Shabby Background

Thursday, May 23

Childhood vs adult

This post is linked with: Booking Through, Thursday 13 


"Have your reading habits changed since you were a child? (I mean, I’m assuming you have less time to read now, but …) Did you devour and absorb books when you were 10 and only just lightly read them now? Did you re-read frequently as a child but now only read new books? How about types of books? Do you find yourself still attracted to the kinds of books you read when you were a kid?"

It's less crazy now and I have more freedom to read the way I want, what I want. As a child my books were parent-sanctioned. During my teens I relished that secret excitement over books they didn't know of or didn't approve. I don't remember re-reading. But I was told that before I learned to read I used to ask my mother to read those Bible stories to me again and again. 

Then I learned to read. I devoured fairy tales and mostly mystery. I had a go at trash and struggled to understand The Aeneid to please and impress my father. Since becoming an adult I haven't taken a second look at the ancient work. I fancy revisiting it but electronically this time. Old meets new.

My juvenile reading curiosity was eclectic. At one point it got me engrossed in Lapland and at another my eyebrows met stupidly in the middle at discovering myself innocently plowing over raw tuition in gun silencer installation. As far as attraction goes, mine is on the postmodern version or reincarnation or call it metamorphosis of the books I read when I was a kid.



Thursday 13: Books I want to add to my collection. I mean I already promised myself to slow down on collecting as this tiny city apartment is going to explode. But well... and oh, this is only part 1. There are several of them mentioned in Books that changed the world. It's for the reason they made it to the list that I want them in my collection.

1. Hitler's Mein Kampf
2. Darwin's Origin of the Species
3. Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
4. Sigmund Freud's Interpretation of Dreams
5. William Harvey's De Motu Cordis
6. Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince
7. Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica
8. Henry David Thoreau's Civil Disobedience
9. Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman
10. Thomas Paine's Common Sense
11. Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations
12. Alfred Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
13. Edward Jenner's An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the VariolaeVaccinae

8 comments:

  1. I'm not a big fan of e-readers but I have one, and I can see where books like those you have listed might be useful there instead of on the shelf. In fact some of those should be free for download.

    As far as my reading habits, I don't read as many of the classics as I once did. I still read literary fiction but now I mostly read new works.

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  2. I read and reread Uncle Tom's Cabin as a child, and a couple of years ago, I bought a copy, hoping to see how I feel about it now. Haven't tackled it yet. Perhaps I'm afraid that I'll hate it, and that will destroy the good feelings I had as a kid....

    Here's MY BTT POST

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  3. Some vitally important books in that list.

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  4. I now have more time to read also.

    http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2013/05/booking-through-thursday_23.html

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  5. Hmm. I'd like to read Wealth of Nations. I bet it has a lot to say about the world's economy.

    http://otherworlddiner.blogspot.com/2013/05/inspired-by-beginnings-thirteen-things.html

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  6. I think I always liked both to re-read AND to read new books.
    http://dawntreader-island2.blogspot.se/2013/05/btt-childhood-vs-adult.html

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  7. That's a pretty diverse list of 'wants'. I think we all need our collections of print editions. I am guilty of having many. Happy T13!

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  8. Good books to have in your collection. Thanks for sharing.

    The Food Temptress

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