How could one not want to find out about this? "Short, dense, elusive, and ferociously bright... a memoir about how, what and why we read as children."

Caught at a very mini meet of me and rainbow3 at the City Cafe.

I really enjoyed reading about Spufford's journey through childhood, using the books he was reading at those times as points of reference. I probably liked it because I read a lot of the same books, although he is older than me. I was also impressed by his openess when talking about his life.
Will bring along to the next meet up.

Picked up at the meetup on Wednesday after a good review by bookfrogster. Thanks!

It wasn't what I was expecting but was very good nonetheless. I especially enjoyed the first chapter in which Spufford describes why child bookworms act as they do. There are many insights, but here is one example.

"There were times when a particular book, like a seed crystal, dropped into our minds when they were exactly ready for it, like a supersaturated solution and suddenly we changed. Suddenly a thousands crystals of perception of our own formed, the original insight of the story ordering whole arrays of discoveries inside us, into winking accuracy." - That was exactly how I used to feel as a young misunderstood teenager when I read my first couple of romance novels!!!

Later the book gets more high-brow, with discussions of child development theorists and some heavy metaphor. However the underlying tale of the author's journey through books was a delight to read, being as it were, a tale very similar to my own. In particular, Spufford's recollection of how difficult it was to cross the threshold from child to adult fiction struck a cord with my own experiences. Had the book been longer, I think I'd have got bored. However it's only 211 pages long which I thought was a perfect size for it.

RELEASE NOTES:

To be released at meetup

Picked it up at the Negociants, Lothian Street meetup tonight (11/07/2007 7:30PM). Will read it over the next week or so.

Very interesting 'concept book' which tended to be a bit too psycho-analytical at times. I felt like I could relate to what he was trying get across, though. Also, I thought he stopped short although I can understand that he didn't want to talk about "other people's memories with are not mine to devulge" or something to that effect.

I also liked the question posed by the author. Are we attracted to certain books at certain stages of our lives because of our immediate personal situation at the time or because of character? A sort of "nature vs nurture" applied to bookreading.

It's not exactly a chill-out, easy read but enjoyable to those who like to get insights about other people's experiences and feelings out of a book rather than exciting, action-packed fictional reads.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I spent a wonderful weekend at St Donat's Castle in Wales and released it in the Teacher's Lounge.
Hopefully, nobody put it in the school library although I wouldn't mind that.