The Literary Blog Hop is hosted at The Blue Bookcase and this week's prompt asks us: How did you find your way to reading literary fiction and non-fiction?
I can't remember a specific "aha" moment where I moved to reading more literary works. As a kid, I adored reading The Bobbsey Twins (does anyone remember them?) and Nancy Drew mysteries, and as a teenager I read the sappy teen romances of the day (Sweet Dreams -- anyone?). But I also was very very curious about a lot of things, and I satisfied this curiosity with books; unlike the lighter reading of my youth these books made me think and led me to other books and other subjects.
A specific topic that I can recall being fascinated with as a child was The Holocaust. I read Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl when I was eight or nine and from that point I was hooked on reading survivors' stories. My small local library didn't have a big selection, but I read every single book on the Holocaust that they had; some were more well-written than others, of course, but I learned something from all of them.
I still do guilty pleasure reading occasionally, but as I've become older and (?) more mature I am more drawn to thought-provoking novels and non-fiction that keep me interested in all kinds of subjects.
I also loved the Nancy Drew books when I was young. I am also very interested in reading Holocaust books, especially ones that are different from others. have you read Sarah's Key or Those Who Save Us? They are both really good, they were 2 of my favorite books of last year.
ReplyDeletetalesandtreats.blogspot.com
Heh, yes to the sappy teen romances! So glad I got past that. :-)
ReplyDeleteI adored the Dairy of Anne Frank when I was a girl. I ended up taking a class that studied her diary and the Holocaust in college and then went to go see The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. I became slightly obsessed with the subject.
ReplyDeleteI think as a real young child reader we are somehow not yet fully aware of the different classes of literature-maybe we sense our parents or teachers are trying to get us to read some books and not others and from this a sense of literary fiction grows
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely blog - I'm a new follower :)
ReplyDeleteI also had a period of intense Holocaust studying. I read The Diary of Anne Frank as a young girl along with other World War stories, and eventually completed a university degree on the topic. I guess I'm slightly addicted :P
Oh, I remember the Bobbsey Twins!....we had old dusty copies of them in our school library and I read every one of them once I'd discovered their existance.:D
ReplyDeleteRisa
So, my thought is that we should try to catch kids up in the world of books using whatever books strike their fancies....and let them find the good stuff later....So why then do we force feed high school students when they are not ready? Why not spend high school years offering more choices of reading materials?
ReplyDeleteJust thinking aloud....
Here's my post for the Literary Blog Hop.
when we first read, we devour what we can get, without judgement, it's not till later that we learn of merit, of degrees of worth. At first we just devour.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of reading books because of curiosity about topics. I used to be like that and lately it's been a bit more about genre or author. I'd like to get back to a more topical type of reading, which I did back in November when I read ancient texts for a month! My thoughts are at eclectic/eccentric
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