tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post2639250031715139879..comments2024-02-28T18:29:41.120-08:00Comments on Not of General Interest: Off-topic: Does childhood reading shape your sense of what's good? undinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-80820783932865757632013-11-19T15:54:09.858-08:002013-11-19T15:54:09.858-08:00I'd say the Betsy-Tacy books along with Laura ...I'd say the Betsy-Tacy books along with Laura Ingalls Wilder got me interested in history, especially late 19th-century or so (I was fairly fuzzy on dates then). My parents tell me that after a family trip to Colonial Williamsburg when I was about 7 I told EVERYONE all about how fabulous Williamsburg was, so I think that was pretty formative as well. <br /><br />I also did a lot of very serious, very over-my-head reading (Crime and Punishment! Exodus! and so on), which is shaping my current research in a funny way, in that I'm focusing on "girls reading serious books".sophylouhttp://girlhistorian.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-5898706258644146982013-11-17T22:20:53.912-08:002013-11-17T22:20:53.912-08:00profacero--I hadn't thought of it, but yes, ye...profacero--I hadn't thought of it, but yes, years later reading Propp and Todorov, all that early reading made them make much more sense. Reading those Zen books must have made for interesting conversations with your Bible-reading peers. <br /><br />Flavia--I will have to try Betsy-Tacy some time. There was another book, All-of-a-Kind Family, of which I only remember that they had a bagful of dimes and all could help themselves as they needed them for streetcars (whatever they were; I was not a city kid). That's all I remember about the novel, but it sounded so giving, so sharing, that I was impressed. You must have burned yourself out on unicorns. undinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05589384016564587214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-54269741492518313042013-11-17T18:40:45.672-08:002013-11-17T18:40:45.672-08:00Oooh. This is a really interesting question.
I lo...Oooh. This is a really interesting question.<br /><br />I loved Laura Ingalls Wilder too, and the Betsy-Tacy books, and when I was a little older a whole series of historical fiction books for girls, each named after the heroine and set in different periods ("Caroline," "Rachel," etc.). And I do consider myself a deeply historicist scholar and one interested in material culture, the lived reality of different periods, etc. So maybe there's some connection there.<br /><br />But on the other hand...I read a TON of fantasy books, books involving magic, etc. (and unicorns: SO MANY UNICORNS), and I'm almost 100% disinterested in fantasy now; I don't even like magical realism. But insofar as that reading is about an openness to other worlds and experiences, perhaps it's still relevant.<br /><br />Stylistically or formally. . . not sure. Flaviahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17832765671541392835noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22001031.post-34679384617148871832013-11-16T21:07:23.661-08:002013-11-16T21:07:23.661-08:00Fairy tales, folktales and mythology, and it was a...Fairy tales, folktales and mythology, and it was all very useful later on because it taught narratology among other things.<br /><br />I also read a lot of Erich Fromm and Zen Buddhism, mid-century texts on how to be. These had a very great influence that I tend to discount. Others were reading the Bible and things like that, but I was reading these things instead. It was healthful.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com