Basic reading. A memory
collection of books, comics, and magazines I read from elementary (McQueeney)
through middle school (Briesemeister). Ranging from very simple to what I would
describe as ‘cusp books’, that would lead to more adult reading. They will come
in batches; some are representative parts of series. Some we had; some we saw
in libraries. Most have appeared on the blog before, but I think arranged here
by category and time they can be more illuminating of certain aspects of my
childhood.
And then there came the
Briesemeister Bump (straddling the end of 1974 and the beginning of 1977). So
much Mythology, Lore, and Fantasy discovered; so much of my path set. I was out
of the gregarious little social pond of grade school and swimming almost anonymously in a
slightly bigger social pond, finding my own way of reading and branching out
from the narrow stream of reading that grade school dictated.
I dipped into but did not
actually read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I’m vaguely
surprised that I read The Wind in the Willows but did not read Alice
in Wonderland. I read The Sword in the Stone waiting for class to
start in Mr. Fleming’s room. I was reading The Story of King Arthur and His
Knights in the parking lot during football practice when Billy Castleberry
tried to make me leave the car. I shared the runes from The Hobbit with
my friend Steve Jones. The Dark is Rising, The Crystal Cave, An Enemy at
Green Knowe, The Wizard in the Tree, A Wizard of Earthsea, all led to me
following their series and authors, some for years. Beowulf the Warrior
and The Children of Odin took me into the stark legends of the North,
where before had been stories from Greece.
And, of course, this was
mainly the time that I read The Hobbit, and The Tolkien Reader,
and Mike brought me The Lord of the Rings trilogy from high school. That
is a journey that is still going, ever on and on. And it was the beginning of
my own individuated road and heralded the end of Basic Reading.
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