Here are three questions that we would love you to answer.
1. What was your favourite book as a child?
2. Is there a book or poem that you wish you had written?
3. Why do you love reading?
Thank you for answering, please post your answers in the comments box below.
1. The Iron Man / Ted Hughes
ReplyDelete2. Ooh yes. The Sound Collector. Anything by Walter de la Mare. (And obviously any million-copy bestseller, ha!)
3. Because words are magic, so reading makes me a wizard.
1. How the Whale Became by Ted Hughes
ReplyDelete2. Holes by Louis Sachar - it seems so simple and clever at the same time. Genius book!
3. Reading lets me escape into new worlds and experience things I can only imagine. It's relaxing too!
1. Wizard of Oz
ReplyDelete2. The Cat in the Hat
3. Streeeeetches my imagination!
1. The Jennings books by Anthony Buckeridge and the William books by Richmal Crompton.
ReplyDelete2. Northern Lights
3. Because it allows me to go anywhere in the Universe!
1) BB, Lord of the Forest
ReplyDelete2) So many! As a biographer currently focused on WW2, I often wish I might be able to write my own memoir with as many extraordinary stories as those I read in my research. But I think this unlikely!
3) I mainly read non-fiction, though I love novels too. What gives me the greatest pleasure is that sense of communicating with people across time and page!
1. The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.
ReplyDelete2. See above.
For some reason, the box wouldn't let me type my answer to q3. I love reading because it takes me to places and times I have never been, and lets me share the experiences of others.
Delete1. Alice In Wonderland. I loved the way it allowed you to look at the world through such imaginative lenses - always shifting size and perspective and reflecting the non-sensical world as I saw it as a child... and still do!
ReplyDelete2. Skellig by David Almond - It is a truly great, heart-full and inspiring book for any one of any age. It reminds us that every day life is a miracle.
3. You may as well ask me why do I love breathing?! Reading is so much part of my way of living in the world... reflecting, exploring,adventuring,feeling deeply for people and entering worlds that I would never be able to enter in one short life time. Without reading my world would shrink.
1) The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner
ReplyDelete2) Goodness - all of them! I quite often wish I had written The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper (but just as often I wish I was in it)
3) Because it takes me to other worlds, other times and allows me to live other peoples' lives.
1. Snuffy by Dick Bruna because I wanted to be the little lost girl that snuffy the dog rescues.
ReplyDelete2. The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson, because it is the perfect picture book.
3. It enables me to discover and experience other people's lives
1/ Watership Down by Richard Adams... well, that's one of many fave childhood books.
ReplyDelete2/ The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. Pure, perfect beauty.
3/ Reading has saved my life over and over... it's a magic carpet that can take you anywhere, opens doors, opens eyes, opens minds. Books are magic, end of story!
1. Watership Down by Richard Adams was my favourite book as a child. I re-read it as an adult and loved it even more!
ReplyDelete2. I wish I'd written the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman – for me, the greatest work of children's literature of recent times.
3. There are so many reasons why I love reading! It opens up other worlds, other times, other lives. It's like a spaceship, a time machine, and a machine that lets you be other people. That's pretty amazing!
1. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson.
ReplyDelete2. John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Poem: Easter 1916. William Butler Yeats.
3. It takes me to another place, another me and it keeps me off the streets.
1. Anything by Enid Blyton, particularly 'The Castle of Adventure'.
ReplyDelete2. 'Dog in the Playground' by Allan Ahlberg
3. A book is a ticket to an adventure. It can take me away from the dull and the mundane to some place where anything might be possible.
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Just thinking about that magic wardrobe still makes my spine tingle.
ReplyDelete2. Just about every poem that Shel Silverstein ever wrote. And as to a book, I'd love to have written Bill's New Frock by Anne Fine. What a classic!
3. I love reading because it slows me down, relaxes me, and reminds me of who I am - it's one of my favourite things ever - always has been, and hopefully always will be!
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
ReplyDeleteLord of the Flies by William Golding.
It's a passport to anywhere in the world and sometimes out of it, all from the comfort of my favourite chair.
1. Stig of the Dump (but tied with Guinness World Records)
ReplyDelete2. Book I wished I'd written...Treasure Island. Poem I'd wish I'd written... On Tuesdays I Polish My Uncle by Dennis Lee (funnilarious)
3. Why do I love reading? In a book I can travel to exciting places, I can fight monsters, I can meet amazing people, I can solve mysteries, I can score great goals, I can move through space and time, I can have a weird pet, I can get up to all sorts of naughty tricks and never get caught, I can have enormous FUN.
1. Way too many to list, but to pick one at random, The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper.
ReplyDelete2. All of them! For now though I'll say Katherine Rundell's Rooftoppers - a book that made my heart ache and sing at the same time. It's an extraordinary accomplishment from an extremely talented writer.
3. Because reading opens windows onto whole new worlds, new perspectives, new experiences. My life would be so much more narrow without books.
1 The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis. Magical!
ReplyDelete2 Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
3 There is nothing better than getting lost in a book. You can go to all kinds of real or imaginary places, live in another world and experience life from all kinds of perspectives. Reading is an escape, and a joy.
1. The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
ReplyDelete2. Anything by Lewis Carroll - not just because that would make me a very rich 184-year-old, but because his stories of Alice and the poems in it are just so wacky and still have such style.
3. The pictures in my head from words on a page are awesome!
1. The Kaziranga Trail by Arup Kumar Dutta
ReplyDelete2. I wish I had written Fog by Carl Sandburg.
Fog
By Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
3. For me reading is about stories - stories of someone somewhere that is told to you on paper. In Dr.Seuss' words - Oh the places you will go... and the adventures you can have by just reading. As an adult, I learnt about human nature, people and their situations, relationships, good vs evil and how lives are changed by accidents and incidents. I still read a lot. Over the Christmas holidays I read 10 books over 10 days and each book inspires me, entertains me, teaches me things about places and people and I am always hungry for more.
1. The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, by C S Lewis
ReplyDelete2. Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
3. Books let me experience wonderful, scary and dangerous adventures whilst remaining in the safety of my own home.
1. 'Make Way For Ducklings' because my father brought it back from America for me, and it has wonderful pencil illustrations.
ReplyDelete2. 'This Is Not My Hat' by Jon Klassen.
3. By reading I can experience more lives and places than would be possible in real life alone, and also learn about things. The more you know about, the more you have to enjoy.
1. Pippi Longstocking (early years); The Pigman by Paul Zindel (teen)
ReplyDelete2. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
3. Reading allows me to be a time traveller, a space hopper and a shape shifter!
1. I didn't find reading easy as a child because I was an undiagnosed dyslexic so it took me until adulthood to really enjoy reading. I wish I had persevered more though because now I read every day and love it!
ReplyDelete2. I wish I had written Outlander series by Diana Galbaldon
3. I love reading because it transports me to another world and it opens my eyes to this one. As the saying goes ... 'A good book changes how you see the world, a Great book changes how you see yourself!'
I am going to amend question one and say the Dr Seuss books!
DeleteOoh yes, Mary - I wish I'd written Outlander too! My absolute favourite adult series of books.
Delete1. Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson (nice to see it as No. 18 in C4's supposed 'Britain's Best Children's Books')
ReplyDelete2. Almost any poem by Charles Causley (a fellow 'Cousin Jack')
3. In the words of a boy who emailed me recently: 'because it gives me a fat brain' (I think he meant 'supercharged', not 'blubbery'!)
1: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
ReplyDelete2: 'His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman
3: Because books are like doors to other places. By walking through the doors of a book, I can enter many other worlds, and experience many lives through the eyes of the characters within them. It's a way of learning about people who might be very different to me, of understanding and empathising with them. In that way, reading is like magic!
How could I forget 'poem I wish I'd written'? It would be 'The Heart's Desire' by Ruth Pitter.
Delete1. Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer
ReplyDelete2. That Pesky Rat by Lauren Child
3. Reading is the key to so many cultures, languages and experiences. We take it for granted, like breathing, and it is almost that essential!
1) 'Puckoon' by Spike Milligan
ReplyDelete2) 'I Will Love You Anyway' by Mick & Chloe Inkpen. It's a very recent publication but is utter genius.
3) Reading takes you to places that you'll never be able to visit :-)
1) The Black Island (TinTin)by Herge
ReplyDelete2) children's - The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban; adult - the complete works of US poet Billy Collins
3) Same reasons I love writing - it's somewhere to be, to think, to dream, to allow you to travel to inner and outer worlds without going anywhere at all - anyway, books are essential food for writers - no reading, no writing!
1) 'Northern Lights' by Philip Pullman
ReplyDelete2) 'Matilda' by Roald Dahl
3) Books are quiet objects against the clatter of everyday life. But ink is a fierce and mischievous thing – it can conjure whole worlds in a single stroke – and when I’m reading, I forget that there is anything else at all.
1 When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
ReplyDelete2 Holes by Louis Sachar
3 I love reading because I get to live, temporarily, other people's lives
1. I didn't have one. I didn't read for pleasure until I was 17.
ReplyDelete2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. Because I like to see dramatic events from other people's points of view.
1. Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf by Catherine Storr
ReplyDelete2. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll - how cool would it be to have invented lots of words and then have people use them? I'd go galumphing around and chortling with joy all day!
3. Lots of reasons. Here's one. I especially love reading aloud and sharing stories with my children. It's a good excuse to snuggle up together too.
1. The Land of Green Ginger by Noel Langley is a book that successfully withstood a lot of re-reads as a child.
ReplyDelete2. Of course, like so many people, I wish I had had the idea of a wizarding school...
3. Reading offers an effortless transport from your life like no other. There aren't many other diversions on earth which are simultaneously as relaxing, rewarding and enriching.
My favourite book of all time is "The Once and Future King" by T H White. I was given a copy by my father when I was 12. The content was too adult for me to totally understand all the nuances until I got older, but that magical book is still my comfort blanket now, far too many years later.
ReplyDeleteI wish I'd written anything at all by Terry Pratchett.
Why do I love reading? Because it shows me new worlds, new possibilities, new insight into the human condition - and it's a touchstone when meeting new friends. If anyone I meet can recognise - or better still contribute - a quote from "The Once and Future King" or "The Princess Bride" or anything by Sir T, they are my kind of people.
What a great idea. Here are my answers:
ReplyDelete1. The Lord of the Rings.
2. Harry Potter.
3. Because books are brain food; they expand your knowledge, improve your vocabulary and exercise your imagination. They are also magic gateways that allow you to explore new worlds and experience great adventures!
1.Comet in Moominland Tove Jansson also Magic Cauldron Lloyd Alexander
ReplyDelete2. Tiger in the Well Philip Pullman
3 because you can be anywhere else but here and because reading has always been easy for me.
Favourite book as a child was Winnie the Pooh.
ReplyDeleteBook I wish I had written is Treasure Island.
Why I love reading is simple. It transports me to other worlds or places.
1. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper - this is the book that inspired me to write
ReplyDelete2. This is a tough one, but I wish I'd written the first book in Patrick Ness's fantastic Chaos Walking trilogy, The Knife of Never Letting Go, so I could change one heart-rending scene which made me sob out loud (and those of you who read it, will know the one I mean).
3. Reading lets you live countless lives, in many different places, times and cultures. It's not just a hobby or a pastime, it's a way of life.
1. What was your favourite book as a child?
ReplyDeleteI had lots, but the one I usually single out is 'Where the Wild Things Are' by Maurice Sendak. As an adult I can appreciate that it’s beautifully illustrated with a text that reads wonderfully aloud, but as a four-year-old it was the sheer nightmarish scariness of the Wild Things, with their “terrible roars”, “terrible teeth”, “terrible eyes” and “terrible claws” that drew me in.
2. Is there a book or poem that you wish you had written?
"The Graveyard Book" by Neil Gaiman. It's easily one of the best books written (for adults or children) in the last few years.
3. Why do you love reading?
For the same reason that I love TV, films and video games - because I love a great story – and many of the greatest stories can only be found in books.
1. I loved Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder ( and the whole series about Laura), also loved The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy Boston, illustrated by Peter Boston.
ReplyDelete2. No, because we can only write the books we write - not someone else's! That's the whole point! Finding your own voice, your own stories.
3. I read to escape - into another time/place/live/world view. I read to explore and find out more about myself. I read to think and learn and work things out.
1: Norman and Henry Bones: The Boy Detectives. [No prizes then for guessing what that book was all about.]
ReplyDelete2: Wow... there are loads, but especially Tom's' Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce.
3: When I read I go time travelling, into the past... into the future.... and beyond...
1. Rosemary Sutcliff's Mark of the Horse Lord
ReplyDelete2. Anything by Terry Pratchett
3. Because it's where I really live.
1. Sandra: Fantômette by Georges Chaulet
ReplyDeleteJohn: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
2. Sandra: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
John: Only more books working with Sandra
3. Because it transports you to another world.
1. The Witches by Roald Dahl.
ReplyDelete2. Yes! The Chronicles of Narnia.
3. Because I hear voices in my head and I want to tell their story. If I ignore them I start dreaming about them and they won't leave me alone. I also have a physical need to write, I get very grumpy when I'm not writing and the best feeling ever is when I've had a good writing day.
1. Stig of the Dump by Clive King.
ReplyDelete2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl - it's so astonishingly inventive.
3. I love the escape of reading, and the infinite variety of other worlds you can go to.
I have to add that top of the list of books I wish I'd written for adults is 'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' by Mary Ann Shaffer. So funny, and such a wonderfully light way of approaching a potentially difficult subject.
DeleteThe Midnight Folk by John Masefield
ReplyDelete1984 by George Orwell
Because I become the character and go on adventures
1. The Paddington Bear books, by Michael Bond
ReplyDelete2. So many! Book: Someone else has nabbed Holes, so I'll go for Here Lies Arthur, by Philip Reeve. Poem:
Algy met a bear.
A bear met Algy.
The bear was bulgy.
The bulge was Algy.
3. I love reading for all the reasons everyone else had given. Plus, it's fun.
1. Pippi Longstocking - Astrid Lindgren
ReplyDelete2. The Owl Service - Alan Garner
3. Because it takes me into another world.
1. Dragonlance Chronicles by Weis and Hickman
ReplyDelete2. Once by Maurice Glitzman
3. Because it allows me to see the world as others do. I climb inside characters' minds!!!
1. Equal between The Compleet Molesworth (Willans & Searle) and The Midnight Folk (John Masefield)
ReplyDelete2. Equal between The Stone Book (Alan Garner) and The Thought Fox (Ted Hughes)
3. Because although stories and poems are made up, they can be more true than real life.
1. What was your favourite book as a child? This is an impossible question to answer because I loved so many books during my childhood. Books that had the most impact on me were: The Handmaid's Tale, Anne Of Green Gables, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
ReplyDelete2. Is there a book or poem that you wish you had written? - Alice in Wonderland
3. Why do you love reading? - Because it allows me to escape to wherever I want to go for a while
1. A VERY difficult question to answer as I was, and still am, a crazy bookworm. However, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory obsessed me as a young reader. Also Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce and The Owl Service by Alan Garner. Anything which took me to another world, more fantastical than my real life, was good with me.
ReplyDelete2. I wish I had written I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith or Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. As I get older I am more and more intrigued by mysteries about families and relationships. Done well, they are page-turners that have me hooked.
3. I love reading because it is time-travel. I wish I had a Tardis, but since I don't, I use books instead. It also allows me to become someone else for a bit. And it informs my own writing - I learn so much from reading other writers.
My favourite book I read as a child was It's Only A Game?' by a footballer called Eamonn Dunphy. It was a diary based on one season in his life as a professional footballer for Millwall.
ReplyDeleteThe book I wish I had written was the above book, as the story of Eamonn inspired me to try to become a footballer, so that I would be then able to write a book like his. Unfortunately, I wasn't good enough to become a professional footballer, but years later, when I'd become a writer, I was lucky enough to write a book with a Premier League Footballer, and we wrote it in the style of a diary, based on Eamonn's book, so in a funny way, I got there in the end!
I love reading because I sill get inspired by it and it gives me so many ideas. I like to focus on books about people's lives and real events, so reading not only entertains me, it also informs and educates me too.
1. My favourite book as a child was 'The Ogre Downstairs' by Diana Wynne Jones.
ReplyDelete2. I wish I had written 'Holes' by Louis Sachar, or 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, or 'Middlemarch' by George Eliot.
3. I love reading because you can hear the stories of the wisest, cleverest, funniest people in the world, even if they live far away, in another country or back in time.
1 - I had lots, and read them all over and over again, but I always came back to Danny The Champion of the World, The Silver Sword, the Tintin books, Emil and the Detectives, and SOS Bobomobile.
ReplyDelete2 - I wish I could draw as well as write, so the books that I envy most are those with illustrations: Where The Wild Things Are, for instance, or Tintin in Tibet.
3 - I don't know the answer to this question, but I can tell you that I can't imagine life without reading. What would be the point of it all?
1 - I loved The Swish of the Curtain by Pamela Brown, and also The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
ReplyDelete2 - I suppose there are ideas I wish I'd had rather than books I wish I'd written. Adult books - the idea behind Scarlett Thomas' The End of Mr Y, and children's - Holes by Louis Sachar because it's so clever, and His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman.
3. I love reading because it's escapism from the everyday world, and because it's windows into the lives of others.
1. What was your favourite book as a child?
ReplyDeleteA Fish Out of Water by Helen Palmer.
2. Is there a book or poem that you wish you had written?
The book I've been working on for the last year.
3. Why do you love reading?
Duh! It's the best thing in the world.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get on with that book. :)
1. One of my favourite books as a child was definitely "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown... it was the first book that I bought with my own pocket money.
ReplyDelete2. Every book that I enjoy reading can leave me wishing I'd written it but in reality I can only write what I can write... so I wish I'd written more of the books that I keep getting ideas for.
3. I can't imagine not reading so it's hard to say exactly why I love it. Life would be a lot emptier without all of the worlds, characters and situations that writers create. Reading gives you time alone to imagine, dream, learn and experience things you might never otherwise come across.
1. Favourite book as a child "Weirdstone of Brisingamen"-love Alan Garner
ReplyDelete2. Swallows and Amazons- love this book because of the Lakes setting, the simpler time and the opportunities for the children to be free and explore-every chapter is so exciting
3.I love reading because I can immerse myself in other worlds and realities and forget the pressures of the present. I love the anticipation of a new book, the excitement of discovering the characters and the thrill of being part of the adventure and the pang of loss at the end of the story and hoping there is another book to follow it.
1. Magnus Powermouse by Dick King-Smith
ReplyDelete2. The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll
3. Reading gives my brain a direct injection of powerful story-juice, which makes me understand the world in a different way. And without it I couldn't write anything.
1. Favourite book as a child - didn't really have one favourite but went through a stage of reading the Biggles series
ReplyDelete2. Book I wish I'd written - The Stand by Stephen King. Poem I wish I'd written - anything by Roger MCGough, Mr Moore by David Harmer, Beasley Street by John Cooper Clarke
3. Why I love reading - it's always an adventure - I love it when you become immersed in a world or story, or the language of a poem ... the gift that never stops giving
1. Difficult to pick on one - but probably The Lord of the Rings.
ReplyDelete2. I'd like to have written The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper, because it's wonderful.
3. I love reading beacuse books can take you anywhere - different places, different lives - even different universes!
1. For Love of a Horse by Patricia Leith
ReplyDelete2. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters- Victorian gothic perfection!
3.Books give you the freedom to be anyone, anywhere. They teach us how other people live + feel and allow us to escape our own realities.
One of my favourite books: Silly Poems by Spike Milligan -
ReplyDeleteI used to love reading these poems and making up my own words. Spike was a great inspiration to many.
Poem: Leisure by William Henry Davies - We are a society that doesn't seem to have time to smile or greet one another with the time of day. We are so occupied and busy with our day to day work, to achieve the larger objectives in life that we forget to notice the smaller things in life and the happiness they can derive out of these smaller things.
Why I Love Reading : Reading can transport you to a whole different place, there are endless stories that can broaden your understanding of the world. It's a great way to escape and let your imagination run wild!
1. What was your favourite book as a child? Moominvalley in November – although I could have chosen any Moomin story. The Moomins are magical, and their connection with nature, particularly snow and the changing seasons, is wonderful.
ReplyDelete2. Is there a book or poem that you wish you had written? Snow by Louis MacNeice – I love the contrast between the poet sitting writing indoors and the snow falling outside, and the meaning he draws from it.
3. Why do you love reading? Why only live the one life when lots of brilliant people have made so many more for you to experience in books?
The Machine Gunners by Robert Westall. I loved the freedom the children had despite the dangers of their situation.
ReplyDeleteThe Hobbit by Tolkien. It was the forerunner to so many great fantasy epics, and Bilbo is a wonderful character.
I love reading because it allows me to visit worlds, places, people and experiences I could never otherwise have. If there really is such a thing as magic, you can be sure it's found between the pages of a book.
1. I loved all the Asterix cartoon books, I particularly related to his side-kick Obelix being the hero's friend but not the hero! It was great the to work with illustrator/cartoonist John Welding and then later to visit Angouleme in France where there are cartoon characters painted on all the buildings - even high rise blocks!
ReplyDelete2. To Kill a Mockingbird. Such an important book and so perfectly written!
3. Because it allows me to go anywhere, be anyone and experience everything!
1. I loved 'The Children of Green Knowe' as a child - and still do.
ReplyDelete2. I wish I could write something as truly epic as The Lord of the Rings - but I'd have to write my own. I am so not Tolkien!
3. I love to read - to become so many different interesting people in so many marvellous places.
1. Out of the many possibilities, today I'll pick Raymond Briggs' 'Gentleman Jim'. A sad and beautiful story.
ReplyDelete2. There are a great many books I think are truly marvelous, and that make me feel inadequate, but would I want to have written them? No, because then I wouldn't have been able to read them. Reading a book is much better than writing it.
3. What else is there to do in the bath?