Important Books to You as a Child/Young Adult - Do they hold up on a re-read?

[Mlle. Zabzie]

I've been re-reading books that I loved as a child to my own children, and am also rereading/considering the first "adult" books that I read as a teenager that were important to me (they tended to be books recommended to me by my parents). It is interesting to me to see how they have held up against my memory of them. I'm curious what others think about their own re-reads (and am, of course, also looking for suggestions to read to the kiddos and for myself). Here are some thoughts.

Kids:

1. The Oz Series - L. Frank Baum. I'm re-reading these to my children. The ones that I loved (Ozma of Oz, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Emerald City of Oz, The Lost Princess of Oz, Glinda of Oz) are holding up very, very well. My children love them as well. However the ones that I didn't care for as much - I now know why. They aren't very good.

2. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Graham. Didn't hold up for me. I ended up abridging it on the sly so that we could finish. There was a lot of stuff in there that didn't resonate for either me or my children.

3. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett. Held up. Florid writing style, but it's a good story and I'm enjoying the reread.

Adults (I'm focusing on non-genre):

1. The Poldark Saga - Winston Graham. The first three books hold up surprisingly well. It's a really good historical. The last however many do not hold up.

2. Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier. Holds up. But I do love a gothic.

3. Jeeves & Wooster - P.G. Wodehouse. Holds up, but Wodehouse is the bomb.

4. Mapp & Lucia - E.F. Benson. Holds up. Delightfully funny.

5. Far Pavilions - MM Kaye. Does not hold up. Overwrought, sexist, racist, just can't.

6. Rumpole of the Bailey. Holds up. Funny is funny.

7. Flashman - George MacDonald. So holds up. OMG, still so, so, very, very, funny.

8. Fair and Tender Ladies - Lee Smith. Mostly holds up. It's not as good as I remembered it, but it's still good.

[Larry of the Lawn]

I reread Fitzgerald a couple of years ago and found This Side of Paradise didn't stand the test of time at all. I liked it in highschool but it seemed really immature and self-absorbed this time.

I've found Cynthia Voight's Kingdom series and Patricia Wrede's Dealing with Dragons were still.awesome as an adult. I also reread some of the Redwall Books and even bought a couple that came out after I'd 'outgrown' them, and I enjoyed them as well.

When I was 18 -20 I thought everthing Pahlaniuk wrote was amazeballs. I reread fight club ten years later and it was okay, and so was lullabye, but some of his other stuff I just couldn't get into again (survivor, invisible monsters).

Re: wodehouse, I think if I have the option I'll read Code of the Woosters or Jeeves in the Morning on my deathbed so I can go out laughing and with a smile on my face.

[emberling]

When I was like ten I discovered that this enormous tome called gödel, escher, bach had fun little stories about animals mixed in with the incomprehensible gobbledegook so I read them. I looked back at it recently and I'm fairly sure they taught me to think about the world in the way that I do. Whether that is a good thing, who knows.

Basically none of the fiction holds up. I read some pretty horrifying stuff. Piers Anthony, Eddings, Tairy... no wonder I'm so screwed up.

[Darth Richard II]

Hey man Eddings may be silly but he doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same space as Anthony.

[Snowborn]

LotR: read at age 10, reread at age 22. They've held up beautifully. I read them in a different light, and if anything it made me love those books even more.

Eva Luna: read at age 12-14, reread at age 22. It was my favorite, after the LotR trilogy. It lost some of its magic, teenage me liked it better. It was still good though.

Pride and Prejudice: read at age 14-15, reread at age 23. I didn't enjoy it that much, but it was decent. It used to be my favorite book for a quick read.

Haven't reread Little Women, and I have no intention to do so. I read it when I was about 9, 10, and loved it, but I don't think I'd love it if I read it now. It's better if it stays as just a nice memory from childhood.

[Jo498]

The first somewhat "adult" book I read was "Treasure Island" when I was around 8 (It might have been slightly abridged, but it definitely wasn't a much shorter version ad usum delphini).

I probably had been obsessed with pirates (because of Pippi Longstocking books and movies) even before and I loved it, although there was probably a little too much violence for an 8 year old and I probably did not completely understand a few things.

I re-read it several times and still think it is one of the best "adventure classics" around, IMO better than "Kidnapped" or many other worthy contenders.

Another "classic" I loved around the same time or maybe a little earlier was "Tom Sawyer", which I also liked a lot. I am not sure if I ever made it through Huckleberry Finn at that age. Now, last year, I read both Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer on my kindle in the English original and probably made the mistake of starting with "Huckleberry Finn". It's rather difficult for a non-native because of abundant slang, but, apart from the ending, it is very good. After this "Tom Sawyer" really felt like a children's book.

Of course I devoured hundreds of children's books, lots of Enid Blyton (which is so terribly clicheed and predictable that it is hard to see how one could like it so much even at this age), Lindgren, many German children/YA books.

The first "fantasy" I read was probably "The neverending Story" with about 10 or 11 and it also was one of my favorite books for some time. It's certainly very atmospheric and well done, but the "message", especially of the second part, laid on a little too thick.

I also read the first Narnia book, probably around the same time, and similar thoughts apply, although it never had the magic of the "Neverending Story"

[Night's_King]

The first somewhat "adult" book I read was "Treasure Island" when I was around 8 (It might have been slightly abridged, but it definitely wasn't a much shorter version ad usum delphini).

I probably had been obsessed with pirates (because of Pippi Longstocking books and movies) even before and I loved it, although there was probably a little too much violence for an 8 year old and I probably did not completely understand a few things.

I re-read it several times and still think it is one of the best "adventure classics" around, IMO better than "Kidnapped" or many other worthy contenders.

Treasure Island was the first book my father bought for me. I reread it almost every year, because I love it so much. It's a cheap paperback and is full of dog-ears and yellow pages, but I will never give it away.

I read a verson of Robin Hood at the age of 10 or so, and it was one of the best books I read so far. The sad thing is, that I just can't remember who the author was. There are just too many Robin Hood stories out there. But Robin dying at the end hit me really hard, because I only knew the Disney version (which I still love) at that time.

As a child I was really obsessed with history, I read anything that had to do with vikings, pirates, ancient egypt and rome, knights or anything with ships. I still have a bunch of 40 year old Lucky Luke and Asterix comics, which I still really love to read.

[Yersinia]

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe held up pretty well when I read it to my son. My only real complaint this time around was some bullshit sexist remark made by Father Christmas, which I couldn't help mocking. The language was already delightfully quaint when I was a kid, so that hasn't changed.

I was hoping for such a reread of Watership Down, which was my absolute favorite book when I was 8 or 9. I must've read it 20 times. After a page or two, though, my son decided that he'd rather hear something else. I'll try again when he's a bit older.

The main thing I've noticed when revisiting these books is that there's a big difference between reading a book to yourself (or having it read to you) and reading it out loud. Prose that seemed to flow beautifully in your head can unexpectedly leave you tripping over your own tongue and running out of breath.

[Jo498]

I remember that I also loved Disney's Robin Hood (I had it as a book with pictures, I guess I never saw the movie, but I watched the classic with Flynn/Rathbone when I was rather little, my parents usually were kind of strict with TV, but apparently for some classics they made an exception).

Of comic books, Asterix does hold up quite well (I didn't get half of the connotations or caricatures of all kinds of people as a kid), also Tintin (these are my favorites), whereas the Duck comics I also loved (my parents hated them) feel mostly rather flat when revisited.

[Woofless]

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

I told my son when he was 14 to read them as throughout his adult life he would be reading and hearing references to them.

Of course, they were a 'hit'.

Nearly splurted out my coffee when reading the original list. Just the thought of Wodehouse! How can you not laugh when reading those.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I adored horses as a child, so the Black Stallion series and Marguerite Henry's books were my favourites. The only ones that has stood up for me have been the ones based on historical fact such as Man O'War and The King of the Wind. The rest have not stood up at all.

The Chronicles of Narnia have not passed the test of time for me.

The other books that still hold up to a re-read are the Swallows and Amazons series, the early Xanth books (despite the overt sexism upon a re-read) and David Eddings. I've actually enjoyed the Asterix comics more as an adult since catching on to the names (Vitalstatix, Getafix) and some of the subtle adult humour that I've picked up.

[Jo498]

I realized only as an adult how lots of stuff from Alice/Looking Glass has permeated the Anglosphere. I encountered some of poems or extraits as a child in German translation and disliked that (I think the humour does not travel very well in this case), so I only read them in my twenties or so when I had missed already so many references reading articles etc. from English sources.

Swallows and Amazons are among the most wonderful children's books I know and I deplore that I only read them as an adult past 30, because only a few were translated into German, they were never well known here and have been out of print for decades. I never encountered them as a child in the '80s. (Interestingly, the whole series was translated into Czech and they were apparently quite popular there.) It is so much better than Blyton's stuff and we got all of her different series in many editions, but almost no Ransome.

[maarsen]

I realized only as an adult how lots of stuff from Alice/Looking Glass has permeated the Anglosphere. I encountered some of poems or extraits as a child in German translation and disliked that (I think the humour does not travel very well in this case), so I only read them in my twenties or so when I had missed already so many references reading articles etc. from English sources.

Swallows and Amazons are among the most wonderful children's books I know and I deplore that I only read them as an adult past 30, because only a few were translated into German, they were never well known here and have been out of print for decades. I never encountered them as a child in the '80s. (Interestingly, the whole series was translated into Czech and they were apparently quite popular there.) It is so much better than Blyton's stuff and we got all of her different series in many editions, but almost no Ransome.

I absolutely loved Swallows And Amazons as a youngster, but I had no luck finding them when I wanted my kids to try them. Again lots of Blyton, which my kids did love but I wish I could have introduced them to Ransome. Maybe with my future grandchildren if I start looking now.

[Eponine]

The first fantasy I ever read was Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain. I was hooked on fantasy ever since, but I've been hesitant to do a re-read because I'd be very disappointed if those books didn't hold up over the years, as I remember them very fondly.

I thought that the last two books held up. The first three are still very good children's books and I'd gladly re-read them to a child, but are written at such a basic level that they aren't really interesting for adults.

***

I agree about Cynthia Voight, I still love her books.

***

When I was like ten I discovered that this enormous tome called gödel, escher, bach had fun little stories about animals mixed in with the incomprehensible gobbledegook so I read them. I looked back at it recently and I'm fairly sure they taught me to think about the world in the way that I do.

Maybe I should have read it as a child. I find it incomprehensible gobbledegook. (Nothing to do with not understanding the concepts - one would think that I might appreciate it more given that I have a math degree and art degree and play piano, but it just seems like a jumbled mess full of overstretched analogies.)

[SkynJay]

Tom Sawyer is my most important book from childhood. My dad decided he was going to read a chapter a night to me. That lasted about three nights before I just took the book and finished it myself; constantly bombarding my mom with questions on words and phrasing. It is the first book I remember being ''hooked' by.

I think it has held up just fine.

My first 'series' was The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald. I recently grabbed the first book from the used book store. Have not dug into it to see if it has held up at all. If it does I would love to grab the whole collection for my kiddo as he grows.

[Jo498]

I absolutely loved Swallows And Amazons as a youngster, but I had no luck finding them when I wanted my kids to try them. Again lots of Blyton, which my kids did love but I wish I could have introduced them to Ransome. Maybe with my future grandchildren if I start looking now.

Ransome's have constantly been in print with the original illustrations in the UK, for all I know. I bought them 6 or 7 years ago. I believe they were not as consistently popular and well known in the US. And with translations, it differs very much according to country, as I said above.

[Gillio]

Oh, oh, i loved the Madeleine L'engle series, I read them about the same time as I read the Alan Garner books, Elidor, Moon of Gomrath, Owl Service, Weirdstome of Brisingamen.

I also loved the Riddlemaster of Hed series, by Patricia McKillip. I reread that recently and still liked it. I'm not a very critical reader, though.

[red snow]

Watership down. Awesome as a child and perhaps even more awesome (or a different awesome experience) reading it as an adult and seeing the social commentary present in it (but still remembering it's about rabbit values not human ones)

[Kyoshi]

Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian. I may have cried several times.

[Jaxom 1974]

My first 'series' was The Great Brain by John Fitzgerald. I recently grabbed the first book from the used book store. Have not dug into it to see if it has held up at all. If it does I would love to grab the whole collection for my kiddo as he grows.

Gods. Loved those in the day. Along with all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books. Boxcar Children. Henry Reed Inc. Don't know how well they held up, but not sure I care. If they can give my kids the same sense of whimsy and creativity, then all to the good.

Madeline L'Engle, I loved her stuff as well. A Wrinkle In Time. That's totally held up for me.