Each month the wonderful Classics Club come up with a new question to tease us with.  This month’s teaser is:

‘What classic book has changed your view on life, social mores, political views, or religion?’

Now, I wasn’t sure that a book had changed my view as such, or at least I thought about this for a while and nothing immediately sprung to mind but that’s because I was trying to think of a particular example.  Of course I was sure that I’d think of a million examples and be kicking myself all over as soon as I read everyone else’s thoughts.  That’s what happens isn’t it.  As soon as somebody else comes up with an idea you think of a cartload yourself but of course it’s too late!  Then it dawned on me that a book, or more to the point books, had changed me.

To be frank I’ve always loved books.  I was fascinated by the illustrations when I was young, even before I could read.  Then of course I had the bedtime stories read to me at night by my parents – stories of incredible imagination, fairies, beasts, giants and wolves – either blowing down houses or following you through the wood to grandmas house – and now that I put it like that what exactly were they thinking reading those books to me at night – it’s dark, have they not heard about the closet monster or the creature under the bed, not to mention the sandman and the huge hand that grabs you from between the banisters as you run up the stairs!!

This was followed by my own first experimentation into choosing books.

The first book I actually remember reading was at age 7/8 and, inspired by my teacher at the time who I liked, was the Borrowers closely followed by The Wizard of Oz.  From there came a love of not only listening to stories at bedtime but reading and choosing them for myself.  Of course as I grew up I predominantly read the books that were available, my dads, to be frank – which were mainly classic book choices.

Then, I moved on, okay I read my brothers books first – which was a somewhat interesting experience that I won’t elaborate upon too much here!  And then, I got a job and with my new found money I discovered that I could choose books for myself!  Book independence!!  Freedom and the opportunity to experiment.  Since then I’ve read a lot of books, and by that I do mean quite a few and yet in spite of all the choice available out there, all the wealth of books available on the market today, I find myself returning more often than not to fantasy and classical novels.  Clearly my early experiences, coupled with a desire to enjoy stories that provoke the imagination and a secret wish to stay young of mind, had an impact that I never really saw until now and moulded my reading tastes more than I realised.

So there it is, my early books had a big influence on my later reading choices!  Now.  What about you??