My childhood books (a bit tardy), and a note for Ebony

[pengolodh_sc at yahoo.no]

First off, for Ebony:  
Amazon.com does have most of the Moomin-books, although quite a few 
are out of print:  

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-
author=Jansson%2C%20Tove/002-4716213-7100026  

Note that (1) that address certainly did wrap, and must be 
reconstructed manually, and (2) not all the books on the above URL 
are Moomin-books.  What cannot be found at Amazon.com, may be 
possible to find at Amazon.co.uk:  
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books-
uk&field-author=Jansson%2C%20Tove/202-2086072-2127855

The above did of course also wrap and needs to be reconstructed.

Now, on to my books:
>From a Norwegian point of view, many of the books I grew up reading 
will be unknown to you, as they never were published out of 
Scandinavia.  Maria Gripe springs to mind, with stories that combine 
the mystery- and fantasy-genres with historical depth.  There are the 
fairytales collected by Asbjørnsen & Moe by walking around the 
Norwegian countryside during the last half of the 19th century, 
listening to old women tell fairytales, and writing them down.  There 
are the books by Anne-Cath. Vestly - clearly children's books, but 
with such great respect for children - she's not writing down to the 
readers, so to speak.  The STOMPA-series, which is nothing but a 
Norwegian translation and re-adaptation of the Jennigs at School-
series.  This series was also made into radioplays, and is intensely 
popular in Norway - so popular that in the 1960s, there were made 
three or four movies from the books.

I grew up in a household where we had hundreds of books, maybe as 
many as a thousand, in addition to my books.  It always seemed to me 
that my parents were unusual in that respect - in the homes of my 
peers, it was unusual to find as much as a single shelf with books.  
I was also enrolled in the Children's Bookclub from a very young age, 
and remained a member until I was at least 17 years old (at which 
time it had been reorganised slightly).  By age sixteen, I probably 
already had 15ft of books, wiht actual numbers reaching into the 
hundreds (and that after the books I thought too juvenile had been 
carried off to the attic in boxes).

To mention some books I read through childhood, that you have some 
hope of knowing:

"Robin Hood", and the first book about King Arthur, by Rosemary 
Sutcliffe.  Quite the masterpiece, and still quite readable.  I 
received Robin Hood through the Bookclub.

"The Secret Garden", and "Little Lord Fauntleroy", by Frances Hodgson 
Burnett.  I received the former through the Bookclub, and was 
introduced to the latter through radioplay, and later borrowed it at 
the library.

"Heidi"  Another one received through the bookclub.

"Nobody's Boy" (or "No Relations") by Hector Malot.  I received this 
through the bookclub (is this starting to develop into a pattern?), 
but have also seen it as a TV-series and listened to it as a 
radioplay.

"The Scarlet Pimpernell", by Baroness Orzky.  Yes, through the 
bookclub.  Another treasured one.

"Treasure Island", by Robert Louis Stephenson.  This was a gift to me 
from one of my aunts.  I am sure that Mr Stephenson would be as 
pleased as JKR will be to know that the spine has been thoroughly 
cracked. 

The Narnia-series - the first fantasy-series I experienced.  I 
received the first book as a gift (not the Lion, thw Witch and the 
Wardrobe - it's the one where they have all those yellow- and green-
coloured rings, hop between worlds, plant a lamppost, etc.), but the 
cover was somewhat weird so it took a year or two before I read on.  
At the time, I didn't know it was a series, either.  Then came the TV-
series, and then I started searching the library (at one time I was 
such a regular guest at the library that they knew my cardnumber by 
heart).

"The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings".  In Norwegian school, in eight 
grade (now in ninth), one has one week with work-experience, where 
one has to arrange with some employer to have a week at their 
workplace, doing duties, adn seeing what people do at that 
workplace.  This is of course unpaid, and the hours are the same as 
school-hours.  I, naturally, chose the library.  One of the workers 
there recommended "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" to me.  I 
started LotR, but then decided I wanted to know the backstory, and 
switched to "The Hobbit", before restarting "Lord of the Rings".  
Needless to say, I was caught - hook, line and sinker!

"The Dark is Rising" by Susan Cooper.  After Narnia and JRRT's works, 
the search was on for more stuff of the same kind.  More hooks, more 
line and more sinkers!

I did read Michael Ende's books, and listen to them as radioplays 
too, but they didn't suit me so well.

"Ivanhoe", by Sir Walter Scott.  I first saw a movie with this story, 
many years ago, in which the hero is played by a blond, suitably 
attractive young gentleman (come to think of it, he may have been an 
early crush of mine).  When I was around twelve, my parents acquired 
a set of classics, one of which was this one.  I immediately had to 
read it, of course.

"The Miserables" by Victor Hugo (from which the famous musical "Les 
Miserables" was made).  When I was around 10-12, this musical was 
performed in Oslo, and there were TV-reports about this, of course.  
I then immediately realised that I loved the music, and would love to 
see the musical.  Unfortunately, travelling 1300 miles to see a 
musical was rather out of the question at the time.  Imagine then my 
joy at discovering that we at least had the book.  I immediately sat 
down to read.  

"Moby Dick" by Hermann Melville.  this was the result of one of the 
neighbour-boys having a subscription to a comic-book club, which 
included a drawn version of this sotry.  My parents were not up to 
letting me become a member of said bookclub, but we had the book, and 
off I went to read.  This was when I was around 10-12 years.

"Gulliver's Travels", by Jonathan Swift.  This one I read from I was 
around 8 years old, and I read it many times.  That may something to 
do with it being an illustrated version, with proper drawings - not 
some silly cartoony things.  It dated back to the 1950s - had 
belonged to either my mother or my father.  It contains all the 
travels of Gulliver, as far as I know - not just the land of the 
giants and the land of the dwarves.

"Murder on the Orient Express".  Having been interested in trains, 
and in particular luxurious trains, since I was but a wee lad, how 
could I resist, when I found this at age 12.

I never got hold of such classics as "Time Machine", "A Connecticut 
Yankee at King Arthur's Court", "The Red Badge of Courage", 
Kipling's "Captain's Courageous" and "Junglebook", or Robert Louis 
Stephenson's "Kidnapped", until I was nearly 18 years old - WalMart 
had them as paperbacks on special offer, 2 for $1 (It was when I was 
an exchangestudent in Kentucky).

And, of course, not the least important:
I used to have encyclopedias on the ebdtable, for light night-time 
reading.  I kid ye not - I did use to read encyclopaediae for 
pleasure!

Best regards
Christian Stubø
(who wonders if he should admit having read and enjoyed both "The 
Bobseys" and "The Hardy Boys")