Monday, November 23, 2009

Musing Monday...School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days...


School days, school days,
Dear old golden rule days.
Readin' and 'ritin' and 'rithmetic,
Taught to the tune of the hick'ry stick.


This week's questions is inspired by the fact that our host, Rebecca from Just one more page, is starting a new teaching job, so she is taking us back to our school days...

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about your bookshelf…
What books did you read while in school? Were there any that you particular liked, or even hated? Did any become lifelong favourites?


Now, in my defense, let me begins my saying that my school days were decades..several decades...ago. So my memory is a wee bit hazy. I am not at all sure of what I was reading in grammar school. I know I was reading. I remember all those trips to the library, one of my fav-or-ite places in the world,as I have recounted here before. But what books, what sorts of books, I really don't remember. What I do know is that I seem to have bypassed many of the books that are considered children's classics.

On the other hand, I do know that I developed a insatiable taste for mysteries. I know that before I was in high school I was working my way through Agatha Christie, Nero Wolf and the Complete Sherlock Holmes. That is a predilection that continues to this day. Push come to shove, my go to comfort books are mysteries, from English cozies to serial killers on the loose and everything in between.

Now it was in high school that I think I was first introduced to the classics and those books that many consider essential reading for a well read person. We studied them in school and we had to read them in the summer. The summer reading list...and I don't mean the two or three books that I have seen at some schools these days. I mean a list..maybe a dozen books per summer in my memory. Gosh, I wish I had those lists now.

I don't remember hating any of them. So I'm not sure if I really did not hate any, or I actually just don't remember. ;-)
But as to books I loved, oh, that is another story! I know for a fact one of them was To Kill a Mockingbird, still one of my favorite books of all time. Then there was Edith Hamilton's Mythology, a book that, for some reason, I now have three copies of. Another was The Seven Story Mountain by Thomas Merton, one that is on my all time best list. And of course Catcher In The Rye the book that set me off on a brief Salinger obsession. Not serial killer Catcher In the Rye Obsession...book reader obsession. Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction..read them all
And Lord of The Rings...not sure that one was required and in fact, I think it is too long to have been on the list, but I know I read it for the first time in high school ..and then set off on a little Tolkien obsession. The Hobbit, Leaf by Niggle, Smith of Wootton Major, Farmer Giles of Ham, I read them all. You might notice a pattern to my reading habits. When I found an author I liked, I read as much of their work that I could find. But that was in the golden years, when I didn't have other distractions like earning a living and mowing the grass. I don't have time to be quite as obsessed these days.

I did a lot of reading in high school.


16 comments:

  1. School's been a while ago for me too. I don't remember really hating any of the books I had to read, either.

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  2. I honestly do not remember what I read in high school?? too long ago....i thought maybe stephen king, but not sure.....i really did not care for my high school days even though i was a good student. too many superficial teens around i think...LOL

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  3. mom says in first grade her favorite books were chicka-chicka boom-boom and the hungry caterpillar by eric carle.

    she could have mentioned some h.s. books but that was not too long ago. lol!

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  4. To Kill a Mockingbird is such a high school required-reading classic! I loved all the reading we had to do in school. Maybe not all of it- but most of it! :-)

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  5. When I was about 12 or 13 (I'm 72 now), I read all the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan books and every Zane Grey book I could find. Also Thunderhead and My Friend Flicka by Mary O'Hara.

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  6. I really do wish I knew what I read then.
    I knew I missed a lot of the children classics..I never read My Friend Flicka..or Tarzan...or Nancy Drew. I think I went right from Dick and Jane to more grown books.

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  7. Post WWII grammar school reading was Dick and Jane and Spot. I saw them all run and jump. Bobbsey twins and Nancy Drew were my choices from the library as I got a little older. In high school, I was deeply enamored of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen and Thackeray. Like you, I still love mysteries. If you like English police procedurals, have you read any of cynthia Harrod-Eagles? She has a great series. I think Bloodline is one of the first.

    Have a great week and happy Thanksgiving.

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  8. It is sad that we don't get as much free-time to just read when we're older. Good answer though. Here's my link: http://thecrowdedleaf.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/musing-monday-november-23/

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  9. I discovered Nancy Drew while in school. I loved that series.

    Here is mine

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  10. I have never read any Nancy Drew...I wonder if it is too late.:-)

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  11. Caite - its never too late to read Nancy Drew!

    Many of the classics were wasted on my in high school.

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  12. I absolutely loved Catcher In The Rye, but didn't read any Salinger after that, lest I didn't enjoy it as much.

    I still haven't read Lord of the Rings, but I did love The Hobbit.

    To Kill A Mockingbird's always been a favourite - I know I read it in high school; just can't remember when.

    You got some fantastic reading there!

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  13. I absolutely loved Catcher In The Rye, but didn't read any Salinger after that, lest I didn't enjoy it as much.

    I still haven't read Lord of the Rings, but I did love The Hobbit.

    To Kill A Mockingbird's always been a favourite - I know I read it in high school; just can't remember when.

    You got some fantastic reading there!

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  14. I'm joining a Poirot - Marple - Holmes challenge next year. I think I have missed out on quite a bit by not reading them.

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  15. Nice collection there - and To Kill A Mockingbird sure seems a popular choice :)

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  16. anothercookie, if you are concerned about LotR, you might get back in the Tolkien swing with some of his other, shorter stories like Leaf or Farmer Giles.

    Susan, Poirot and Marple are both great characters. I hope you like them.

    Rebecca, in my opinion that is because it is great book!

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