Status
Available
Description
In this extended love letter to children's books, and the wonders they perform, Spufford goes back to his earliest encounters with books, exploring such beloved classics as "The Wind in the Willows, The Little House on the Prairie," and the Narnia chronicles.
User reviews
LibraryThing member wandering_star
This is a memoir based around the books that the author remembers reading as he was growing up. I think I am about eight years younger than Spufford, so a lot of the books he mentioned were favourite reading of my own childhood.
It's also a consideration of how stories and books develop and stretch
There is one chapter (about stories and pre-literate children) which I found tremendously hard to get through, and I wonder if this is why other reviewers have described it as 'turgid'. There was a lot of interesting information in the chapter - about psychoanalytical readings of and the developmental purposes of fairy stories - but it felt like undigested chunks of research and there was not much structure. But the book really lifted off when Spufford started talking about books that he'd read, as opposed to stories that were read to him.
It's also a consideration of how stories and books develop and stretch
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a child's imagination and understanding of the world around them. Spufford writes beautifully on this - the way that something from a book can just crystallise knowledge that is already there in your head, or the way that a child will skim over words they don't understand until gradually "the gaps in the text where I did not know words began to fill themselves in from the edges, as if by magic... The empty spaces thickened, took on qualities which at first were not their own, then became known in their own right."There is one chapter (about stories and pre-literate children) which I found tremendously hard to get through, and I wonder if this is why other reviewers have described it as 'turgid'. There was a lot of interesting information in the chapter - about psychoanalytical readings of and the developmental purposes of fairy stories - but it felt like undigested chunks of research and there was not much structure. But the book really lifted off when Spufford started talking about books that he'd read, as opposed to stories that were read to him.
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LibraryThing member herschelian
This is a most unusual memoir of childhood by a man who was as a child an obsessive reader. Spufford used books and reading as a buffer and an escape route from a family beset with a tragedy. As an adult he revisits the children's classics that he had read so avidly and goes back into his
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childhood. A really poignant book that will touch all readers who lost themselves in books when they were children. Show Less
LibraryThing member TimBazzett
A book about books and reading. How could I go wrong? I thought. But somehow I did, or maybe Spufford did. Because this is not really much of a memoir. And, to be fair, the author does say early on, "What follows is more about books than it is about me, but nonetheless it is my inward autobiography
Because THE CHILD THAT BOOKS BUILT: A LIFE IN READING is a rather odd and uneven mix of the personal and the scholarly, with the emphasis on the latter. Indeed I nearly put the book aside after nearly sixty pages that seemed to deal more with Piaget, Bettelheim, Freud and Spock, and their theories and comments on early childhood development and language acquistition, than it did with kids' books. Even Kant and Wittgenstein entered the equation later on. And that can be some pretty heavy sledding, when what one really wants to know is What did this guy read as a kid?
But even when he begins to dwell on his own reading, Spufford's story remained largely foreign territory to me. For one thing, he is a sci-fi/fantasy afficianado. I am not. He tells us that the first real book he read all on his own was THE HOBBIT, when he was six, and quarantined with the mumps. A few years later he read more of Tolkien. Later he gets into C.S. Lewis and the Narnia books, T.H. White's THE SWORD IN THE STONE, and Ray Bradbury (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES). With the exception of White, most of these books leave me cold. I have never been able to get into Tolkien, despite the recommendations by students back when I was teaching college English in the 70s. And Lewis? All I've read of him is THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, which I rather enjoyed many years ago. He also mentions Carroll's ALICE, E. Nesbit and Sendak, who were a bit more recognizable than other writers I did not know at all, many of them British.
When he talked of the LITTLE HOUSE books and a trip he made to DeSmet, South Dakota, I became briefly interested, especially when he told of a critic who insisted that the books were really a collaboration - Wilder's stories and memories, enhanced and edited by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, a professional writer. He also told the popularity of Ian Fleming's James Bond books when he was a pre-teen and the books were passed around at his boarding school. And I have read a few Fleming books, but I was already in the Army, stationed overseas, when that happened.
And that may be part of the disconnect. I am twenty years older than Spufford. My life experiences were vastly different. Which doesn't have to be a problem, but there is very little here about Spufford's life. His parents were academics, and his sister was very sickly. He grew up on the grounds of a college, in institutional housing on the edge of an overgrown forest. (One thinks of Milne's hundred-acre wood. And he does speak of Pooh and Piglet in here.)
I also found his comments on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD very interesting, maybe because he found it so difficult to picture, the story and setting being so foreign to his own life. He also talks of his preadolescent interest in "dirty books," telling of his disappointment in the book version of EMMANUELLE, reminding me of my own disappointment at reading LOLITA at thirteen, and wondering what all the fuss was about.
In the final analysis, however, I have to say I found the book only mildly and sporadically interesting, and found myself skimming long-ish sections of it. I consider myself an ardent book lover, but I did not really love this one. As I said earlier, heavy on 'scholarly.' I would recommend it, however, for librarians and students of children's lit and child psychology.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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..." An honest assessment, I must admit, much to my disappointment.Because THE CHILD THAT BOOKS BUILT: A LIFE IN READING is a rather odd and uneven mix of the personal and the scholarly, with the emphasis on the latter. Indeed I nearly put the book aside after nearly sixty pages that seemed to deal more with Piaget, Bettelheim, Freud and Spock, and their theories and comments on early childhood development and language acquistition, than it did with kids' books. Even Kant and Wittgenstein entered the equation later on. And that can be some pretty heavy sledding, when what one really wants to know is What did this guy read as a kid?
But even when he begins to dwell on his own reading, Spufford's story remained largely foreign territory to me. For one thing, he is a sci-fi/fantasy afficianado. I am not. He tells us that the first real book he read all on his own was THE HOBBIT, when he was six, and quarantined with the mumps. A few years later he read more of Tolkien. Later he gets into C.S. Lewis and the Narnia books, T.H. White's THE SWORD IN THE STONE, and Ray Bradbury (SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES). With the exception of White, most of these books leave me cold. I have never been able to get into Tolkien, despite the recommendations by students back when I was teaching college English in the 70s. And Lewis? All I've read of him is THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, which I rather enjoyed many years ago. He also mentions Carroll's ALICE, E. Nesbit and Sendak, who were a bit more recognizable than other writers I did not know at all, many of them British.
When he talked of the LITTLE HOUSE books and a trip he made to DeSmet, South Dakota, I became briefly interested, especially when he told of a critic who insisted that the books were really a collaboration - Wilder's stories and memories, enhanced and edited by her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, a professional writer. He also told the popularity of Ian Fleming's James Bond books when he was a pre-teen and the books were passed around at his boarding school. And I have read a few Fleming books, but I was already in the Army, stationed overseas, when that happened.
And that may be part of the disconnect. I am twenty years older than Spufford. My life experiences were vastly different. Which doesn't have to be a problem, but there is very little here about Spufford's life. His parents were academics, and his sister was very sickly. He grew up on the grounds of a college, in institutional housing on the edge of an overgrown forest. (One thinks of Milne's hundred-acre wood. And he does speak of Pooh and Piglet in here.)
I also found his comments on TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD very interesting, maybe because he found it so difficult to picture, the story and setting being so foreign to his own life. He also talks of his preadolescent interest in "dirty books," telling of his disappointment in the book version of EMMANUELLE, reminding me of my own disappointment at reading LOLITA at thirteen, and wondering what all the fuss was about.
In the final analysis, however, I have to say I found the book only mildly and sporadically interesting, and found myself skimming long-ish sections of it. I consider myself an ardent book lover, but I did not really love this one. As I said earlier, heavy on 'scholarly.' I would recommend it, however, for librarians and students of children's lit and child psychology.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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LibraryThing member Eric_the_Hamster
An easy going and slightly whimsical trip down memory lane (particularly if, like me, you are of an age with Francis Spufford and grew up with the same books he did).
This is described as an autobiography, and certainly contains many biographical details, but is centred on the books he read. Much
This is described as an autobiography, and certainly contains many biographical details, but is centred on the books he read. Much
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of the book can equally be read as a series of essays as book reviews. I read this and enjoyed it so much, I recommended it to my book group. We read it and it generally had a good reception. Show Less
LibraryThing member MarieFriesen
With humor and passion, he chronicles reading experiences and the impact of books by authors such as William Mayne, Peter Dickinson, Alan Garner, Jill Paton Walsh, Kenneth Grahame, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and Jane Austen. Spufford connects his personal development through
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reading with research and theories in child development, cognitive psychology, language development, and literary criticism. This is a boldly honest, enlightened, and enlightening testimony of the power of reading that all librarians and other educators should read. Show Less
LibraryThing member WholeHouseLibrary
I am somewhat ambivalent about The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading. This is a scholarly work to a large degree, yet we learn details of the author's life that frankly, I didn't really want to know about and am not a better person for the knowledge. There is LOTS of information imparted
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that I hadn't known, though, that I found particularly insightful and otherwise quite interesting, and am glad that I took the chance and time to read it. I did not read any reviews prior to selecting this book. I would recommend The Child That Books Built only to avid readers who prefer "depth of analysis" over mere overviews of authors and children's books. I am guardedly intrigued by Mr. Spufford's writing, and will certainly consider reading more by him. Show Less
LibraryThing member saroz
Good stuff, if a little more heavy on the psychology of children's fiction than the actual "memoir" part. It starts to go a little pear-shaped right at the end, and comes to a conclusion VERY abruptly, but I still enjoyed it. Highly recommended for anyone who spends inordinate amounts of time in
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bookshops. Show Less
LibraryThing member anglemark
Well-written and interesting about the childhood books that formed the author and what in them that appealed to him. I'm not convinced by the argument that runs thorugh the book that for him reading fiction was a bad thing because he retreated into it away from the real-world issues he should have
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tried to resolve instead. Show Less
LibraryThing member blackhornet
Disappointing. If you're making big claims about how books have shaped your life, then I want to hear about a lot of books. On this score, Spufford doesn't deliver, instead musing on a limited range of children's fiction, most of which will already be familiar to the keen reader. The book is at its
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best in the first chapter when the author explores the role reading plays in child development, drawing on Piaget and also citing Bruno Bettelheim's work on fairy tales. But this strength is a weakness too. Spufford set an expectation in my mind that this was to be more academic than I first thought, no bad thing and a novel take on the memoir. Instead, the academic stuff soon fades into the background to be replaced by personal material that doesn't quite go far enough. For example, the writing about his sister's illness and premature death is moving, but seems slotted in around the rest of the book, as though Spufford is aware that a post-Hornby memoir requires such personal revelations, but feels slightly uneasy about using such sensitive material in a public document. Show Less
LibraryThing member phoebesmum
A memoir of a boy who grew up in the halcyon days of the Puffin Club. Days when children would willingly read stories about boys who followed Garibaldi, or got caught up in plots against Elizabeth I. One can’t imagine it happening now.
LibraryThing member Basbleu0
I can't understand why some readers found this book heavy going or, even, impossible to get through. I was charmed and enlightened by turns. Perhaps I am more narcissistic than I thought - I too am a child built by books who dived into the calm yet enlivening waters of the mind to escape the
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unwelcome squalor outside - but I was much moved by the heroic world constructed inside the pages of many (shared) books by a child fearful of the outside of those pages. I loved it. Show Less
LibraryThing member studioloo
This book was complex at times ...parts of it read like a fairytale and others like a very pained thesis. A lot of really charming allegory and words that really painted great visuals. At times a bit of a struggle with some of the psychoanalysis of the author's life. Overall very interesting and
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easy to relate to. Show Less
LibraryThing member pagemasterZee
I have been into a "books on books" kick lately and had been recommended this book rather highly. I am a reader that will usually give a mediocre book/author I've never read before three books before I give up entirely on them. I don't think I made it half-way through this book. Not only was I
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disgusted with the author and his views on his own family. But was shocked at how bluntly his stated mentally and physically challenged people scared and revolted him, especially his own younger sibling, using that as his excuse for becoming a book-o-holic. But I was somewhat insulted that a book lover of his magnitude would help to describe this beautiful imaginary process in such addict-withdrawal like terms. The only reason I'm giving this book two stars instead of one, is cause the first chapter and scattered statements in later ones were somewhat unique and basely insightful nature touching upon childhood development, which was interesting but lacked a connection to his past topics Show Less
LibraryThing member jen.e.moore
I probably liked this a lot because so much of it was about books that I loved as a child. But also because, well, it's not just about books, or the author, but also about reading and what it does to you and why. Fascinating stuff, and I am looking forward to more of Spufford's books. (I have a
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list.) Show Less
LibraryThing member SeriousGrace
The Child That Books Built is an explanation for an addiction. Francis Spufford's addiction. Right up front Spufford admits to his insatiable need to read, starting when he was a young child. He would explain his relationships with books as such, "Reading catatonically wasn't something I chose to
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do...the stopping my ears with fiction was non-negotiable" (p 2). Once he gets his explanations out of the way he goes on to explain how all the reading he had done as a child shaped his world as an adult. Drawing on psychology and philosophy to make his points Spufford connects the world of Narnia to that of religious adoration; the Little House on the Prairie to that of family and community. Show Less