Shiftless When Idle

Well then there: I mention my inability to resist a book meme and zip!bang!pow! I’m tagged with a new one.

List 5 books that played and important role in your childhood and explain why. Then tag 5 others.

The Hobbit – J.R.R. Tolkien

This, obviously, is the big one, the book that pointed me right at epic fantasy. I’ve long since lost track of the number of times I’ve read The Hobbit, but I can remember the first time I read it.

Like most, if not all, young boys I liked movies and books that were about adventure. Cowboys, Robin Hood, knights in shining armor – if it had action and a stirring story, I was captivated. So when I came across a movie magazine with the original Lord of the Rings movie featured on the cover, I wanted it. I grabbed the magazine from the rack, took it over to my Dad and asked him to buy it for me. Dad refused; I recall he said something to the effect of “You don’t really want that. I’ll get you the real thing.”

Shortly thereafter I came down with the chickenpox and was stuck inside for what seemed like an eternity. ( I was eight years old after all – anything lasting longer than an hour or two was an eternity. A week indoors was like a life sentence.) More often that not there was nothing on the any of the five or six TV channels we received, so I did a lot of reading during that time. So much reading in fact, that Dad had to go the library to bring back fresh material, which included a copy of The Hobbit. I read it in a single afternoon and fantasy, in all its variations, has been my favorite kind of reading ever since.

The Black Stallion – Walter Farley

There a few things I enjoy more than a series of books. There’s nothing like the feeling of finishing a book that has completely absorbed me and knowing that there’s more to come, that I can go back and spend more time with characters and settings I’ve come to love.

The Black Stallion was the title that introduced me to that feeling. I can still remember the astonishment I felt when my second grade teacher (Mrs. Walton if I recall correctly) told me that there were more books about the Black Stallion. The world suddenly seemed a much more wonderful and exciting place.

Big Red – Jim Kjelgaard

Walter Farley wrote about horses. Jim Kjelgaard wrote about dogs, usually Irish Setters, and I loved Big Red, which was about a boy and his Setter. I literally ready my copy to pieces.
Of course I loved all the books on this list, but I loved Big Red in a way that only a boy named Danny who desperately wanted a dog could love a book about a boy named Danny who had all sorts of adventures with his dog. When I ran the woods that spread behind my house I often imagined myself in the Wintapi wilderness, facing down rogue Grizzly bears with my faithful canine companion at my side. When I returned to those woods as young man with my own incarnation of Red, it was not without a certain sense of satisfaction, of a childhood dream fulfilled.

Mr. Revere and I – Robert Lawson

I grew up in Massachusetts and regular field trips to Revolutionary War sites like Bunker Hill and the Constitution were part and parcel of my childhood. But none of these places brought history to life the in the same manner as Mr. Lawson’s book – the story of Paul Revere as related by his horse.

Space Angel – John Maddox Roberts

Repeated viewings of Star Wars left me mad for more science fiction. I forget how I came across this one, but just as The Hobbit left me a permanent fan of fantasy, Space Angel was the first (of many) science fiction books that I came to treasure.

Some Honorable Mentions:

Snow Treasure – Marie McSwigan

Men of Iron – Howard Pyle

My Side of the Mountain – Jean Craighead George

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler – E.L. Konigsburg

I’ll stop here for the sake of brevity. And I tag: Heather, Sheila, the Bunny, Ms. Oop and Jenistar.