Reading Is To The Mind What Exercise Is To The Body (Top Ten Childrens Books)

Member Name: zoe_page_1

Product:	Top Ten Childrens Books
Date:	06/11/03 (90 review reads)
Rating:

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AKA Malu's Challenge....


Q: What is your favourite genre?

A: I like modern fiction, not just chick lit but including that - things like "Cuban Heels" and "Baggage", both my Emily Barr for example.. But I also like factual books like "Fat Land", a book like "Fast Food Nation" but better, which looks at the eating habits of Americans and how they got, and stayed, so obese. I've just finished "Nickel and Dimed" about low wage jobs in America - based on an English version called "Hard Work: Life In Low Pay Britain". I like selected travel books, like Bryson's, and things by Sue Townsend, especially "The Public Confessions of a Middle-aged Woman " which I picked up at the main station in Mannheim one day when I felt the need to buy a book. I read it on the way to Bonn and by the time the train pulled in, I'd finished it, and had to find myself something else to read. Finally, I like things like the Chicken Soup books when I'm in an Oprah mood....

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Q: Do you read the classics, i.e., the great authors of the 18th and 19th century?

A: If I'm abroad and need English books, then yes - it helps that they're so cheap. I read Jane Eyre and Rebecca at school and liked them both, but most attempts at classics since then haven't gone so well, though I read "Diary of a Nobody" when I was living in Vienna and that wasn't too bad.

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Q: Are you interested in thrillers?

A: Not particularly - I don't mind film versions, but I like books I can read and put down when I want to, and the odd thriller I've read has made me think they're too compelling for this.

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Q: What about horror stories?

A: Bleugh, no. I like happy
stories. And sad stories. And silly stories. But not scary ones. I hate horror films, and though I like it, I have to watch Buffy through my fingers, so it's not something restricted to books.

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Q: Do you read Science Fiction?

A: I watch it more than I read it - I grew up watching Star Trek and Blake's 7 every week. I don't like the novelisations of shows so even though there are tons of these, I don't usually read the books. The only semi sci-fi book I remember liking was "This Place Has No Atmosphere" which was more futuristic teenage fiction than anything else.

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Q: How many Harry Potter books have you read?

A: All of them in English and the first 3 in German - I spent a summer working in Austria teaching English to a boy who really didn't want to learn it, so we used Harry Potter as a compromise between no English lessons and my view of "proper" English lessons. I like the books but I sometimes think they don't really live up to the hype - they're good, but there have been other books in the past that are just as well written. But I much prefer them to the film versions any day - though again I've seen both films in English (once a week every week for 3 months when I was running a kids' club) and German

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Q: Have you ever read and enjoyed biographies or autobiographies?

A: Si. I've just finished reading the autobiography of the guy who invented Linux for an essay I have to write, and it was interesting. And I've read the Bill Gates ones and some other computer industry types' stories. I'm not a fan of "old" biographies though, or political ones for that matter, though the Hilary Clinton book was intriguing. One of my ambitions has always been to live the sort o
f life that would result in people wanting to read my (auto)biography. But I think writing memoirs at age 21 might be a bit premature.....

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Q: Do you remember any of the books you read and loved as a child?

A: I was a huge Blyton fan and read all the school stories and Secret 7 etc again and again. Before that I loved Topsy and Tim, Mr Men, Winnie the Pooh, things like that. At senior school I liked teenage fiction - Kate Cann and Mary Hooper in particular - and anything to do with ballet, gymnastics or dancing in general, especially the ones by Jean Ure and Mal Lewis Jones. I read Babysitters Club books religiously, and went through a Sweet Valley stage for a while... I read so many books I didn't like that when I found one I did and discovered it was part of a series of over 100 I would become hooked. Caroline B Cooney's books were a favourite of mine from upper 3 (year 7) onwards too, especially "The Party's Over" and the ones set at summer camp. Judy Blume and Paula Danziger also figured prominently on my bookshelves too.

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Q: Have you reread these books as a grown-up?

A: Yes, and no. I only stopped reading them a few years ago, and on trips to the states / when ordering from American Amazon I have been known to buy ones I missed. I re-read BSC books when I'm home and need an easy read to cheer me up, but I haven't read Blyton, except when babysitting myself, for years. I still read (and buy!) Cooney books though.

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Q: Is there a book of which you can say it has influenced you?

A: Not really - numerous books have cheered me up at various times but I can't think of any that have influenced me especially.

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Q: Which are your favourite authors?


A: William Sutcliffe (I devoured "Are you experienced?" and "New Boy" when I was at school), Nick Hornby (especially "About a Boy"), Judy Blume, Emily Barr, Louise Voss, Sabine Durrant, Sophie Kinsella, Paul Burke, Jennifer Belle - she's only written a couple of novels so far, but they're both hilarious.

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Q: Which book would you take with you on a desert island?

A: "Bright Young Things" because (a) it's set on a desert island and (b) I only started it this morning so I really want to know what happens. Or whatever it was I was reading the day I was shipped off - I don't like not knowing the end of the story.

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Q: What is your attitude towards translations?

A: I prefer to read English because I like that language best. I read German magazines and have a bookshelf of foreign books, but since I'm not at native fluency I can often not tell a well written book from a pants one. I love the feeling you get from finishing a book, sitting back and thinking "How *good* was that?" and I don't get that with books in other languages. However I will read German editions of books I've read in English because it's good for me, and I learnt "useful" German words from reading Judy Blume's "Forever" auf Deutsch.

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Q: Do you buy your books/get them from the library/borrow them from friends/steal them?

A: It depends. I prefer to buy fiction and do so almost exclusively online. At home we used to go the library every week but the one in Manchester is huge and scary so it put me off. Plus I rarely buy clothes, CDs, DVDs or make up, so I figure I'm allowed to buy books. But I borrow text books from the uni library (20 m walk away, and nice and small
enough for me to know my way around) because they cost, on average, £90 each, and I only ever need them for a month each. I tend not to borrow books, mainly because I have so few friends who read, or lend them for that matter, just because I don't really trust people to return them - I've lost half a dozen over the years, and that's enough for the rest of my life.

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Q: When you buy books, do you prefer hardcover editions or pocket books?

A: I prefer paperbacks because they're easier to handle in bed and at the dinner table, but I have a mix, probable 80 - 20 of paper- and hardbacks at home. I would never not buy a book because it's a hardback, but for ease of reading and price reasons I usually buy softbacks.

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Q: Have you ever tried Audio Books?

Yes - I know "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" off by heart thanks to having heard it so many times, and used to listen to Miss Marple and Adrian Mole stories all the time when I was younger. I would also consider having them on when I get a car in the future - they're not an alternative to reading paper editions, but they're better than bad radio or watching soaps.

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