Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading

I decided to read [b:Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading|28501495|Bookworm A Memoir of Childhood Reading|Lucy Mangan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1511977501l/28501495._SY75_.jpg|48654576] because someone said that Lucy Managan ‘really got it’ – ‘it’ being the compulsion to read books. That certainly proved to be true, as Mangan writes in a witty and self-deprecating manner about a childhood dominated by reading. Thus it’s similar in style and spirit to Francis Spufford’s [b:The Child That Books Built|358805|The Child That Books Built|Francis Spufford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348231668l/358805._SY75_.jpg|1422235], which I highly show more recommend, while differing in the particulars. Both books made me feel like the author was a kindred spirit, as I too was a voracious reader as a child (and still am).

Mangan goes through her youth chronologically, recounting quite rhapsodically the particular appeal of particular books and series that she loved. Her memories are impressively clear and reminded me of my own, as our tastes overlapped quite a bit. I especially enjoyed her recollections of [b:The Worst Witch|351023|The Worst Witch (Worst Witch, #1)|Jill Murphy|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1349047328l/351023._SY75_.jpg|341267], [b:Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories|6640703|Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories (Milly-Molly-Mandy)|Joyce Lankester Brisley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327779190l/6640703._SY75_.jpg|6835164], the [b:The Chronicles of Narnia|11127|The Chronicles of Narnia (The Chronicles of Narnia, #1-7)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1661032875l/11127._SY75_.jpg|781271] (like Mangan, I was oblivious to the Christian theme therein until [b:The Last Battle|84369|The Last Battle (Chronicles of Narnia, #7)|C.S. Lewis|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1308814830l/84369._SY75_.jpg|1059917]), [b:Ballet Shoes|10444|Ballet Shoes|Noel Streatfeild|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388180362l/10444._SX50_.jpg|1505465], [b:When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit|54283|When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Out of the Hitler Time, #1)|Judith Kerr|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1339840922l/54283._SY75_.jpg|1877851], and [b:A Little Princess|3008|A Little Princess|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327868556l/3008._SY75_.jpg|1313599]. It was lovely both to remember the pleasure these novels gave me and learn some contextual information about them.

It was also interesting to notice how Mangan’s and my childhood reading experiences diverge as a result of her being about five years older. A great many of the books we read were the same, but those years made the difference between learning to read during the Cold War and just after the Berlin War fell. Thus she learned to fear nuclear annihilation, whereas I grew up terrified of environmental breakdown instead. I also noticed that children’s books go out of fashion much more slowly than teen books, as there was a lot less overlap with her high school years. I read the ubiquitous Sweet Valley High books when there was nothing else available, and some [a:Judy Blume|12942|Judy Blume|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1430843076p2/12942.jpg], but new authors who wrote for teens like [a:Jacqueline Wilson|22602|Jacqueline Wilson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373964706p2/22602.jpg] and [a:Louise Rennison|65189|Louise Rennison|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1217261779p2/65189.jpg] had arrived by the late 1990s. Moreover, I got into sci-fi during primary school via the Animorphs series and that remains my favourite genre, whereas Mangan isn’t into sci-fi or fantasy. (In this respect I found more common ground with [b:The Child That Books Built|358805|The Child That Books Built|Francis Spufford|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348231668l/358805._SY75_.jpg|1422235].) That said, I recently came across a 2001 diary which mentioned I was reading Virginia Woolf’s [b:The Waves|46114|The Waves|Virginia Woolf|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1645526068l/46114._SY75_.jpg|6057263] at the age of 15. I didn’t get very far with it, as I then discovered the Discworld series in the library and read about twenty of them in a fortnight.

I recommend this memoir to any keen reader as it’s enjoyable in its own right and will bring back your own happy memories of childhood reading. The familiarity of the books mentioned, all of which Mangan helpfully lists in an appendix, will depend on the similarity of your upbringing to hers, as a girl in a stable white British family during the late 1970s and 80s. Her childhood experience of trying to read while adults periodically interrupted with meals, socialising, lessons, etc, etc will resonate with any bookworm, though. My parents probably still have a primary school report of mine that said: ‘It’s so nice to see Anna reading when children these days all seem to prefer television. It seems a pity to disturb her sometimes.’ show less

I can't actually review this book dispassionately. Obviously Lucy Mangan wrote it for me. This particular bookworm is only a little older than my eldest child. Her mother is only a little older than me. As a child, her reading choices were my reading choices (apart from Enid Blyton. I wasn't allowed to read her books, and on odd occasions that I came across one, I saw no reason to disobey my mother's wishes. What bilge). And as she was a child of the 80s, her reading choices were my children's reading choices: or mine, in their early years, obviously. And what riches there were to mine!

This book is quite simply a nostalgic memory fest of all the books, so many of them now classics, that enriched both our childhoods - and in my case, the show more early motherhood years as well. The true friends and teachers that books become for the bookish child is so well celebrated here. They give the lie to a certain grandson's infamous exclamation last year - 'Books? They're so 1950s!' You're wrong Alex. A well-loved book is a friend forever. show less

Were you a bookworm as a kid? I was. I was even voted "Class Bookworm" in 7th grade - a category they made up just for me. I was the kid with the book inside the text book during school lectures. So when I saw this a few years ago, I thought ... maybe. As much as I enjoy most books about books, I figured the title was likely to be an overstatement and I'd be reading a sedate, literary criticism of childhood books. The front flap reinforced this suspicion. Which is why it sat on my shelves for so long.

Oh, how wrong - and kinda right - I was. Lucy Mangan is a true bookworm; back in the day, she'd have given me a run for the title and the award. She was also way better read than I was, so there is some lit criticism here, but it's fabulous show more lit criticism; she's hilarious and she's rational and she's so very real.

On Enid Blyton:

I can barely bring myself to talk about my Enid Blyton.

Like generations of children before me,
and like generations since (she still sells over 8 million
copies a year around the world) I fell head over heels in
love. No, not love - it was an obsession, an addiction. It
was wonderful.

It was an older girl that got me into the stuff. Becky-
next- door lent me her copy of something called Five on a
Secret Trail. It was a floppy, late 1970s Knight Books
edition with, I believe, the original 1950’s illustrations
inside. I read it. It was good. Very good. I enjoyed it. I
enjoyed it very much. I asked Becky if she had any more.
She did. It was called Five Run Away Together. I read it. It
was good. Very good. Possibly even better than Five on
a Secret Trail. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it very much. I
noticed it had a number '3' on the spine. Five on a Secret
Trail had a '15’. What did that mean? I decided to look for
clues. Even without a loyal canine companion to help me,
it didn't take long. The endpapers carried a
list. Apparently Enid Blyton had written twenty-one
books! What excellent news! What riches! What vital.
absolutely essential riches!

I took the news and the list to my parents. I'm going
to need all of these,' I said, gently.

And so it began.

And on C.S. Lewis' Narnia series being a Christian allegory:

The tale of Lucy Pevensie discovering the secret
world beyond the wardrobe door is a story about
courage, loyalty, generosity, sacrifice and nobility versus
greed, conceit, arrogance and betrayal. You can call the
former Christian virtues, or you can just call them
virtues, let the kids concentrate on the self-renewing
Turkish delight, magically unerring bows and hybrid
man-beasts and relax.

Reading this, I feel like I missed out on something amazing by not living down the road from Lucy. I suspect we'd have had a lot of fun swapping books and comparing notes. But it was a joy to read her memoirs now and in so doing take a trip down the memory lane of my own reading.

Mangan primarily recounts her childhood reading in a fun and often funny style, but she also dips lightly into the historical aspects of Children's literature here and there, when the subject matter seems to call for it - a specific genre, or the roots of illustrations. These bits are less engaging, more straightforward, and in context with the whole, makes the pace drag a tiny bit when you get to them. They're interesting, but they're not entertaining.

Because Mangan's writing style is very conversational, the sentences that include many clauses and often long parentheticals can sometimes be hard to follow. This was probably my only criticism - not that I didn't enjoy the style, because I absolutely did - it's just once or twice, by the time the sentence ended, I had forgotten how it began.

Admittedly, a large number of the books that Lucy Mangan covers are books unknown to me. I expected this because she was growing up in London, and I was growing up in tiny town Florida. But I was delighted at how often our book titles did converge, and how many titles that, even if I didn't read them, I was familiar enough with to easily follow along.

The author has written a few other books, and I enjoyed this one so much, that I'm interested to discover what they're about and see about getting my hands on one or two. show less

I think you need to have been a childhood reader, or now love children’s literature to enjoy this book. Luckily for me I tick both boxes and as such found this a delight to read.

Mangan takes a chronological approach, starting pretty much at birth and finishing in her teenage years. Her style is informal and witty – it feels as though a good friend is talking to you. Whilst she shares a fair amount of family history, often in a way that had me laughing out loud the star of the show here are the books she escaped into. On the books themselves she provides a careful mix of nostalgic recollections, analysis and in some instances historical context so that each chapter is more than a retelling of the story.

I found the back stories to show more some of my favourites fascinating (for example the who and wherefore of the writing of the Secret Garden) and mentally cheered when I found references to books I had forgotten I loved (Topsy & Tim for example, although I was shaken to find this is now a children’s tv show!) or opinions I shared (Mangan’s thoughts on Laurie in Little Women, the occasionally problematic nature of some of Blyton’s work).

I think this will most appeal to people who have a significant overlap with Mangan’s chosen favourites but even where I did not (never really understood the fascination with pony books for example) there is still plenty to enjoy. The inclusion of a detailed book list at the end is both inspired and likely to be expensive. show less

An ARC from netgalley.

One of those books about books that involved a lot of head nodding, both about the books and about growing up a reader in a house with siblings who Did Not Get It! Fun. Mangan talks about the finegrain detail of book memories, from which teacher read which book aloud in school to the books stocked in the local library. She also includes detail about children's book origins, although I suspect most of this will not be news to those professionally involved, was interesting to me.

Mangan has spent years writing (very funny) columns and I think in places it shows here - she goes for the joke at a pace, when perhaps it isn't always needed when reading chapter by chapter instead of week by week. But I would look for my show more own copy of this, as it's a lovely trip down memory lane. She even includes The Summer of My German Soldier a book that broke my heart when I was about 12.

I really like that she includes a list of all the books referenced at the end, very handy. show less

I might have enjoyed this one even more than Mangan's later memoir about adult reading, possibly just because there's something about childhood reading (cue Kathleen Kelly). Her sense of humor is generally fun, and she does a good job providing background and history about the authors and types of books she's talking about along with her own recollections of the reading itself. I added a few things to my TBR to check out, and I'm inspired to read some more middle grade novels I have lying about.

The back cover of Bookworm has a blurb by Jacqueline Wilson that includes the phrase “gloriously opinionated”. It is highly apt. Bookworms of all kinds have strong opinions about the books that shaped them, and Lucy Mangan is no exception. Being somewhat familiar with many of the books she read, I found it interesting to read how her experiences matched (or didn’t match) mine. Inevitably, there were some we differed on, and we made the leap to adult fiction at different times (I think I started at 8 or 9, with Agatha Christie; many of the teen books she talked about I didn’t bother with). But overall I enjoyed this and related a lot to the young Lucy’s mindset.

The book also includes a list at the end with all of the books she show more discussed in each chapter. Very handy for stocking your own library if you so choose.

This is recommended for people who like to chat about books they’ve loved and revisit them from a different stage of life. show less