"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents."

Am reminiscing about my favorite childhood books in this blog...

My niece believes that reading books is akin to evil. She wouldn't read unless it's to do with her school curriculum. Really sad! How can children not love to read? I belong to the generation where books were considered to be our closest companions. I grew up with Enid Blyton, Panchatantra, Chandamama, Twinkle, Phantom and other superhero comics...If I tell her that these comics were great reading, she'd ask me to go and watch the movies instead of wasting time and reading about them. She'd talk about the 3-D effects, animation and other advanced technology used in Hollywood movies which makes cinematic experience akin to real. But wasn't it fun to imagine the entire story, after reading a book? I have fantasised about boarding schools after reading Mallory Towers, tried to guess who'd the culprit would be after reading Famous Five or Secret Seven or Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes..I can go on.

Children today have become like robots themselves. They are programmed to imagine, using the crutch of technology. Whatever happened to those good old days, I wonder. I am not saying that technology is bad. Just wish that it didn't take away the good old reading habit from us.

Our school system was funny (Still is!). Books were never provided to students to take home with them. The inherent reasoning was that they wouldn't be returned back to the library. Duh!!!! Then why do you have a library at school? It's wierd. It seems to be a practice which is still followed. I can underestand the dearth of books in schools as each class would have 80 students approximately and providing books for all of them may be an issue. But not providing for the reason cited above is juvenile and selfish. How do you expect students to like to read if you don't inculcate that habit in them in the first place? Beats me!!! Despite going to such funny schools, I am thankful to have turned out to be a sane individual. LOL! Ahem..some of my friends may disagree on the sane part!

Enid Blyton was a personal favorite. I am dedicating this blog to her in some ways. She made my childhood very special. I used to look forward to vacations because it was time to join the little library and get her books. It was a dingy place with loads of books that were stacked on wooden cupboards. It really felt like Mr. Cupboard would give away any day due to all that weight it carried. The smell of books used to get me nostalgic and happy for some reason. Comics came from our elder cousins. Sister and me used to fight over who would read the book first. We'd finally settle to read one page each and then give it to each other. I wonder if that library still exists today. Maybe not. It's the age of Kindle and other e-readers. Who would trudge all the way to get books from a library, I guess.

Coming back to Enid Blyton...I  was reading about her in Wikipedia. Sounds like she wasn't a very pleasant person to deal with, in her personal life, but most critics have to admit that she was a very good children's book writer! I am taking the liberty of putting together the book covers of some of my favorite books from the past. Loved them!!!

I still read these books. Well..they are still available with my niece. If not her, atleast me!

"The things I want to know are in books. My best friend is the man who'll get me a book I [haven't] read."

— Abraham Lincoln

"There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all."

— Jacqueline Kennedy