Lucy Mangan's Bookworm- anybody else see themselves in this book?

[N0rdicStar]

What a lovely book. Still reeling from how identical our childhood reading experience was and how similar in pysche as a fellow bookworm she was.

Loved all the memories.

I felt the same when I first read The Child that Books Built by Francis Spufford...so I've added Bookworm to my birthday wish list, thank you.

You won't be disappointed. If you're late 40s/ early 50s it's like a warm hug and trip back in time.

I'm late 30s and absolutely loved it. My bookworm mum gave me a good grounding in the classics.

Currently engrossed in this (it was my Xmas present to myself!) It's reminded me of lots of books I loved but never owned as a child and I predict an expensive eBay foray as a result. I've been disappointed DC have shown little interest in the books of my childhood (with a few exceptions) making me feel I've not had a valid opportunity to revisit them, but maybe I'll just have to read them for myself. Slightly worried they won't hold up now though - the Narnia books didn't.

Finished it today. Loved it. Have made several additions to my ‘want to read’ shelf on Goodreads.

Loved this book, but did make me sad that my kids just won’t have the same kind of memories as they read books as the last possible option rather than love them as I did and still do. I suppose there is just so many different things for them to do nowadays.

sSurprised this isn't available from my public library. Have put in a suggestion for purchase.

That makes me sad too, Notreallyhere23. I often prefer to scroll through the internet rather than engage with a book too, I have to make an effort nowadays to read. Yet it was a hugely important part of my childhood and I would want the same for my child (and for them to read the books I loved).

The copy I’m reading is from the library. Wish I’d got my own copy for reference.

It makes me sad too. I’ve got bookshelves full of childrens’ books I’ve collected and reread over the years. LM is the literary friend/ dd I always thought I should have. Dd 14 is so different to me. It started off well until Harry Potter and Agatha Christie took over. Even those are collecting dust as she's apparently ‘not into reading now’ .

She did like the accident part in What Katy Did, tolerated The Secret Garden but has firmly rejected so many of my childhood friends and is very dismissive of ‘the bookish girls’ at school. Didn’t even attempt at leaving Little Women in her room, I Capture the Cadtie didn’t end well(I’m still recovering). Breaks my heart.

I’d have killed for the book collection she has at her disposal as a child. How can we be related?

I wonder if they have too much choice now. It’s interesting that LM’s reading diet was so similar to mine. Maybe that is because that was all there was for voracious readers. That said I read and enjoy a wide variety now. Choice hasn’t dented my appetite although Insta can lure me away and I have to be strict with myself.

Amazed there was a child elsewhere in the uk reading The Thimble Summer.

That’s funny that reading the book has made posters feels sad about their own children’s reading habits.
I have a bookworm and a reading refusenik. Regarding the bookworm I am completely jealous that she has such a massive selection on YA books with strong female protagonists to choose from, particularly in the fantasy genre. There was such meagre pickings 30 years ago. I would never have left my room if what’s available now I could have read then.
My book refuser likes movies and narrative computer games instead. I’d love her to read more but she’s chosen a different way of having stories in her life.

I just feel sad that she’s missing out on something that has given and continues to give such great joy, something we could have shared. One of her brothers 15 reads a lot, surprisingly more since he asked for and got a Kindle. The other son zilch these days. Could handle a love of movies, my dd is currently more intoYouTube clips of people eating.Have heard they return to reading once the piles of homework abate.Holding out for that.

Ooh thanks for highlighting this book. I can't wait to read it. I really enjoyed The Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty great books changed my life by Andy Miller.
And Howards End is on the landing. Love books about books and reading!

Yy, I read Bookworm last summer and loved it, it was basically my childhood. I’m mid-thirties.

My teen DS is, and always has been, a huge reader which I’m really thankful for. My 8 year old is very reluctant though, which makes me sad, reading is just a chore to him. Youngest is still at The Grufalo etc stage but he’s showing lots of promise

Really enjoying this book. I'd forgotten about 'in the night kitchen' a book I adored as a child but has fallen out of fashion - showed my kids some of the illustrations online and they thought it looked odd to say the least!
It made me get the mog books out which the kids love

Another Bookworm lover here too!

No Mrs Pepperpot though.

This is on my wishlist.

Dd is 15 and an avid reader, but very little of my childhood books have been hits. I suppose we just have to accept that in 30 yrs time she'll be on MN waxing lyrical about Hunger Games etc. Her favourite genre is YA dystopia which I suppose in some of the things I read about nuclear bombs came close...

Narnia, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Malory Towers, she read them all politely and pronounced them to be obviously "old books written for people your age"