out that the authors for Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys aren't real 5 years ago.

This post has been edited by falconboy99: 03 April 2012 - 09:22 PM

Yeah most series that are that long and that simple are written by ghost writers.

Anything from Roald Dahl always was a good read, my personal favorites were The Minpins and The BFG

I was about to mention Roald Dahl! I liked The Witches and Matilda.

Fuck yes. The children's classic environmental apocalypse story.

Insanity Streak, on 04 April 2012 - 01:34 AM, said:

I always think of Big Fucking Giant.

anyone remember Strega Nona? it was this old Italian lady with a dopey but lovable shit-for-brains intern that was always fucking up the simplest things.

Or at least that's how I remember it. It's been a long time, and I don't have any of the books anymore.

How about "There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly"?

Greatest story about an old lady dying from eating waaaay to much. Although I got to say as a kid it kinda creeped me out.

First one that came to mind.